If the bioethicist Laurie Zoloth, the president of the American Academy of Religion, has her way, she\u2019ll be remembered as the woman who canceled her organization\u2019s conference, which every year attracts a city\u2019s worth of religion scholars.<\/p>\n
Two weeks ago, at her organization\u2019s gathering, which is held jointly with the Society for Biblical Literature and this year drew 9,900 scholars, Dr. Zoloth used her presidential address to call on her colleagues to plan a sabbatical year, a year in which they would cancel their conference. In her vision, they would all refrain from flying across the country, saving money and carbon. It could be a year, Dr. Zoloth argued, in which they would sacrifice each other\u2019s company for the sake of the environment, and instead would turn toward their neighborhoods and hometowns.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could create an A.A.R. Sabbatical Year,\u201d\u009d she told the crowd in a ballroom at the San Diego Convention Center. \u201cWe could choose to not meet at a huge annual meeting in which we take over a city. Every year, each participant going to the meeting uses a quantum of carbon that is more than considerable. Air travel, staying in hotels, all of this creates a way of living on the earth that is carbon intensive. It could be otherwise.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n