[Coral-List] Not flying, not attending, why doesn't ICRS do it differently...

[Peter Sale]

Hi all,
I had vowed to myself that I would not enter into this discussion, but I find myself having to say a few things - call it a senior scientist prerogative.  First, I decided months ago that I would not be going to Brehmen - too far, too expensive, and especially for me, too old.  Its time for the next generation to step forward.  Still I have amazing memories from past ICRS's, of experiences that would never occur with live streaming, face time or any other technical replacement for getting together.  Everything from sharing a cabin with Yossi Loya and a sheltered space near a funnel with Ross Robertson on the Marco Polo, to dancing till I dropped in Tahiti, to giving a plenary in Townsville, and to hearing some amazing talks at all the ICRS's I've managed to attend.  Do not dismiss the importance of direct person-to-person interaction in progressing the science.  (In fact, with Covid-19 leading many universities around the world to move towards exclusively online instruction, we may finally convince ourselves that there is something seriously missing when the mentor and students are not in the same physical space.)

The suggestion that we must curtail flying because of the CO2 emissions is valid.  The world is going to have to move towards slower, less carbon-intensive forms of travel than we currently enjoy.  It will move that way either by retaining flying, but pricing it only for the 1%, leaving the rest of us far less mobile than we now are, or the change will be achieved by widespread recognition that flying damages the environment and should be reserved for only the most necessary travel by all of us.  A world in which groups of scientists (there are many groups beyond coral reef scientists) meet regularly, in their thousands, in large conferences that attract a global constituency is probably passing.  The future will be different and ICRS needs to grapple with that fact.  We scientists need to begin thinking of the global gathering as a once-in-two-decades experience, not something that occurs routinely, and we need to make full use of the few such gatherings that occur.  And, yes, there are many ways available to most of us to reduce our footprints.

The complaints about costs of ICRS come up every four years (and, yes, it has got pretty pricy over the years).  I don't think many people who have actually organized and run a large meeting protest at the costs - they recognize this is an expensive undertaking.  To their credit, most organizers of ICRS meetings have put major effort into subsidizing the attendance of students, junior professionals and scientists from less wealthy countries, and to a degree, other participants cover part of that cost.  I have no solutions except to say, 'volunteer to help run a meeting' and 'think of a global meeting as the luxury it should be, not as an event you are entitled to attend'.

Now that I've pissed lots of you off, allow me two more comments.  First, Covid-19 has appeared unexpectedly and is throwing all sorts of plans into chaos.  I honestly do not know if it will be safe or permitted to be flying internationally and aggregating at large meetings in just 4 months from now.  This has nothing to do with climate change, and everything to do with the global environmental crisis.  Second, my sympathy to those individuals who have been working hard to make Brehmen ICRS a success.  They must now be agonizing over whether they will have to pull the plug on the conference, at what economic cost, whether they can go forward but with greatly reduced attendance, or whether, through some miracle, the world will be back to normal and the conference can be the success they hope to produce.  I hope for the latter, for their sake, and for the sake of the coral reef community.  Those of us not engaged in bringing this conference into being should perhaps temper our criticisms and look for ways to help cope with a very difficult situation.

Peter Sale
University of Windsor, Canada
www.petersalebooks.com<http://www.petersalebooks.com>
sale at uwindsor.ca