April 2, 2020: A great
many planned face-to-face meetings are being replaced by webinars or
teleconferences because of the pandemic. I guess folks are scared of catching
the virus, so they plan other ways to accomplish what they need to do. So I was
a little taken aback when I read today that United Nations officials have
postponed COP26 (the international climate talks scheduled for November in
Glasgow, Scotland) as a result of the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
I do understand the caution. But what I do not understand is
why COP26 was not restructured as a web-conference. Seems like an ideal
justification for the climate change scientists and proponents to practice what
they preach rather than fly people all over the world to conferences. Embrace
the technology and hold the meetings remotely; who knows, you might save not
only yourselves from getting COVID-19, but also the rest of us from totally
unnecessary GHGs.
