Enjoying grappling with the arguments you all put forward. In response to Mark, in particular, where there's a will there's a way. David Reay at Edinburgh University has been looking into virtual conferencing to avoid all this academic flying. Here is a link to what he wrote for Nature (short letter) which is encouraging. Perhaps we should start to investigate technology that can help us to stay put and try it out:

 http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v424/n6946/full/424251a_fs.html&content_filetype=PDF
NB: new email address as below.

 Susan

Alexander, Ballard & Associates
Strategy and human change for environmental sustainability
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