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How to Make Good on Your Pledges

Expert refuses plane ticket to climate conference

By Tudor Vieru, Science Editor

27th of June 2009, 09:54 GMT

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Maxey has been avoiding airplane rides for the past 15 years

In what Swansea University Professor Larch Maxey described as the “irony of our times,” the expert was invited to fly from his home in England to the United States, to attend a climate change conference at the Smithsonian Festival. Maxey, who, for the past 15 years, failed to wrap his mind around the whole ‘using airplanes to get to meetings where one discussed the danger of air travel’ concept, respectfully declined the invitation. Fortunately, many scientists are now beginning to follow suit, and are refusing to use polluting means of transportation on their trip whenever possible.

For the past years, the researcher attended only those conferences, seminars, and discussions that were within reach, and which did not involve getting there with a plane. An adept of the idea that we each have our imprint on the environment, Maxey is quoted by the BBC News as saying that a single, cross-Atlantic air travel would offset a few years of his regular carbon imprint on the environment.

“To be fair to the organizers they looked at getting everyone to the conference by boat but it was not possible. If I had flown it's more than my share of carbon emissions for a couple of years,” he said. Whenever a situation such as this appears, the scientist usually participates via video-link, and makes his presentation from his own country. This will be the first time when he will actually present fragments of his new book, “The Future in Our Hands: Low Impact Development and Sustainability Transitions,” to an auditorium thousands of miles away.

“I regularly use phone and video conference meetings, but this is the first time I've used it to present at an international conference. It's really empowering to be able to make the choice. I would encourage everyone to think about their carbon emissions. We have to do everything we can as soon as we can and everyone has to play their part,” Maxey added, the same news outlet reports.

The conference takes place within the boundaries of the 43rd Annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival, which features Wales this year. Some of Maxey's colleagues decided to fly to the event, but the researcher said that he was not pointing the finger at them, and that it was every person's business how they chose to live their lives. “It is a great opportunity to showcase Wales,” he concluded.

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