Actually, folks, if you want to save energy, reduce your carbon footprint, and hold onto your simoleans by changing how you attend meetings, you need to think bigger.
The most effective way to do all three of these things would be to convince ESA to offer the meeting in electronic form, so that you can tune into every talk or discussion on the schedule. Other upsides: (1) reduce the meeting to a much more manageable size for those who do choose to attend it physically; (2) reduce the number of concurrent sessions for both physical and electronic attendees; and (3) make a very public statement about how importantly ecologists view the issues associated with climate change. Downsides: (1) especially for young professionals, it might have a negative impact on making personal contacts, especially those that might lead to jobs; (2) reduce the registration stream of bucks for ESA; and (3) impose the need for hosting a major net broadcast on ESA. I think some creative work allowing for extended discussions or job-related interviews might be designed to mitigate the first and most important of these downsides. None of this, of course, will change the Minneapolis meeting. But if you change future meetings, you will have a far larger impact in the long term. Thomas J. Givnish Henry Allan Gleason Professor of Botany University of Wisconsin-Madison [email protected] http://botany.wisc.edu/givnish/Givnish/Welcome.html
