Abstract
The action required to stem the environmental and social implications of climate change depends crucially on how humankind shapes technology, economy, lifestyle and policy. With transport CO2 emissions accounting for about a quarter of the total, we examine the contribution of CO2 output by scientific travel. Thankfully for the reputation of the scientific community, CO2 emissions associated with the trips required to present a paper at a scientific conference account for just 0.003% of the yearly total. However, with CO2 emissions for a single conference trip amounting to 7% of an average individual’s total CO2 emissions, scientists should lead by example by demonstrating leadership in addressing the issue.
Highlights
The environmental and social implications of climate change depend on Earth’s systemic responses, and on how humankind shapes technology, economy, lifestyle and policy [1]
Action should not be postponed, as it is argued that we have already surpassed a safe threshold in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration [2]
This work adds to the discussion by highlighting the contribution of science itself to global carbon dioxide output [5]; in particular, to investigate the annual contribution of CO2 output by travelling to scientific conferences to present a paper
Summary
The environmental and social implications of climate change depend on Earth’s systemic responses, and on how humankind shapes technology, economy, lifestyle and policy [1]. We examine emissions associated with scientists travelling to present their work at conferences that publish their proceedings through indexed imprints. The emissions we study are a subset of the total travel associated with conferences, because some conferences do not publish indexed proceedings, and many scientists attend conferences without presenting a published paper.
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