Universities need to rein in academic air travel and greenhouse gases

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  • Kim Cobb Kim Cobb
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recent article on air travel in the journal Science has caused some turbulence in the academic community. In it, Kim Cobb, a climate scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology, calculated that she had travelled nearly 200,000 kilometres in 2017, mostly to attend conferences. That’s the equivalent of 10 Montréal to Beijing round trips, or five times around the world!That tally prompted her to question the environmental impact of her professional activities, and reduce the distance she travelled by plane by 75 per cent the following year. Although her case is extreme, Cobb is no exception. University researchers are often required to travel to conferences, meetings, committees or to conduct research. A survey we conducted among Université de Montréal professors determined that they travel an average of 33,000 kilometres per year in the course of their professional activities, mostly by air.

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College of Sciences, EAS

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  • Created By: A. Maureen Rouhi
  • Workflow Status: Published
  • Created On: Sep 4, 2019 - 12:47pm
  • Last Updated: Sep 4, 2019 - 12:47pm