PREAMBLE

Many of us are aware of the fact that flying is one of the main contributors to the global climate breakdown. Still, many of us fly. Especially we scientists have many reasons to fly: We fly to conferences to present talks or posters, we are invited to present our work as keynote speakers, or we simply meet with fellow scientists to discuss future grant proposals. All in the knowing that this behaviour is highly problematic, resulting in a climate footprint that is beyond any scale of sustainability.

The idea of this climate CV originated from discussions in the research group “Environmental Psychology” located at the University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany. We invite scientists of all disciplines to think about their behaviour, and to create, provide, and discuss their own climate CV. With being transparent in our own ranks, we hope to lead the way towards a society that questions the necessity of flying and frequent global scientific meetings.

Climate CV of Dr. Claudia Menzel

My journey to flying less and this climate CV

Before I started my work in the research group „Environmental Psychology“ in Landau, Germany, I gave not much thought about my (private and work-related) flying behaviour. Although I was aware of climate change and environment-harming behaviours, I was not really aware of the huge impact my own flying behaviour has. Conference attendance was seen as an opportunity to present and hear about data, to network, and to combine it with a stay at a nice place. Travelling behaviour was questioned neither by me nor my colleagues. The only reasons questioning a trip or transport option were money- or time-related issues but never environment-related ones. This changed when I joined the Environmental Psychology group in Landau. I met several researchers who decided not to fly (anymore) and for whom it is natural to only visit conferences that were reachable by train or bus. This led me to reflect my own (private and work-related) behaviour and to question the need of visiting a distant conference. I invite others to do so too.

List of attended conferences / workshops / research stays

All national conferences/workshops/talks (i.e., within Germany) were reached either by train (4 conferences, 1 talk) or as a fellow passenger in a car (2 conferences) when they were not located in the city where I lived during that time (7 workshops).

All international conferences and research stays are listed below. Most of my work-related trips were combined with private stays at that or a nearby location so that private travels were reduced. For international conferences and work-related stays, about 60,555 km were travelled, resulting in greenhouse gas emissions of approximately 10,581 kg CO₂ equivalents. The sustainable yearly climate budget for a human being is estimated to be 2,300 kg.

(updated: October 2019)

Distance (X) calculations were approximated using Google maps (car, bus, and train) and https://www.luftlinie.org/ (airplane). Based on these values greenhouse gas emissions (CO₂, CH₄ und N₂O) were calculated with

• 32g* X km; for travel by bus
• 38g * X km; for travel by train
• 140g * X km; for travel by car
• 214g* X km; for travel by airplane

(values are based on German Environmental Agency:

https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/sites/default/files/medien/376/publikationen/180607_uba_hg_fernbus_bf.pdf)

Conferences that were not visited due to distance:

• VSS, St. Pete Beach, Florida, USA (2016 till now)

Further contributions to the environment

• Never owned a car
• Eating mainly plant-based
• Avoiding plastic whenever possible
• Engaged in conserving biodiversity by actively supporting the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (Naturschutzbund Deutschland)
• Donating regularly for habitat and species conservation programmes
• Supporting Scientists4Future and FridaysForFuture