DO PROFESSORS BELONG IN THE GREENHOUSE ROGUES’ GALLERY?

I’m still a carbon-emissions nightmare, because last year I flew almost 50,000 miles, 40,000 of them for work. According to this carbon calculator (the only one I could find that lets you simply enter a total number of air miles), that means I produced 18.4 tons of CO2 by jet travel for my job. The site for An Inconvenient Truth says that the national average is 7.5 tons a year, so with work-related flying alone (i.e., irrespective of taxis, trains, and so forth, let alone my entire personal production of CO2), I’ve produced about two and a half times the ordinary American’s exhalations. No matter how much I also pedal and plant, I’m a global warmer.

Nor am I alone, or even the worst offender. Almost since the beginning of air travel’s commercial availability, academics have been leaving on jet planes.

Since I gave my presentation at the Harvard bloggers’ conference by video, I’m going to demand extra eco-smugness points.