[Coral-List] Proposal that ICRS supports the organization of remote meetings for ICRS 2020

[Alina Szmant]

While several thousand people flying to Germany will indeed produce a few days of extra CO2 emissions, I contend that the diets of these several thousand people over the 365 days a year of meat and dairy consumption will have a much greater effect on climate change than the emissions of their air travel, as described in the articles in the links below. If people are so concerned about being a contributor to C emissions and climate change, I suggest they take up a new, more climate friendly diet 365 days a year:  give up dairy, give up eating land animals. There is so much each person can do on a DAILY basis if they want to reduce and take responsibility for their carbon footprint, that will help not only coral reefs, but also continued destruction of what's left of the world's forests and wilderness.

I propose that the organizers of the Bremen ICRS take this into account in what food they provide to those of us who will attend: select food caterers who can provide vegan or at least vegetarian options, and only sustainably harvested seafood (no reef species). Also, no plastic bottles, electronic program book materials except for a printed summary of the daily schedule. (I am partially offsetting my air travel by having 34 x 365-watt solar panels on my home, and I am pesca-vegan).

There is an old phrase "put your money where your mouth is" which means:  to show by your actions and not just your words that you support or believe in something  (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/put-your-money-where-your-mouth-is)

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/04/global-food-producers-climate-crisis

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/02/revealed-amazon-deforestation-driven-global-greed-meat-brazil

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/04/factory-farming-destructive-wasteful-cruel-says-philip-lymbery-farmageddon-author


 
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Dr. Alina M. Szmant, CEO                                                                            
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-----Original Message-----
From: Coral-List <coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> On Behalf Of Chelsie Counsell via Coral-List
Sent: Wednesday, September 4, 2019 10:50 PM
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: [Coral-List] Proposal that ICRS supports the organization of remote meetings for ICRS 2020

Aloha,


The devastating impacts of marine heat waves are in the forefront of the minds of many coral reef scientists. In Hawai‘i, we have already seen bleaching of up to 70% of colonies from surveys on O‘ahu conducted in August. Given the direct connection between air travel and increased carbon dioxide emissions, many coral reef scientists that are based far from Germany are deeply conflicted about flying to Bremen despite our desire to share our most recent research with the community and to catch-up with colleagues. From Hawai‘i, Bremen is 14,000 miles round trip. MyClimate.org estimates the CO2 emissions for one economy class passenger to make this flight is 4.3 t. To put this number in perspective, to stop contributing to climate change, each person on this planet can only generate 0.6 t of CO2 each year.



As a community of coral reef scientists, *we have an opportunity to let our actions speak louder than our words*. We can show society that coral reef scientists are taking climate change so seriously that we are limiting our travel and modifying the structure of our main research conference. I would like to propose *ICRS support the organization of remote meetings for the
2020 symposium*. I am offering my time to help lead the organization of a *remote meeting in Honolulu*. Ideally, recordings of plenary seminars will be screened in as close to real time as is reasonable, as well as screenings of any other sets of talks or panels that can be shared digitally. Remote meetings still provide an opportunity for coral reef scientists to hold workshops, share research updates, network, and perhaps most importantly, take time to strategize and deliberate next steps to tackle climate change at a local scale.



I fully understand that without getting corporations and governments on board, our individual actions alone will not address climate change fast enough. However, coral reef scientists understand the climate models better than other members of society, and we certainly understand how dire the effects of burning fossil fuels are for coral reefs. We need to help direct the attention of politicians and society to taking action against climate change. *Changing our normal routine from flying internationally to research conferences and/or research sites, and seeking creative local options with dramatically lower CO2 emissions is one way we can show the world that we are taking climate change very seriously.*



If you would like to help put together a remote meeting for ICRS in Honolulu or to talk about putting together a remote meeting elsewhere, please be in touch.


Thank you for your support in shifting the paradigm for sharing our research.



Chelsie Counsell, Ph.D.

Quantitative Coral Reef Ecologist

Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology

counsell at hawaii.edu
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