Thread by @theAAG

Starting in 10 minutes: Climate Action Task Force Plenary with @KevinClimate: Laggards or Leaders? Academia and its responsibility in delivering on the Paris commitments. Join here: bit.ly/2R8x7D1 #AAGVirtual #climate

As this public session begins, .@ProfessorJepson introduces @KevinClimate with co-organizers and co-chairs of the Climate Action Task Force @jonevins1 and Patricia Martin of Université de Montréal Join here: bit.ly/2R8x7D1

.@ProfessorJepson discussing the Task Force's depth of commitment to transform AAG annual meeting to be less carbon-intensive. This year threw us a significant challenge with #COVID19 and tapped our collective thinking: "So here we are. The planned experiment has been scaled up.

With thanks to @garylangham @Oscar_AAG and all the staff at AAG, the Task Force recommits to use "this year's unexpected test...to help us reimagine the annual meeting" to address #climatechange and expand participation." says @ProfessorJepson public sess: bit.ly/2R8x7D1

.@KevinClimate invokes the phrasing of John F. Kennedy in a new twist: This talk is not about what academia can do to reduce its emissions, but what total reductions does the Paris Agreement require of academia?

"Let's acknowledge that the Paris reductions are profoundly unjust, and that many people will continue to suffer," says @KevinClimate #climate #climatechange #emissions #emissionstargets bit.ly/2R8x7D1 #AAGVirtual

Though it's not to say there's been no effort at all, we must acknowledge 30 years of abject failure in reducing emissions. @KevinClimate #AAGVirtual #climate #emissionsreductions

Attempts to address #emissions has been a "litany of technocratic fraud" says @kevinClimate, such as #offsetting ("paying a poor person to diet for you") and #geoengineering (the arrogance of proposing we engineer our planet, "placing a bandaid on gangrene.") #AAGVirtual #climate

"It's all about pies" if we want to address the carbon budgeting equitably. @KevinClimate #AAGVirtual #climate #emissionsreductions #emissions

If we were serious, we could still achieve 10% reductions per year through 2025. @KevinClimate #ClimateAction #climate #emissions #emissionsreductions #AAGVirtual

Referring to Leonard Cohen's "cracks where the light gets through," @kevinclimate asserts that the cracks since 2008 have not looked as we expected--ex. bank failures, rising populism, social media, & the youth movement for climate change #AAGVirtual #ClimateAction #emissions

What is needed is fundamental change in our behavior, says @KevinClimate, including but not limited to a refusal to add second homes, drive/fly, a renewed relationship to time and to the more-than-human world. #AAGVirtual

.@KevinClimate takes academics to task for high-carbon behaviors and practice: "leaders in mitigation denial." The question we must ask now is whether #COVID19 could give us a chance to open the rhetoric that has masqueraded as meaningful dialogue for many years? #AAGVirtual

Embrace equity, avoid the temptation to prestige: "It's the ideas that travel, no matter who has them, and ideas travel with little energy," says @KevinClimate We need to avoid the temptation to prestige, need emphasize quality, not quantity, break down hierarchies #AAGVirtual

Question from participants: How can temp, adjunct, other precariously employed academics raise these difficult questions? @KevinClimate: We have no choice, and unfortunately cannot rely on senior academics, who have abdicated that responsibility. #AAGVirtual

In answer to partic. question: @KevinClimate Importance of interdisciplinary work and questioning, but must take care not to express "common sense observations that are not backed by evidence." We must approach interdisciplinary dialogue with humility.

A real difficulty of "rocking the boat" is the business model and funding arrangements present in many #university settings now, says @KevinClimate "There is a requirement to stand up for each other, not nec. to agree but to stand up for our right to speak." #AAGVirtual

.@ProfessorJepson reminds us: Please share your feedback about a less carbon-intensive future for AAG and #academia, with meaningful contributions to #climateaction and #climatejustice

You can email us at [e-mail]. Our thanks to Dr. @KevinClimate #AAGVirtual