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Astronomy organizations should lead in our battle against the climate crisis

Nature Astronomy volume 6, page 764 (2022)Cite this article

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24 June 2022 Editor’s Note: Shortly after the publication of this Correspondence, the authors informed the editors of Nature Astronomy that 10 out of 12 members of the EAS Advisory Committee on Sustainability have resigned their positions on the committee.

To the Editor — The alarming sound in the latest IPCC ‘code red’ report was unmistakable: “Without immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, limiting global warming to 1.5 °C is beyond reach.” Only a few weeks later, the World Meteorological Organization reported that there is now a 50% chance that we will temporarily reach 1.5 °C warming already in the next five years. And indeed, with the increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters such as flooding, heat waves and droughts, it is becoming harder not to see a looming climate catastrophe unless massive and immediate action is taken. Astronomers worldwide are well aware of our peril and are demanding astronomy organizations to act — nearly 3,000 have signed Astronomers for Planet Earth’s open letter demanding climate action from our institutions.

Reacting to pressure from the community, the European Astronomical Society (EAS) inaugurated a sustainability group in late-2020 (recently renamed Advisory Committee). Soon after, in January 2021, the committee members delivered a list of ten recommendations to the EAS council outlining steps that should be taken to reduce EAS emissions. While most of our recommendations — which included adding sustainability aspects to the selection criteria for future EAS meeting sites as well as our participation in the organization of the meeting — were not adopted by the EAS council, they did sign up for the UN Climate Neutral Now Initiative earlier this year.

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Change history

  • 24 June 2022

    Editor’s Note: Shortly after the publication of this Correspondence, the authors informed the editors of Nature Astronomy that 10 out of 12 members of the EAS Advisory Committee on Sustainability have resigned their positions on the committee.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, Huygens Laboratory, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Leo Burtscher

  2. Institut de Ciències del Cosmos (ICCUB), Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Lola Balaguer-Núñez

  3. Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC), Barcelona, Spain

    Lola Balaguer-Núñez

  4. Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Padova, Italy

    Valentina D’Orazi

  5. Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie, Toulouse, France

    Didier Barret

  6. TUM School of Engineering and Design, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany

    Tobias Beuchert

  7. Engineering Faculty, Beykent University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Emre Dil

  8. Centrum Fizyki Teoretycznej PAN, Warsaw, Poland

    Agnieszka Janiuk

  9. School of Physical Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK

    Beatriz Mingo

  10. Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, Université Côte d’Azur, Nice, France

    Eloisa Poggio

  11. Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Pino Torinese, Italy

    Eloisa Poggio

Authors
  1. Leo Burtscher
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  2. Lola Balaguer-Núñez
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  3. Valentina D’Orazi
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  4. Didier Barret
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  6. Emre Dil
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  7. Agnieszka Janiuk
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  8. Beatriz Mingo
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  9. Eloisa Poggio
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Leo Burtscher.

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Burtscher, L., Balaguer-Núñez, L., D’Orazi, V. et al. Astronomy organizations should lead in our battle against the climate crisis. Nat Astron 6, 764 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-022-01722-y

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