On the list of paradoxes, not many beat flying around the world to give talks about climate change. I can justify my carbon footprint if I have to -- with myself as the main moving part, we've managed to build 350.org into the first big global climate campaign, organizing what CNN has called the "most widespread... political activity in the planet's history." If you want to be active in every country on earth except North Korea, you better be prepared to fly.
But I'd rather not justify it, and I'd rather not fly. So in recent years I've learned to tell an increasing number of the people who ask me to speak (about ten a day, most days) that the only way I can "be" there is via Skype video. I sit in my kitchen, turn on my Macbook Pro, line up the camera, and when the moment comes I talk. In this way I am able to say "Yes." to speaking to a multiple of the people I could speak to if our only option was being physically present.
It's not perfect. You don't get the same kind of feedback from an audience that you do in person. I pride myself on trying to really communicate with audiences; something inherently falls away. But especially for overseas speaking, when you're working through a translator anyway, very little is lost. And much is gained by example -- you're demonstrating the world we need to live in, where more and more travel is accomplished by mouse instead of jet. (You can do a thousand Google searches for the energy it takes to drive six-tenths of a mile!) I'm not the only one who thinks this way. Rob Hopkins, who runs the wonderful TransitionTown initiative, has all but given up flying, speaking instead via video. I hear others who are experimenting as well.
And the good news is that the technology is improving all the time. (I've already had one venue send out a special camera that allowed me to appear as a three-dimensional hologram!) The social custom will change over time too, until it becomes more common to have a speaker-and maybe even an audience-working from home.
Businesses, schools, and global leaders that embrace working from home are learning just how efficient and effective remote work can be. To be sure, people will continue to commute some days and travel, but there will be a higher bar for judging if taking that plane flight is the best use of time and resources.
Much like our families and our bodies, the planet simply can't deal with the demands we're making on it -- Skype video is a remarkably good (and free!) way to dial back a little today.
This blog comes from MomsRising.org and CustomFitWorkplace.org and presents innovative ideas to strengthen 21st Century American families through public policy, business practice, and cultural change.
BIO: Bill McKibben is the author of a dozen books about the environment, beginning with The End of Nature in 1989, which is regarded as the first book for a general audience on climate change. He is a founder of the grassroots climate campaign 350.org, which has coordinated 15,000 rallies in 189 countries since 2009.
Follow Bill McKibben on Twitter: www.twitter.com/billmckibben
I'd stil travel for vacations at least. Maybe not by plane but by train if it's within the country.
Part of the problem with the Stop Global Warming message is that it's so shrill. Part of the message is "you're either with us or against us". Sounds like another pol by the name of Bush. Climate change is a very important issue but Gore and his zealots would have you believe that it is the most important issue of all. Really? Trying telling that to the thousands of people who die every day for lack of nutrition. But global warming might result in dire consequences by the year 2100. OK, but what about the 3,000 children who die every day, right now, because they lack clean drinking water and adequate sanitation. But climate change negatively affects everyone around the world. But so does the rapid expansion of nuclear energy, which Al Gore supports, with the most toxic contaminants known to man and the corresponding escalation of nuclear weapons proliferation. Climate change will be hard to live with but try living inside of a mushroom cloud...and the list goes on. Keep working on climate change but keep it in perspective.
2. On the other hand, there's the body scanners and the dunderheads of the TSA. Faced with that, I'd probably stay home and video conference, too.
If not, get your butt on a plane and push your message eyeball to eyeball. Your personal carbon footprint is meaningless when a more proactive effort might produce real results. Let's face it, via Skype you are preaching to the choir.
Then someone needs to devise a virtual auditorium headset. Now how difficult can that be? Even if someone on site had to direct the remote camera/mic into the section of the audience reacting. Or if those present has access to a handheld camera/screen/mic device, on which they could indicate a desire to pose a question in person.
It's disappointing to see that the solar industry, destined to be the future of energy, isn't forward thinking enough to see that... yet.
Yay geo-engineering. ^_^;
I give McKibben a lot of credit here, at least he practices what he preaches.
If these people "travelled by mouse" they wouldn't get to take their private jets to these luxurious vacations!