Live streaming at international academic conferences: Cooling down the digital optimism

The recently published paper “Live streaming at international academic conferences: Ethical considerations” by Richard Parncutt and Annemarie Seither-Preisler (2019) tackles the fascinating topic of the environmental impact of academic conferences, in particular the carbon footprint caused by the participants’ travel to and from the conference location. According to the authors, a viable alternative to this type of event is live streaming. The authors cite numerous statistical data and present their speculative, ethical argument, to conclude that “the present article will have succeeded if it motivates further progress” in hindering anthropogenic global warming (AGW). While sympathizing with every convincing argument in favor of emissions reduction related to academia, in this commentary, we raise five concerns regarding this particular line of argumentation. The overarching reservation is grounded in the fact that the authors extrapolate their experience in the Global North to the entire academic community.