I think it is about time that those of us who claim to be working toward sensible climate futures try to reduce how much we travel to do so. Academic travel also has embedded justice implications: those from developed settings tend to have more funding for travel (as well as offsetting its impacts); those without family responsibilities more freedom. Travel is career building, there is no doubt, but there are more important things. I pledge to be more selective and transparent about the travel that I undertake, and that I otherwise influence in the name of my research. I’ve been doing this for a few years already, when I can (see here and here).

2021 travel footprint

  • You guessed it…

2020 travel footprint

  • February – return flight to Vancouver to attend Adaptation Canada, rolling it in with a visit to the Australian Embassy to save another trip for another passport renewal (now only possible in person).

2019 travel footprint

  • February – did not attend Leverage Points in Leuphana, Germany, as originally intended, but sent PDF Tourangeau instead.
  • March – flight Halifax to Ottawa, train Ottawa to Montreal, flight Montreal to Halifax. I was able to combine business at the Australian Consulate in Ottawa with a big NSERC site visit in Montreal.
  • May – did not attend Energy Research  & Social Science in Tempe, Arizona, as originally intended, but sent Masters student Chappell instead.
  • June – return flight to Appleton, Wisconsin, for ISSRM and later in the month return flight to Montreal, from which I took Amtrak to Saratoga Springs NY for IVSA.
  • MES Sutton heading to St. John’s NL for an OFI meeting, and California for the BECC meeting in November.
  • NSERC ResNet experimented with an online retreat on November 29th via Zoom. It was calculated that we saved about 31,000 flight kms, among the 40+ of us who called in across Canada. Hopefully we can do more like this to help our national project cut our collaborative carbon footprint! It did get tricky for a bit when our Zoom ‘host’ got evacuated for a fire alarm, especially since she was the fire warden.
The first page of Zoom faces from our first ResNet project workshop, Nov 29, 2019.

The first page of Zoom faces from our first ResNet project workshop, Nov 29, 2019.