Several years ago the American Astronomical Society (AAS) created a new task force – led by Travis Rector and comprised of thirteen other volunteers – to identify ways to align the AAS with the Paris Climate Agreement. This climate change task force subsequently completed a carbon emissions assessment of AAS activities and surveyed the AAS membership regarding climate action and virtual meetings. It synthesized fourteen ranked recommendations for the AAS board to consider. A final report of these efforts was recently completed and submitted to the AAS board. The key findings are:
- (1) AAS emissions are significantly dominated by flights for travel to and from the regular AAS summer and winter meetings,
- (2) the vast majority of AAS members are concerned about the impact of climate change and want the AAS to reduce its carbon footprint, and
- (3) new modes of online conference interaction are critical to effectively reducing AAS emissions in line with the Paris Agreement goals while simultaneously increasing the participation and inclusivity of AAS meetings.
The full report can be accessed at ArXiv.
Contact Travis Rector (chair of the task force), or Andrew Couperus (volunteer member of the task force) for more information.
