Dear All,

Mark's words inspired me.  Potential steps(?):

1) Perhaps once a consensus is reached (on which modes of travel leave 
the smallest environmental footprint) a set of guidelines can be 
created and published?  This could then be distributed in academic 
communities worldwide and to the press.  

2) The "environmental pledge" is becoming popular with some graduating 
senior undergraduates here in the United States. At Vassar, for 
example, more than half of the class of 2005 took the pledge, which 
involves swearing to choose to consume less, make environmentally 
ethical choices, etc.  Perhaps a similar environmental "pledge" could 
be something that academics mights take one?

Sincerely,

Ben Madley
Doctoral Candidate
Department of History
Yale University

Quoting Mark Levene <[log in to unmask]>:

> Hallo! 
> 
> 
> My turn to throw in a quick few words, which George's original
> email,
> dramatically sparked off.
> 
> Yes, I, too, am on a personal level concerned by the issues here.
> Recently,
> I took a boat for a conference in Denmark, for instance,, rather 
than
> going
> by aeroplane. And most difficult it was too convincing my hosts that
> the
> extra cost (high irony there) would be worth it environmentally.( So
> double
> irony again if in carbon emissions terms the boat made little
> difference
> -even if like Jonathan Ward, I found the change of pace utterly
> pleasurable).
> 
> HOWEVER, I think Andy below gets much closer to the real issues at
> stake
> here. And especially for this group of avant-gardists.  Remember
> Crisis
> Forum came out of  the desire of a small group of university folk
> to
> challenge conventional wisdoms. And that means within universities
> themselves a very particular culture where academics assume it is
> natural
> and proper as well as to the benefit of their careers, to go
> backwards and
> forwards to conferences around the world on a regular basis, as if
> doing
> this they had never imagined such behaviour might involve a
> thoroughly
> deleterious environmental blow-back.
> 
> It is that mindset which anybody who wants to make the 'connect'
> between
> 'conspicuous consumption' - in this case entirely excessive travel,
> way
> beyond our individual ecological footprints -  and climate change,
> needs to
> and must challenge.
> 
> So, - to reinforce Andy's tentative point -this surely does and must
> mean
> attempting to shift the cultural goalposts, which in turn  means, 
not
> simply
> practising what we preach, but also preaching it!  Thus, it would
> have been
> purely self-indulgent to have gone to Copenhagen by boat without
> notifying
> my colleagues at Southampton that I was doing this and why. By the
> same
> token, I have recently made written statements to two international
> academic
> 'associations to which I belong gently declining participation in
> future
> conferences which would involve air travel of any sort.  This most
> recently
> involved not going to a biennial conference I have previously
> attended for
> the last twelve years.
> 
> Predictably, the response to these missives has been on spectrum
> from
> silence to opposition (e.g. why do this when the time isn't right 
for
> it, or
> there are more important things etc etc etc). BUT there has also 
been
> some
> more positive response, some quite thoughtful, some congratulatory, 
a
> little
> trying to work this through themselves.
> 
> Let me be passionate for one moment! The issue at stake here is not
> just a
> technical one. It is fundamentally one of lifestyle, which is
> actually
> requiring of us who are privileged enough to travel, to make
> self-denying
> ordinances' for the greater planetary commonweal.  I do not envisage
> for one
> moment that such self-denial is going to be easier for academics 
than
> for
> any other group, when so much hangs career-wise on their involvement
> in
> exactly such exchange. But like, for instance, the long trajectory
> whereby
> cigarette smoking became reprehensible, and which actually began 
with
> the
> scientific evidence as repeatedly propounded by those who understood
> what
> was at stake, so here too, I think some of us -the cultural cutting
> edgers
> of which Andy speaks -  have a responsibility to be even more
> vociferous
> facilitators -indeed visionaries - and not least as we have little
> time in
> our favour. 
> 
> There is also  an answer within the academic community as to how we
> reshape
