The Hypocrisy of Academia?

Jonathan Wolff opines that University staff’s carbon use is huge and growing from their international conference travel to almost all parts of the Globe (Guardian What hypocrisy, academics think guiltily.29 October). True, but there is a bigger and more intensely worrying form of hypocrisy because the carbon footprint of the many university campuses here and overseas has grown exponentially over the past 20 years and their contribution to carbon emissions along with that of the thousands of students who travel to and from campus is a major issue and shows no signs of diminishing in the short term. Some years ago, a paper published by staff from the Open University showed that distance learning university courses involve 87% less energy and 85% lower CO2 emissions than the full-time campus-based courses. Part-time campus courses reduce energy and CO2 emissions by 65% and 61% respectively compared to full-time campus courses. But are universities worldwide sufficiently reading the signs of the times? And how far are they addressing the concomitant call from growing numbers of students who want their institutions to take sustainable development seriously in everything they do, and to ensure that what they are taught has an appropriate sustainability focus? Maybe, those faculty who feel the guilt of flying to international conferences might give more serious thought to realigning their teaching to reflect these concerns of their students-perhaps as a form of “cognitive offsetting?”