Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 27, 2025

Using Generative Art to Convey Past and Future Climate Transitions
Published on: March 31, 2023
Astronomy's climate emissions: Global travel to scientific meetings in 2019
Andrea Gokus1,2,3, Knud Jahnke4, Paul M Woods5
1Department of Physics and McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.
Abstract:
Travel to academic conferences-where international flights are the norm-is responsible for a sizeable fraction of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with academic work. In order to provide a benchmark for comparison with other fields, as well as for future reduction strategies and assessments, we estimate the CO2-equivalent emissions for conference travel in the field of astronomy for the prepandemic year 2019. The GHG emission of the international astronomical community's 362 conferences and schools in 2019 amounted to 42,500 tCO2e, assuming a radiative-forcing index factor of 1.95 for air travel. This equates to an average of 1.0 ± 0.6 tCO2e per participant per meeting. The total travel distance adds up to roughly 1.5 Astronomical Units, that is, 1.5 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun. We present scenarios for the reduction of this value, for instance with virtual conferencing or hub models, while still prioritizing the benefits conferences bring to the scientific community.
Related Concept Videos
Global Climate Change
Radiation: Applications
The average...
What is Climate?
What is Weather?
Acceleration due to Gravity on Other Planets
Astronomical observations are thus used to measure the acceleration due to gravity on other planets. This can be determined by observing the effect of a planet's gravity on objects close to it. The crucial factor that helps in this...
The Carbon Cycle

