First, with Nives Dolšak and Aseem Prakash from the University of Washington, the #flyingless co-organizers Joe Nevins and Parke Wilde published an op-ed in The Hill this month.
To some extent, universities already recognize that they need to act on climate change. Following the initial University Presidents’ Climate Leadership Commitments more than a decade ago, there are now more than 600 university climate leadership commitments, of which 372 appear to promise some sort of “carbon neutrality” by 2050. The related university reports are full of admirable measures on recycling, food service, building codes and electricity efficiency. But these commitments neglect critical sources of university-related emissions such as aviation….
Some might say that academic travel has so little impact on climate change and the cost of curbing it is not worth the damage it might inflict on research. This is a self-serving position which undermines the moral commitment of academia to fight climate change. Every group that is asked to reduce carbon emissions probably believes that their activities are too important — either for their own survival or for humanity — to sacrifice at the altar of climate change. If people in Appalachia or the Navajo nation in Arizona, which face extreme poverty, are asked to sacrifice their livelihoods in the coal industry, what moral right do academics have to disavow their moral responsibility of responding to the climate crisis?
Second, from the inspiring and informative presentation by Dr. Kim Nicholas of Lund University at our February 2019 webinar, we have the full slides and video of selected highlights.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxP-XwlH7G0&w=560&h=315]
Third, we celebrate reaching 600 academic supporters for our #flyingless petition initiative. On our Twitter feed @flyingless, you can find links to dozens of new developments each week in aviation policy, personal experiences with ground travel, climate research, university sustainability, and #ClimateAction. Please continue to share this initiative widely.