Noting Melinda's comment about what we actually do -- with while I strongly agree, I've been intermittently following the question of how improved two-way or multiway international communication changes travel patterns. The story goes back to the realization that, with email and (even) first-generation list management and Usenet systems, communication and working with someone halfway around the world could be as inexpensive, and often as efficient, as working with someone who lived next door. The number of international collaborations increased. Because of the value of f2f conversations identified in a different thread in the last few days, so did travel to meetings that previously would have involved mostly or entirely people from a rather small region. At least in retrospect (but there were scholars in the 80s and earlier who predicted it), what would we expect? We tend to praise the increase in international collaborations and other interactions and curse the increased travel, but they may go together. john --On Friday, 26 July, 2019 13:37 -0700 Jacob Hoffman-Andrews <jsha@xxxxxxx> wrote: > > In 2018, passenger activity increased by 6.1% to 8.2 > trillion revenue passenger kilometres, and the number of total > air passengers reached a record 4.3 billion (ICAO, 2019a). > This activity growth is a slowdown from the 7.9% increase > registered in 2017, however, with regional growth rates in > 2018 ranging between 4.7% and 7.3%. > > I agree that online collaboration has the *potential* to > reduce emissions. However, it is not fulfilling that > potential. That's why we need to walk the talk and demonstrate > how to collaborate effectively online, so other industries can > adopt our methods and tools.
