[Coral-List] Stop flying????!

[Mark Spalding]

I have always felt that we coral reef scientists are weirdly addicted to
international travel.

Living in Italy, the European capital of COVID-19, things are starting to
have an impact. All schools (country-wide) have just been closed - probably
a measure of panic rather than reason (here in Tuscany there are fewer cases
than SE England which has a similar areal extent). Cinemas are struggling
and sporting events are cancelled. The supermarkets are still full, but
there are stories of the occasional panic buying in the more locked-down
areas. 

One big impact is of course on travel. Travel to Italy has been smashed as
people are panicking and cancelling meetings, holidays, weddings. Some of
these cancellations might be wise. Who wants to be holed up on a plane for x
hours with someone who then contracts COVID-19. What if you get the call,
sometime after the flight, to tell you that you have stay in your hotel to
be quarantined for 2 weeks. Away from work, family, friends. 

But is this also an opportunity? Since Covid-19 the air in China has never
been cleaner (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51691967)? Thousands of
academic meetings and international jamborees in the conservation world are
going to be cancelled in the coming months. Quite a lot will be postponed
(think of the hell that will induce in your calendars as half a year's
travel gets condensed into the other half!) but many more won't happen -
they'll go virtual, or we'll find work-arounds. 

I stopped going to the International Coral Reef Symposium after Bali, 20
years ago. At the time I wrote to this wonderful List explaining that I was
happy to pay to attend virturally, but I thought the travel was insane. I
got a very supportive letter from the then president of ICRS and was told
they were looking into it. Perhaps they still are? I was happy to pay to
have live online attendance, or even just access to recordings of
presentations. These were meetings with 15 or more parallel sessions, and I
don't suppose they've got any smaller. So, thousands and thousands of people
from around the world, all purportedly concerned about the impact of climate
change on coral reefs, fly to a meeting of which they can only attend
one-fifteenth.

Of course people need to travel to meetings. Face-to-face interactions can
greatly facilitate collaboration and opportunity. Expertise needs to be
shared, fieldwork needs to be done. But people also need to STOP TRAVELLING.
The cost of travel for our planet is immense, so while travel can be
valuable, not travelling can be even more valuable. If your meeting is
cancelled please think a bit before re-scheduling.

Take this opportunity to stand back and try and work out non-travel
solutions to our meeting addiction. If you have to, travel locally and
travel overland. Send someone else who lives nearer than you to represent
you!

Reef scientists have failed to set the example so far, but perhaps this is
our chance?

 

Mark D Spalding, PhD

(my views only!)   

   Chief Science Advisor to the Government of the British Indian Ocean
Territory

   Senior Marine Scientist, Global Ocean Team, The Nature Conservancy

  Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge