ChAcUn: Children of Academics Unite!

Richard Parncutt
May 2025

The French word "chacun" means everyone. Each and every person in the world will be negatively affected by global warming and other global existential threats. But each and everyone also has the power to change the way things are done in their sphere of influence, no matter how large or small.

The project "ChAcUn: Children of Academics Unite!" was created because children of academics have possibilities that other people do not have. A typical academic has influence over a large number of people. I don't mean 500 friends in Facebook or Instagram, which almost anyone can have. I mean academic contacts in other countries and students at universities. I also mean the people that cite academic articles and texts. Through such direct and indirect contacts, a typical academic can influence thousands of people.

Many people reading this text now, in 2025, will still be alive in 2100. What will the world be like then? Currently things are not looking promising, to say the least. The sad truth is that your future is being destroyed -- mainly by carbon emissions that are causing global warming, but also in many other ways. 

Society should be considering your needs. Countless people are already fighting on your behalf. But the average person is not. The average person is still in denial.

There are two main reasons for climate denial:

  • Greed. Fossil fuel corporations are making enormous profits. Lying to the public about global warming is part of their business model.
  • Poor education. If you are reading this, you probably have the privilege of a good education. Many people do not have that. Many have never learned how to tell the difference between good and bad sources of information, because no-one showed them. Governments should have provided it, but they did not. As a result, fossil fuel companies and their side-kicks can easily convince many people that we must continue emitting greenhouse gases, for whatever reason, although it's obvious that we must urgently stop. That can explain why far-right parties are so successful although they mainly promote the interests of the rich. Those who suffer when the far right gets into power are, to a large extent, those who voted for them.
This is where the children of academics come in. Children of academics usually have, or are getting, a good education. It's a luxury, and it should be used wisely. (As Spiderman once said: "With power comes responsibility.") Children of academics can normally see through the lies and distortions with which we are surrounded. Children of academics know what has to change and are willing to change their own lifestyles appropriately. Children of academics are also good at explaining things, which is useful for convincing other people of the importance of reducing carbon emissions. Not only in the family, but everywhere.

The aim of this page

The aim of this page and this project is to encouage children of academics to talk to their parents about how their parents can be climate leaders in their sphere of influence.
  • Your parents can talk to their academic colleagues all over the world about anything, including global warming.
  • Your parents can explain that we need to change how we do things, for the sake of you, their children.
  • Your parents can be an example that people outside of academia can follow.
What are your parents doing about global warming? Whether they are doing something or not, would you be willing to talk to them about it? Parents often listen to their children, even if they listen to no-one else.

If the future of children everywhere is gradually being destroyed, who is responsible? The most powerful positions in the world today, in politics in business, are mostly filled by boomers -- people born in the first decade or two after 1945. The more money they have, the more likely they are to have influence, and the bigger is their likely negative effect.

Are your parents boomers? Do they have relatively powerful positions? If so, talk to them about how they can stop destroying the future. Talk to them about how they can join the ranks of those trying to minimize the damage. Do that not only for yourself, but on behalf of all children everywhere. 

Why academics?

Why should academics take action, before other people? 
  • Academic training makes it easier for academics to understand the urgency of the situation and what the most effective strategies might be. 
  • Most academics have a higher annual carbon footprint than the average person.
    • The average person worldwide causes emissions of 5 tonnes CO2 per year. 
    • The average European, about 10 tonnes CO2 per year. That's twice the global average.
    • The average US-American or Canadian, about 15. That's three times the global average.
As if that wasn't bad enough, the average academic has an even higher carbon footprint. The main reason is conferences. The average academic flies at least once per year, and often several times, to academic conferences and other meetings.

That may not sound like much, but in fact it's a big deal. Just one intercontinental flight in economy class creates about the same emissions as the average person in the world produces in a whole year. For details, see atmosfair.de. Estimates from this website include all contributions to global warming in CO2-equivalent units. The total contribution to global warming of a commercial aircraft is roughly twice that of the CO2 alone due to the warming effects of other greenhouse gases and particles (aerosols).

