Article on Carbon Emission from Scientific Meetings, and the fate of this group

[Bruce Grossan]

Dear LE Astro people: 

It would be great to see continued activity in this forum (and on this subject).  This morning I saw an op-ed by some scientists who will not go to the AGU meeting to demonstrate their commitment to actually doing something personally about climate change: 

We study the climate. We chose not to fly to D.C. for a conference on it.

I wrote to the one author from Berkeley, Romps, and asked if there were any other groups active in this area.  We'll see what he says.  

Since 2013 this group hasn't seen much activity.  Perhaps it is time for us to reconsider practical actions, they are more urgent then ever before; perhaps we might all  think about something we *could* do on this?  

My own proposal: consider signing a letter to AAS and NASA requesting 

a. report on how we could reduce carbon footprint of Astro

b. request better tele-attendance tools and accommodations for meetings, and a goal for 30% tele-attendance for national+ meetings by end 2019? Yes, I will volunteer to compose a draft. 

I also note the group wiki  http://low-energy-astro.physics.ucsb.edu is dead. Did anyone back this up? Can it live again? 

Thanks, 

-Bruce Grossan