People in most professions acquire the habit of going to conferences, sometimes on a surprisingly frequent basis. Or at least they did before COVID-19; recently this has changed and now the meetings come to them. I wonder if, when we are relatively safe to meet other people indoors, conferences will play such a large part in professional people’s lives. This question has some importance for Edinburgh, where a major redevelopment has been taking place.
My antipathy to big conferences for my profession began many years ago. Driven largely by the ready availability of financial support for participants, they had become more and more popular and had undergone a change. Initially, they were relatively small and provided an opportunity for younger doctors to earn their spurs before a critical audience, for new research to be presented and for some special lectures by well-known authorities. Over time, attendances grew, and it became the rule that almost everyone in the specialty attended with their junior colleagues, save those who were unable to find anyone to cover their clinical duties. Increasing specialisation led to multiple parallel sessions. The increasing costs led to large numbers of commercial sponsors and their exhibits.
International conferences in Europe and the USA became very good opportunities to have a short holiday at the expense of one’s employer or some commercial sponsor (this latter a dubious practice). Specialties proliferated and all had to have their conferences local, Scottish, UK-based, European and elsewhere in the world. A new breed of specialised conference organisers appeared to cater for the demand. Cities saw the tourist opportunities and all big conferences developed an associated social programme for those attending and their partners. To attend a conference for many became a short break from work with optional attendance at some lectures and a decent dinner or two, rather than an opportunity for continuing education.
There are, of course, useful conferences. The simplest and most useful are those, usually weekly, in one’s own workplace attended by different disciplines, focused on specific problems (in my case, raised by particular patients), in which we learn to see through the eyes of specialists in other disciplines.
A step beyond this are research conferences on a specific topic, attended by scientists from different disciplines; to see a problem discussed from a variety of perspectives is enlightening. Appropriate conferences are great for learning the latest advances, generating new ideas for management or research, and complement one’s reading of the journals. But in the latter part of my career, it had become the practice of many to go to the USA and Europe for their big national conferences for little more than meeting up with old friends, a short break often at someone else’s expense, and a poor investment of one’s professional time, with a huge carbon cost.
During 18 years of retirement, I have become even more aware of the conference jamboree. Despite my diminishing expertise, no week passes without my receiving two or three invitations to attend a conference, give a speech or chair a symposium in far-flung places as a ‘distinguished expert’ – in paediatrics, gynaecology, diabetes, nanotechnology, mental disease, materials science or even, rarely, in my own specialty. I am certainly far from alone in receiving such flattery and assumptions of omniscience. Prior to COVID-19, the conference mills were in overdrive, making me wonder who benefits from all this and who is paying.
Over these years of retirement, I have made a particular study of climate change, writing articles and lecturing to public groups on this subject. This started in the 1990s with lectures to medical undergraduates in relation to my interest in pollution, and over that period I have seen a fundamental change in people’s perception of the risk, from widespread scepticism to anxious acceptance of the facts, often without a great deal of appreciation of our individual contributions.
My first articles in Scottish Review (September/November 2011) attracted some angry scepticism, but the environmental threats I was outlining in my early lectures are now apparent to all, in floods, drought, increasing force of storms, and wildfires. What 25 years ago was only affecting the disregarded poor of the world has now become reality also to wealthier people in, for example, Louisiana, California, Yorkshire, Somerset and Australia. My teaching has always included a list of personal actions that we can all take:
• When outside the home, try to use the lowest carbon method of travelling; walking, cycling or low-carbon public transport.
• If you drive, aim to go electric and drive sensibly within speed limits, using the smallest practicable vehicle.
• Avoid unnecessary travel for business, conferences, etc, and fly as infrequently as possible. Trains are more efficient than aeroplanes.
• At home, make sure the house is well-insulated and keep the temperature as low as tolerable. Consider solar panels and geothermal energy if possible. Invest in local energy cooperatives if the opportunity arises. Favour green energy suppliers.
• Reduce use of electricity where possible. Switch off everything when not in use and avoid unnecessary lighting. Think before using hairdryers, dishwashers and clothes dryers – there are greener alternatives.
• Be thoughtful about your diet and limit the amount of red meat, which has a particularly large carbon footprint. Favour local and fresh products. If you are able, try to grow some of your own food or plant a tree or two. Avoid covering green areas with paving or concrete.
• Think when you go shopping. Everything you buy has a carbon footprint. Avoid plastic as far as possible and try to ensure that all wrapping is both necessary and recyclable. But also remember that there is a carbon cost to recycling, so don’t buy things you don’t need!
• Donate unwanted clothes and other items to charities and others who need them.
• We all budget carefully for holidays; include consideration of the carbon cost. Avoid flying.
• If you have savings, exclude investment in fossil fuel companies. Green energy is already a better investment, for obvious reasons.
• Do not be afraid to discuss the issue of climate change with friends and colleagues.
You will see the third point includes conferences. These were, before COVID-19, a major contributor to our national and international carbon footprint. The only invitation outwith Scotland that I have accepted since retiring was in London, a five-hour train journey away. There were over 15,000 participants and it was wholly bewildering; most of my time was spent trying to find my way around. They came from North and South America, Japan, New Zealand and all over Europe. All in jet planes.
Since early 2020, I have continued to give lectures from the comfort of my study at home – not so sociable but much more carbon efficient. The various organisations of which I am a member have found ways of continuing their work online with little inconvenience and we are all learning, unexpectedly, a greener way of life. If life returns to something like normality, we shall have an opportunity to rethink our priorities. Our decisions will determine what sort of world our children and grandchildren will live in.
Next time you are invited to a conference, think. First, will you learn anything useful? And, second, will attending justify your carbon footprint? The future of civilisation depends on us all asking these questions before we travel anywhere, even to the shops.
The day of the big conference must surely be almost over; modern technology is now replacing it. For Edinburgh, with its grand new conference and hotel facilities nearing completion, it must be an anxious time for the developers and the city. And for Glasgow, uncomfortably, there is one most important conference: the international meeting to discuss progress on action to address climate change – COP26 – in November. It may be forced online but, however it takes place, the participants must recognise that action is urgent and no politician, national or local, can escape responsibility for climate change. Nor indeed can any one of us. The carbon footprint of the conference itself should be on the agenda.
Anthony Seaton is Emeritus Professor of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at Aberdeen University and Senior Consultant to the Edinburgh Institute of Occupational Medicine. The views expressed are his own
By Anthony Seaton | 17 March 2021
