Climate action for (neuro)scientists: a concrete guide

Update [13-04-2022]: my pledge to flying less.

Update [19-11-2021]: see the new Green Neuroscience page for more writings, recorded talks, and slide decks on this topic.

Note [December 2020]: this blogpost led to an SfN petition, and then to an opinion paper that lays out in more detail what neuroscientists can do against climate catastrophe. If you prefer something with a doi, that one’s for you.

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Climate change is the most urgent problem currently facing humanity – including a subset who call themselves (neuro)scientists. While many academics still consider (political) activism far outside their comfort zone, the broader scientific community is slowly waking up to the urgency of the situation and the role we can play as a community of evidence-minded individuals. I believe there are few excuses for not engaging with this issue, and there are many ways to productively do so.

Since many scientists seem reluctant to speak up or unsure where to start, I’m collecting a short list of concrete things you can do (in approximate order of effort/difficulty). Pick one, get started and join the global effort necessary to tackle this problem; after all, aren’t we problem-solvers?

Join a bunch of like-minded colleagues and get organized. After a great SfN session organized by Adam Aron, a petition to the SfN council asking the society to review and reduce its carbon footprint, we started a ClimateActionNeuroPsy Slack group. Please join (here) to be inspired by others, share your own efforts and coordinate our work.

Know the science. Read the IPCC report, familiarize yourself with the scope and urgency of the problem. Know what solutions are most impactful, and direct your energy wisely.

Talk to your colleagues, students and collaborators. Make climate change a normal topic of conversation. Join climate marches together (e.g. Ma lab), and assess the environmental impact of your work and travel (see below).

Be a good citizen. Vote. Encourage your students and lab members to vote; if you teach, consider giving students time off to vote in elections. Reduce your (red) meat consumption, drive less, buy green electricity for your house or install solar panels.

Join political advocacy groups. Donate to climate charities (e.g. here) or climate activism organizations (e.g. 350, Union of Concerned Scientists).

Examine your travel and conference habits. Consider that most scientists’ footprint is massively dominated by air travel. Replace flights with more sustainable modes of transport, go to fewer meetings, and combine multiple/longer meetings if you must fly (see examples of Chris Summerfield, Russ Poldrack, Leslie Voshall, @flyingless). Combine multiple meetings and visits to get more science out of a single trip (e.g. list your trip on OnNeuro). Invest in video conferencing technology (e.g. 1, 2) to virtually host people in your lab. [update]: be very ware of carbon offsets, they may do more harm than good.

[side note] Think about the long-term incentive structure for academic hiring. You’ll have noticed that those who’ve quit flying altogether tend to be tenured professors. Current academic incentive structures basically require young scientists to do research projects in famous labs (often abroad), give invited talks, travel to conferences and do plenty of networking. This is not only bad for the climate but also for those who can’t travel much for other (e.g. family, health) reasons. Senior researchers should seriously consider how to make academic practices less travel-heavy, for themselves but more importantly for their trainees.

Reduce waste and emissions in your lab. In wet labs, see if you can reduce the energy usage of your freezers, fume hoods etc (see e.g. MyGreenLab, LEAF).  Consider the energy impact of computational work, especially in Machine Learning, and push your community to take AI model’s carbon footprint into account for benchmarks. See Kate Jeffery’s blog for resources on the cost of data storage.

Hold your institution accountable. Get your administration to commit to concrete sustainability goals, and divestment from fossil fuels (e.g. Johns Hopkins, Stanford). Get certified so you can track your progress. Demand a sustainable travel policy, that emphasizes overland travel (e.g. Ghent University). Offset the travel-related emissions generated by your department (e.g. Fitzwilliam College; but see here).

Organize meetings wisely. Formulate a sustainability policy (e.g. ASSC). Offer remote conference participation, talks through videoconferencing and tele-posters. Plan your meeting in locations that are easily accessible by train or direct flights (e.g. here). Schedule related meetings together so participants can combine their trips. Ultimately, consider reducing the frequency and size of mega-meetings, for example by simultaneous local meetings connected through video.

Use your scientific skills to work on solutions to the climate crisis. Computer scientist or machine learning expert? Work on climate-related ML projects. Cognitive scientist or human factors researcher? Develop better VR conference systems. Psychologist? Find out how to mitigate the impacts of climate change on human behavior. Social scientist? Design better policy. Join scientists advocacy groups (e.g. ScAAN) that help policy-makers by preparing curated information bulletins.

Further reading

• What can a neuroscientist do about climate change?
• Favaro B (2014) A carbon code of conduct for science. Science 344:1461–1461.
• Nathans J, Sterling P (2016) How scientists can reduce their carbon footprint. eLife 5:e15928.
• Aron AR (2019) The Climate Crisis Needs Attention from Cognitive Scientists. Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
• Ponette-González AG, Byrnes JE (2011) Sustainable Science? Reducing the Carbon Impact of Scientific Mega-Meetings. Ethnobiology Letters 2:65–71.
• Middleton C (2019) Environmental sustainability goals drive changes in conference practices. Physics Today 72:29–31.
• Levine et al. (2019). Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Academic Travel. Inside Higher Education

And finally, if this doesn’t convey the urgency of the situation I don’t know what does. Happy climate action!