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

[Franziska Elmer]

Hi Alina and coral list,

I agree with you completely, in order to lower our personal carbon footprint just flying less is not going to cut it. I personally changed my diet this year and eat meat or fish only 2 meals a week, about half of those meals are vegan. It is not perfect, but it is very difficult to eat completely vegan for me as I am living at a field station with limited food options and no means to cook my own meals. Perks of living at a field station (CO2 balance wise) is that I drive very seldom and if I do then with 10 other people in a truck or a small boat, we have minimal food waste and everything comes in large packages, so minimal amount of trash. However all the food gets imported and personal short haul flights are hard to reduce as mental health wise, I  need to get off my little rock of 2000 people from time to time. Chelsie said in her email that a flight from Hawaii to Bremen will generate 4.3 t CO2, that is 7 times as much as a single person should generate in a year in order not to contribute to climate change (0.6 t CO2). According to a paper published in Environmental Research letters, skipping a transatlantic round trip flight (1.6 t CO2) will decrease a persons footprint by double as much as becoming vegetarian (https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa7541?dom=translatable&src=syn). This paper did not have a number on how much carbon emissions will be saved by going vegan, but I found a paper that does, doing the math going vegan from a heavy meat eater diet for a year will save about 1.6 t CO2 (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263353807_Dietary_greenhouse_gas_emissions_of_meat-eaters_fish-eaters_vegetarians_and_vegans_in_the_UK), the equivalent of a round trip flight from the Caribbean to Bremen. With the diet I currently have, I cannot reduce my carbon emission as much by changing my diet as I can by skipping that round trip flight. For us in the Caribbean, flying to Bremen will emit as much emissions as we should generate in 2.5 years. But please let's not argue which single action will have the most impact, let's adopt all actions that have a big impact and REALLY put our money where our mouth is with an action packed year leading up to ICRS and an even more action packed ICRS.


Why cant we have an ICRS that:

  *   has a platform where scientists can say what they have done since the IPCC report came out to reduce their personal carbon footprint: solar panels, going vegan etc. Let's start adding these reductions we do until ICRS up and show these actions to the world.
  *   has remote locations (likely increasing the attendance overall without drastically lowering attendance from the main event, with people currently opting not to attend because of emissions generated by flying deciding to attend)
  *   has free webinars
  *   serves ONLY vegan food (one week wont kill you, we did it for a conference in 2009 and I am still alive and well)
  *   Has a great local food and waste concept (which ICRS Bremen already has)
  *   Has bold, fun and unusual ways for scientists to arrive (a train compartment for ICRS, start networking on your way to Bremen, sail boats for Hawaii and Caribbean)
  *   Engages with the public and the press in bold, fun and unusual ways to really make a splash
  *   Supports communities that are affected by climate change. the Bahamas needs tourism, why not make a remote conference there, it is close to Miami, the hub for the Caribbean and we can sail over as a group and have our welcome reception and closing dinner on a sail boat!

Lets dream big and see which of these and other suggestions people have, can actually be put into action. If needed I can dedicate 40 hours a week to this starting January 2020 toward not only organizing a remote location but also help with other actions.  I am sure there are others who wouldnt mind helping either. I wont be travelling fast, as I am also dedicated to stop or minimize flying in 2020, but if I need to travel somewhere to help out, Ill get there by train, bus, sail boat or cargo ship eventually.

Lets stand up for our reefs, jobs, communities and home!

Franziska