At its 2007 annual conference in Morelia, Mexico, ATBC (Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation) members voted overwhelmingly in favour of a proposal to make the society’s future annual meetings carbon-neutral. Why have we done this, and how will it work?
The “why” part is fairly obvious. Greenhouse gases are rising rapidly in the atmosphere, and it would be irresponsible of the ATBC, as a leading scientific and conservation organization, to fail to reduce its emissions as much as possible and to offset its remaining emissions. Many scientific groups, institutes, and businesses are now going carbon-neutral—or are at least talking seriously about doing so. The ATBC Executive Council felt it was important for the society to be at the cutting edge of these efforts.
