Feeling uncomfortable by the fact that climate scientists fly a lot to go talk about climate change at the other end of the world, I decided to act and try to raise the awareness of academics around me. What started with a presentation in my department became a local initiative, where I go into different departments to present the facts and ask people to sign a flight-reduction pledge. More information can be found here.

While these presentations aimed at raising awareness of the audience, they also taught me a lot about why people fly and what needs to change. I understood the importance of changing the whole culture of evaluation in academia, which is often based on the number of lines and international conferences in our resume. As a PhD student I find it very hard to deal with this, since I feel like holding on to my environmental values would have a hugely detrimental impact on my career.