Like many academics, I travel quite a lot. I'd rather do so in a way that is environmentally sustainable. Most conferences I travel to are sponsored by ACM SIGPLAN, which in recent years has developed a ad-hoc committee on climate issues. It's great that SIGPLAN has taken this issue seriously. I do agree that carbon offsetting, SIGPLAN's current recommended action, can be worth doing. The following is my greatly simplified summary of the committee's argument for recommending this action. (For...
