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

[Douglas Fenner]

        Good point Alina, agreed.  But we can fly carbon-neutral.  It is
amazingly cheap.  Air travel actually now produces less emissions per
passenger-mile than cars do, mainly because planes are now usually almost
full, and cars usually have few people in them, commuters in the US are
almost all one person per car.  If a car has several people in it it is
probably more efficient than a plane.  Flying is also safer per person-mile
than driving.  (and what kind of car and how fast you drive affects fuel
consumption, and hybrid cars produce less CO2, even less than an electric
car unless the electricity is produced from renewables.)  The Gold Standard
website says driving produces about half of all the CO2 an average British
person emits and 4.7 times as much as a train would produce for the same
distance.  But Alina is right, flying is necessary to get to most of the
world's reefs and little reef science would get done without flying, and we
are heavily dependent on the science to tell us what needs to be fixed to
save the reefs.  Without the science we would have no idea how to save
them.  And you can't take a train, bus or drive a car over oceans and most
scientists have to cross oceans to get to reefs.  All aviation, including
military, is only about 2% of total world emissions.  Electricity
generation is the largest emitterg (vastly larger than flying), and the
easiest to make renewable, which is why there is so much emphasis on
building more solar and wind power.  BUT, the airline industry is predicted
to triple in the near future, it is growing fast.  So it is important to
reduce that.  It is important for reef scientists and managers to set a
good example, and flying carbon-neutral is something everybody can do,
easily and cheaply.  Let's do it!  AND try to limit flying when we can.
AND commute by public transportation, AND push to get carbon neutral costs
included in ALL airline tickets, AND in the cost of vehicle fuel (there
will be a limit to how much we can do that, though, there are a limited
number of projects that can easily reduce emissions, which is what you do
when you pay to fly carbon neutral).  AND eat less meat.  AND stop
deforestation AND plant loads of trees (that absorb CO2 and lock it up for
long periods).  AND grow renewable energy generation as fast as we possibly
can.  AND put a high price on all greenhouse gas emissions but especially
carbon.  Push, push, push and get it done.  Individual sacrifice will NOT
get this done, only whole societies can do it, and we absolutely HAVE to
get entire countries doing this, so we have to push, push push.  Countries
have not been fully implementing their Paris Accords pledges, and even if
the pledges are implemented, everyone agrees they are not enough, countries
HAVE to step up and do much more, and the USA MUST be in the Paris accords
and lead the charge!  We fail at our own peril!  Places in the world will
be so hot as to be uninhabitable (including Florida and the Gulf coast of
the US), some under salt water, trillions of dollars lost, 10's of
thousands of people will die.  We have NO choice but to act, and do so
quickly.
      There is a climate strike planned for Oct 20.  I plan to be in the
crowds.  Check for a march near you on Oct 20 and join in.

Cheers, Doug

driving vs flying
https://slate.com/business/2014/07/driving-vs-flying-which-is-more-harmful-to-the-environment.htm

For carbon neutral offsets, see
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190409-carbon-offseting-pros-and-cons

To find a climate event in the US on Oct 20 to join, check
https://actionnetwork.org/event_campaigns/us-climate-strikes?source=march-for-science&referrer=group-march-for-science&link_id=9&can_id=a0e75e3344bdc0840867b5f86e2b45b2&email_referrer=email_600327___subject_783579&email_subject=will-you-join-the-climate-strike

To find a climate even outside the US on Oct 20, check
https://globalclimatestrike.net/?link_id=10&can_id=a0e75e3344bdc0840867b5f86e2b45b2&source=email-scientists-join-the-climate-strike-on-sep-20&email_referrer=email_600327___subject_783579&email_subject=will-you-join-the-climate-strike#join



On Sat, Sep 14, 2019 at 4:10 AM Alina Szmant via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

> Thanks Neus. But if all reef scientists gave up flying very little coral
> reef science would be done. Most reef researchers don't live next to a
> coral reef.
>
> --
Douglas Fenner
Ocean Associates, Inc. Contractor
NOAA Fisheries Service
Pacific Islands Regional Office
Honolulu
and:
Consultant
PO Box 7390
Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799  USA

"Global warming is manifestly the foremost current threat to coral reefs,
and must be addressed by the global community if reefs as we know them will
have any chance to persist."  Williams et al, 2019, Frontiers in Marine
Science

A call to climate action  (Science editorial)
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/364/6443/807?utm_campaign=toc_sci-mag_2019-05-30&et_rid=17045989&et_cid=2840296

New book "The Uninhabitable Earth"  First sentence: "It is much, much worse
than you think."
Read first (short) chapter open access:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/read-a-chapter-from-the-uninhabitable-earth-a-dire-warning-on-climate-change