Are your parents contributing to the destruction of your future in this way? If so, please talk to them about it. Break the silence. Your parents surely love you more than anything else in the world. They surely want you to be happy after they die. They don't want to contribute to the destruction of your future. For that reason, and if they are honest people, which I hope they are, they will surely want to have a significant positive impact on global climate action -- if only on your behalf. Perhaps they have not yet realized how big their positive impact could be. Perhaps you could help them realize that. 

What your parents could do

Ok that's enough background. Let's get concrete and practical. Here's what your parents could do:

  • They could decide no longer to fly to conferences and instead focus on conferences that they can reach by train or bus. In that way they will make new regional contacts that could be interesting for their work. If that's too much, they could at least decide to halve the distance they fly to conferences every year.
  • They could encourage their universities to stop motivating colleagues to fly to conferences. There is a simple solution that hardly any universities have tried out: universities could simply stop financing flying. In that case, colleagues would be free to fly if they paid for it themselves. To force universities to make this simple decision, a lot of pressure from outside will be necessary. Children of academics could create that pressure.
  • Your parents could encourage conference organizers to promote low-carbon conference formats. The best solution for the climate is a fully virtual conference, but the lack of face-to-face contact makes virtual conferences strenuous and unsatisfying. At such a conference, it's hard to get deep into academic details while at the same time forging new partnerships. A better strategy might be to encourage your parents to promote multi-hub conferences -- conferences that happen on different continents simultaneously. The programm of a multi-hub conference is global and continues around the clock. Interesting tricks have been developed to ensure that conference participants get both a maximum of international contact during the day and a good night's sleep at night, local time. At such a conference, face-to-face interaction is mixed with virtual interaction as much as possible, to optimize the benefits of both. This actually works, but academics (including your parents) may not be convinced until they try it out for themselves. So they will have to try it out! You can encourage them to do that.
  • Another advantage of multi-hub conferences is inclusivity. A multi-hub conference enables people from all over the world to participate. That includes colleagues from the global South who could never afford to fly to a regular conference in a rich country and then pay for accomodation and registration. Inclusivity is also promoted if participants have the option of participating virtually at a multi-hub conference.

What are the main global threats?

ChAcUn is about reducing the impact of future global threats. Perhaps the biggest problem is global warming, caused by emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, and by reducing the ability of forests and oceans to absorb CO2. It is the biggest problem because it is already affecting billions of people. It is no longer a matter of probability. 

Moreover, it will certainly get worse in coming decades. The frequency and intensity of dangerous storms, heat waves, floods, droughts, forest fires, landslides and so on will gradually increase. We can't do much about what is going to happen in the next couple of decades, but we can have a positive impact on the more distant future if we take drastic action now. Many people are indeed taking action, but progress is far to slow to stop a gradually emerging global tragedy with 3 or perhaps even 4 °C warming by 2100.

The problem is not confined to greenhouse gases causing global warming. There are also other dangerous pollutants in 

  • air (CO, O3, NOx, SO2, fine particles),
  • water (sewage, industry, agriculture, urban runoff, water-borne diseases), and 
  • land (soil degradation, radioactivity).

On top of that, plastic is meanwhile everywhere, including our own bodies. There is also the constant risk of nuclear war and the reemergence of dictatorships. Besides, AI could get out of control. If you parents are not acting to reduce global warming, they may be working on minimizing other global threats. If so, thank them for their great work!

The main goal

"Children of Academics Unite!" aims is to encourage children of academics worldwide (across geographical, linguistic, religious, and cultural boundaries) to encourage their parents to act within their sphere of influence to limit the catastrophic extent of future global warming. Academics can drastically reduce their carbon footprint by avoiding flying and organizing global conferences in formats that minimize flying. A secondary goal is to encourage academics to engage in other projects that will improve quality of life for people worldwide toward the end of this century.

If you like this idea, please write to me, Richard Parncutt, with suggestions about

  • how to improve this website and 
  • how to organize ChAcUn in an effective way.
Please note that I don't actually want to run this show. My goal is find children of academics who are willing to take over as I step back into a more supportive role. 		rp

The opinions expressed on this page are the authors' personal opinions.
Suggestions for improving or extending the content are welcome.
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