By Shona Russell Senior Lecturer, Department of Management (Business School).
Published on: 26 September 2024.
She stands.
Waiting.
Backpack on
Passport in hand
She remembers…
The email.
The invitation.
—
Give a talk?
International audience
Present.
Learn.
Connect.
A little glow.
Accepted.
Part of the community.
Her mentor says
“Go for it”
Demonstrate peer esteem.
Build networks.
Essential for career.
All possible.
All positive.
Or is it?
—
What are the costs?
Time?
It’s next year.
Money?
There’s a budget.
Childcare?
I’ll work it out.
Carbon?
Oh.
—
Carbon?
What to do?
Avoid the question.
Book the flight.
No.
Gather more info.
Build a spreadsheet.
Criteria?
Time
Carbon
Cost
Care
Career
Look at routes.
Delegate.
Ask the travel agent.
4 hours flight for £500 return
Time to present.
Time to network.
And see the sights
Tick.
Done in 5 days.
What about the train?
Not possible, agent replies.
Huh?
The map says “yes”.
Agent says “no”.
What to do?
Take on the task.
How to get there?
What routes?
Search the net.
Ask around.
An overnight stay.
A sleeper
3 days one-way!
Return £1400
8 days in total
—
Is it worth it?
—
Too expensive!
It’ll blow the budget!
The allure of going slow
Of having …
Space
and
Time
to
Breathe
to
Muse
to
Think
But…
Deadlines loom.
Just decide.
No time.
Commit!
Move on.
—
What to do?
What else to consider?
Teaching?
Family?
Sorting out the everyday?
Exhausted
—
Easier just to stay put.
Too much hassle.
Too much time.
Too expensive.
Too many emissions.
—
But…
—
She seeks
Connections
Conversations
Inspiration
—
Time to reach out.
Are you going?
How long for?
Time to catch up?
Stay on for a while?
Travel together?
Look at the diary.
Is there time?
Can things be shuffled?
Will duties be covered?
Consult spreadsheet.
Can budgets be blown?
—
She stands.
Waiting.
Backpack on
Passport in hand
“Next”
She steps up.
Hands over her passport
—
Sidenote
I wrote a piece about low carbon scholarship with a colleague[1] and have been puzzling over the process of making decisions about travel as part of academic life and the realities of conferences and meeting with colleagues. This is a personal reflection as I have a young family and have purposefully avoided a lot of long-haul travel to conferences due to other commitments. I wrote this as a glimpse into the mundane ways in which a decision to reduce impacts through scholarship can be so challenging in light of other factors. It is not a merely a question of carbon, financial costs but also reflects care, concern for others and the interdependencies involved in work and life.
This poem was originally published through EAUC’s ‘Reducing aviation emissions in the tertiary education and research sector – blog series.’ To see all of the blogs in this EAUC series, click this link.
[1] Dey, C., & Russell, S. (2022). Still Flying in the Face of Low-carbon Scholarship? A Final Call for the CSEAR Community to Get on Board. Social and Environmental Accountability Journal, 42(3), 208–222. https://doi.org/10.1080/0969160X.2022.2094983
Photography: Shona Russell
Wonderful Shona!