In 2024, the SF2A Environmental Transition commission organized an afternoon workshop focused on how astronomy and astrophysics research could operate in the context of the on-going environmental crises and its numerous social consequences. In this particular year the CNRS-INSU AA (CNRS institute astronomy and astrophysics) and the CNES (French National Space Center), both completed their scientific prospective reports. For the very first time, the committees involved specific working groups dedicated to the questions of the environmental impacts of such research. In addition to reporting on the results and recommendations emanating from of the CNRS and CNES prospectives, we also discussed four other points:
- (1) the situation of early career researchers receiving contradictory incentives, under the pressure of precarity and lack of decisional power for the future of research;
- (2) the new emerging topic of “research action”, with the example of astronomy and ecology through a project to make the link between the light pollution and bird populations across the middle-sized city of Grenoble;
- (3) the numerous questions arising on how to reshape research in astronomy and astrophysics in the ecological transition era with two sociologists specialised in astronomy research and in astronautics, a speaker from Labo1point5 coordinating the “coeur de métier” working group, and an example of actions taken at IRAP in Toulouse;
- (4) results on the large sessions of “My Earth in 180 min”, a collaborative game that was organised during the SF2A conference week at lunch time.
A round-table discussion brought the various speakers together to propose a story that is desirable to all. You can read the full report on the 2024 workshop and a report on the 2024 plenary session.
