Hi all,
Having not attended the RGS-IBG conference this year, I'm really glad to hear that this issue has finally been discussed. We have been in denial for too long, content that our furthering of knowledge more than compensates for our impact on the environment. Particularly as geographers this is environmentally and ideologically an unsustainable position.
Colleagues may find my paper in 'Area' - in the March 2007 edition titled 'Alternative futures for academic conferences: a response to Bonnett' - useful as a way of extending the discussion. In it I calculate the travel related emissions of delegates attending the 2006 conference (the air travel emissions make up over 95%, perhaps unsurprisingly), and then set out various scenarios for future conferences that depend less on high volume high carbon travel. Importantly, rethinking our conference travel forces a rethink too of the role of conferences in our academic practice. Are we guilty - and I include myself here, having travelled to the lovely city of Bonn this year for a conference - very often of 'academic tourism'?
Cheers, Ed Hall.
Dr. Edward Hall
Lecturer in Human Geography
Department of Geography
University of Dundee
Dundee
DD1 4HN
UK
Tel: 01382 388073
Email: [log in to unmask]
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