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Deep Souls - Made of Water from PROfundo on Vimeo .

Usually researchers travel a lot to attend to conferences, meetings or field work. It is important to meet people from different countries, share work and discuss ideas. But we should rethink how often scholars fly from all over the places to meet just for a few days. A group of 56 scholars launched a petition calling upon universities and academic professional associations to greatly reduce flying-related footprint as part of effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Why? Because flying contributes significantly to global climate change.  It is responsible for 2-3% of annual global CO2 emissions–about the same percentage that Germany and the city of Beijing, for example, contribute each year.  Flying’s share of global emissions is growing steadily as the growth in total flying miles outstrips improvements in fuel and engine efficiency.  Because flying releases various pollutants at high altitude, its detrimental impact is far greater than that caused by CO2 emissions alone. 

Why should we do one thing rather than another when there was no goal anyway, nor any direction in life, apart from the huddle together, live and then die? Who enquired about the value of this life when it was gone for ever, turned into a fistful of damp earth and a few yellowing brittle bones? The skull, wasn't it grinning with derision down there in the grave? What difference did a few extra dead bodies make from that perspective? Oh yes, there were other perspectives on this same world; couldn't it be seen as a miracle of cool rivers and vast forests, whorled snail shells and deep potholes, veins and grey matter, deserted planets and expanding galaxies? Yes, it could, because meaning is not something we are given but which we give. Death makes life meaningless because everything we have ever striven for ceases when life does, and it makes life meaningful too, because its presence makes the little we have of it indispensable, every moment precious. Karl Ove Knausgår