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

Tue Mar 10 07:32:59 UTC 2020

Good point, huge drop in air pollution over northern China due to the
coronavirus causing factory shutdowns and people not driving.  Happened
extremely fast.  That reduction in pollution was not caused by a reduction
human population.  Projections are that world human population will
decrease, but it will increase first, then peak, and decrease, largely
naturally.  A Wikipedia article says "Although still growing
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_momentum>, global population is
predicted to level out around the end of the 21st century" (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_decline )  So long, long after
corals will be dead.  (Of course we could propose killing a few billion
people, would that be ethical?  Any volunteers?  Or just snap our fingers
and magically they'll disappear?  Anybody else got a way to get rid of a
few billion people?  Send them to the moon?  Anybody care to be at all
realistic?)  It took a couple months for China's air pollution to fall
drastically.  That air pollution was due both to world population (much of
the goods produced being bought elsewhere) and world consumption by
people.  People can reduce consumption as fast as is needed.  People
generally don't want to do that, but China shows it can be done in a couple
months.  What was done there is not sustainable, there must be some economy
or people starve.  But is it absolutely necessary for Americans to buy so
much junk they don't need that they have to fill their garages with it and
buy houses with several garages to store it and then rent space in
mini-storage places??  (I say that as an American who has seen people doing
that.  Mini-storage places are all over the US.)  Does everyone absolutely
HAVE to run in the rat race to get paid as much as possible to buy stuff
they actually don't really need and don't use???  (granted, not everyone
does that)  Not running in the rat race, more spare time to enjoy life,
would that be terrible?  Might help save the planet and coral reefs in time
before they get totally destroyed.
Cheers,  Doug

On Mon, Mar 9, 2020 at 12:59 AM Luiz Rocha via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

> As much as I like the idea of having fewer white American/Europeans going
> to coral reef countries, publishing high profile papers without
> acknowledging locals, and getting all the credit and awards for it, let's
> be realistic people: air travel accounts for only about 2.5% of the world's
> CO2 emissions, and the decline in pollution over China (and more
> specifically Wuhan) was not caused by decline in air travel, but rather, by
> decline in manufacturing (factories are still closed) and by the fact that
> everyone is staying home and not using cars. If you are really hoping to
> move the needle on climate change, please keep in mind that while personal
> action is good, we are past the point when that alone will make a
> big difference. So by all means, travel less (or if you want to make an
> even bigger impact, buy less stuff from China), but the ultimate solution
> is urgent high level regulatory changes, so get out and vote.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Luiz
>
> P.S.: What's happening with ICRS? Proceeding as planned? All kinds of
> conferences from now through August are being cancelled, so some sort of
> official communication from ICRS would be good.
>
> *Luiz A. Rocha, PhD*
> Associate Curator and Follett Chair of Ichthyology
> California Academy of Sciences
> p. 415.379.5370
> f.  415.379.5731
> LRocha at calacademy.org
> Academic Website
> <https://www.calacademy.org/staff/ibss/ichthyology/luiz-a-rocha>
>
> 55 Music Concourse Drive
> Golden Gate Park
> San Francisco, CA 94118
>
> Twitter <https://twitter.com/CoralReefFish> | Instagram
> <https://www.instagram.com/coralreeffish/>
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 5, 2020 at 7:31 AM Mark Spalding via Coral-List <
> coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
>
> > 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
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Coral-List mailing list
> > Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> > https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Coral-List mailing list
> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>

-- 
Douglas Fenner
Lynker Technologies, LLC, Contractor
NOAA Fisheries Service
Pacific Islands Regional Office
Honolulu
and:
Consultant
PO Box 7390
Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799  USA

"Already, more people die  <http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/hazstats.shtml>from
heat-related causes in the U.S. than from all other extreme weather events."

https://www.npr.org/2018/07/09/624643780/phoenix-tries-to-reverse-its-silent-storm-of-heat-deaths

Even 50-year old climate models correctly predicted global warmng
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/12/even-50-year-old-climate-models-correctly-predicted-global-warming?utm_campaign=news_weekly_2019-12-06&et_rid=17045989&et_cid=3113276

"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