Studying the adverse consequences of climate change as part of my work, I cannot NOT want to do everything possible to limit my CO2 emissions. I am vegan, live frugally and have never owned a car, but still this is peanuts compared to a transatlantic flight. I decided a few years ago to only fly within Europe for one conference/meeting a year, and to go visit my family since I am currently an expat (the plan is to repatriate in the coming years).

It became obvious that this was the right decision after the birth of my daughter, as neither me nor my child wished to be apart for long periods of time. I am very happy to fly less; it makes my life simpler, but I think many colleagues do not understand my choice and/or think I am slacking off. I try to join meetings via videoconference as much as possible, but the quality is not always optimal.

I know other scientists suffer from the burden of having to travel a lot, sometimes for family reasons as well, so I wish more would join this movement. I am sure the quality of videoconferencing would improve with demand, like everything else.