Cornell on Fire Weekly 3/20/24
Dear all,
The Trustees have descended! Literally. Their private jets were landing all day, spewing greenhouse gases to pollute our shared skies for hundreds of years to come. Track the Trustees' progress on Flight Aware, where you will see that 11 jets landed today, and where you will not see (unless you have a paid subscription) that 5 more jets are scheduled to land tomorrow, and 16 jets are scheduled to depart this weekend.
Thanks to a grant from the little-known degrowth foundation,* Cornell on Fire secured a paid subscription to Flight Aware. We are sharing temporary account information for all concerned citizens (well, technically, you are considered the "flight crew").
Have fun tracking! Check out what happens with Cornell graduation dates in the "KITH Airport stats" graph. If you are keen to calculate flight emissions around big Cornell events (Trustee meetings, spring break, graduation, etc.), know that we are looking for a highly-unpaid research assistant.
One distinguished trustee likely hopped on a private jet from Westchester County to Ithaca, generating 4 tons of GHG all by his 80-minute round-trip self. For reference, the global average citizen takes an entire year of eating, drinking, consuming, moving, and living to generate 4 tons. And "to have the best chance of avoiding a 2℃ rise in global temperatures, the average global carbon footprint per year needs to drop to under 2 tons by 2050." To be honest, scientists advise us to stay well below a 2℃ rise. Mathematically, private jets must go. Yesterday.
Private jets are only one reason we ask Cornell to report their full Scope 3 emissions, currently a hot topic in climate-accountability circles (e.g., see this press release and this interview).
Join us for discussion of Trustee flights and other trends at our weekly Cornell on Fire meeting tomorrow, Thursday March 21, from 6:30-8p.
stay grounded,
Cornell on Fire
*You too can access the degrowth foundation. This process works by degrowing your personal bank account for climate activism, meeting two goals at once: 1) research shows that donating to protest movements is more effective than donating to the best charities and 2) research on the globe’s polluter elite shows that having less money to consume and pollute is good for the planet.