> our exchange and discourse for the age of acute climate change. My
> next
> venture, having declined, yet another trip abroad, is to see if I 
can
> do the
> seminar required of me, by teleconferencing. If academics more
> generally
> were to pick up on what was at stake, and act accordingly, its 
ripple
> effect
> would become increasingly significant - I think.
> 
> I urge my fellow Crisis Forumers, thus, to not only examine the
> science/
> make appropriate calculations etc etc but also think about what
> they
> actually do and how best those actions can influence those around
> them.
> Andy, is right: it is all symbolic  as of this moment. But so began
> Gandhi's
> satyagraha. (lit. 'truth-insistence')
> 
> cheers,
> mark    
> 
> ps my Crisis Forum energies are being devoted this summer to finding
> some
> funding so that we can more seriously proceed on these lines above
> and down
> other routes too. I'm going to send a resume of our funding case, 
for
> your
> information, to you all this weekend. Needless, to say, if anybody's
> got any
> bright ideas, or would like to assist, I would be very grateful.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> on 20/7/05 8:47 pm, A Taylor (NVC Findhorn Slovakia) at
> [log in to unmask]
> wrote:
> 
> > Hi All
> > 
> > Am getting worried that my "fly less" project as
> > currently framed is a no go (though perhaps I
> > could find a friendly way to target it towards
> > rich people flying 6 times per year for weekend
> > euro-breaks).
> > 
> > So do we stop finding ways to encourage people to
> > switch to forms of transport which are currently
> > only marginally less polluting, and concentrate
> > on politicians and technologists; or do we try to
> > create a body of cultural cutting edge no-fly
> > citizens who will pull together and push for the
> > changes that are needed, even if right now
> > personal decisions not to fly are largely
> > symbolic?
> > 
> > Let's face it - for the next 20 years or so the
> > only seriously sustainable transport is bike and
> > sailboat and even these have limitations if
> > you're not wanting to deplete at all.
> > 
> > So don't we need to help people learn how to
> > enjoy being where they are, and getting the food
> > they need grown in their locality? (Or moving to
> > agricultural coops in Spain)
> > 
> > Is anything else realistic?
> > 
> > Andy Ray Taylor
> > 
> > --- Jonathan Ward <[log in to unmask]>
> > wrote:
> > 
> >> hi all,
> >> 
> >> this is making interesting reading as i decided
> >> earlier this year to holiday
> >> without air travel and private hire vehicles.
> >> 
> >> firstly i travelled to the lake district using
> >> train and bus and got around
> >> on foot, bus and boat. secondly i went to
> >> norway via train, ferry (in which
> >> i happily shared a 4-berth cabin) followed by a
> >> bus (at close to maximum
> >> capacity) up through norway to oslo.
> >> 
> >> so... was it worth it? it took 35 hours and was
> >> enjoyable, but i had perhaps
> >> inccorectly (roughly) calcuated a reduction in
> >> emissions by not flying to
> >> norway and by going to the lakes rather than to
> >> portugal. the message i am
> >> getting seems to be that people believe the
> >> emisisons would actually be
> >> higher than the same journey taken by air?
> >> 
> >> some other points:
> >> 
> >> regarding trains - it depends once more, upon
> >> efficiency, power source
> >> (electrical for instance - and how was that
> >> generated), occupancy and how
> >> the emissions are distributed.
> >> 
> >> there does seem to some widely contradicitng
> >> sources of information on the
> >> level of emissions from different sources of
> >> travel.
> >> 
> >> as someone has already alluded to the support
> >> needed for aircraft which can
> >> also contribute to total emissions, could we
> >> take this further and apply it
> >> to construction of the vehicle and
> >> transportation of fuels and consumables
> >> needed to run it? airport vs port?
> >> 
> >> and again, something which has already been
> >> touched upon - which form of
> >> travel represents the greatest potential for
> >> low CO2 emissions?
> >> 
> >> hope to hear more from this debate,
> >> 
> >> best wishes,
> >> 
> >> Jonathan
> >> 
> > 
> > 
> > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 
*
> *
> > 
> > Andy Ray Taylor is currently in Findhorn checking emails most
> weekdays
> > 
> > 
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