After reading the papers by Groffman et al. (2010) and Pace et al. (2010), I feel that we,
researchers and grad students, are in a crucial time to finally put our brains, work, hands, and attitudes more in contact and service to the “real” world. Ecology and society are two terms that share several fundamental terms/aspects in common, but there is one that stands out above the rest: “interactions or relationships”. The lack of knowledge or consideration on basic links among the components of an ecosystem can produce biased, limited or undesirable effects when studying its structure, functioning and maintenance. Similarly, the omission or disregard of a sector or group (i.e., component) of our society in terms of communication, education, engagement, to mention a few, can bring up or increase misunderstandings, ignorance, or a wider gap between different sectors of our society. Based on this simple analogy, the flow of scientific knowledge from researchers to the open society has been recognized and increasingly emphasized in the last two decades. The participation of the scientists in outreach and environmental education activities is becoming a “recognizable must-to-do strategy” over time. If human societies (i.e., all of us) are to be truly engaged into facing, acting, and changing ways of living, acting, thinking, and attitudes towards environmental issues such as climate change, pollution, fuel use, food supply, etc., the interaction between all components of our societies must understand that we are coresponsible agents of our changing world (e.g. wasting energy and paper, not communicating scientific ecological knowledge, throwing garbage in the woods or rivers, etc.). As concerns for researchers, e.g., ecologists, the communication of new and basic findings in a clear format or frame considering their own abilities, skills, and capacities and by using the mass media can be a tremendous tool for engaging and educating people. But, this action must be permanent, based on sound scientific research and directly related to the local and global reality. A key question for engaging us with the entire society through the mass media is, how to do it? This is a question that every person (e.g., researcher, grad student, etc) has to answer considering his/her own reality (time, effort, abilities, capacities, willingness, responsibilities, etc), but engaging ourselves in the long term locally or regionally and communicating research findings associated to our local and global environment and how these issues can be related to our social, economical, political and everyday life will be one primordial avenue of effective communication.
researchers and grad students, are in a crucial time to finally put our brains, work, hands, and attitudes more in contact and service to the “real” world. Ecology and society are two terms that share several fundamental terms/aspects in common, but there is one that stands out above the rest: “interactions or relationships”. The lack of knowledge or consideration on basic links among the components of an ecosystem can produce biased, limited or undesirable effects when studying its structure, functioning and maintenance. Similarly, the omission or disregard of a sector or group (i.e., component) of our society in terms of communication, education, engagement, to mention a few, can bring up or increase misunderstandings, ignorance, or a wider gap between different sectors of our society. Based on this simple analogy, the flow of scientific knowledge from researchers to the open society has been recognized and increasingly emphasized in the last two decades. The participation of the scientists in outreach and environmental education activities is becoming a “recognizable must-to-do strategy” over time. If human societies (i.e., all of us) are to be truly engaged into facing, acting, and changing ways of living, acting, thinking, and attitudes towards environmental issues such as climate change, pollution, fuel use, food supply, etc., the interaction between all components of our societies must understand that we are coresponsible agents of our changing world (e.g. wasting energy and paper, not communicating scientific ecological knowledge, throwing garbage in the woods or rivers, etc.). As concerns for researchers, e.g., ecologists, the communication of new and basic findings in a clear format or frame considering their own abilities, skills, and capacities and by using the mass media can be a tremendous tool for engaging and educating people. But, this action must be permanent, based on sound scientific research and directly related to the local and global reality. A key question for engaging us with the entire society through the mass media is, how to do it? This is a question that every person (e.g., researcher, grad student, etc) has to answer considering his/her own reality (time, effort, abilities, capacities, willingness, responsibilities, etc), but engaging ourselves in the long term locally or regionally and communicating research findings associated to our local and global environment and how these issues can be related to our social, economical, political and everyday life will be one primordial avenue of effective communication.
I recognize that scientific work is an extremely demanding activity, but, at the same time, we should not forget that we, researchers, are part of the society and that our work is largely being supported by the society (i.e., our own family and everyone’s families). More importantly, we, e.g., researchers and grad students, are human beings as any other component of our society and every single component of our society is facing and will be facing the same increasing environmental problems regardless our economical status, level of education, social hierarchy, affiliation, or belief. If we do not understand that all components of the society are coresponsible in caring, protecting, wisely using and understanding our environment or world, as ecology demands, we are just bluffing and trying to cover the sunlight with a finger for a little while. It is up to us, to keep thinking, acting, and permanently communicating scientific knowledge in ad hoc
formats or frames and through the mass media (internet, newspaper, magazines, radio, television, movies, etc.) to cooperate in redirecting and/or increasing our “environmental or ecological culture” towards a more environmentally-oriented society. It is not matter of teaching “pure science” to the public, but to communicate “scientific knowledge” to the society under a clear, complete audience-friendly format. This does not exclude that our communication must include ideas about how science works. This is another very sensitive point that I will not address in this commentary.
formats or frames and through the mass media (internet, newspaper, magazines, radio, television, movies, etc.) to cooperate in redirecting and/or increasing our “environmental or ecological culture” towards a more environmentally-oriented society. It is not matter of teaching “pure science” to the public, but to communicate “scientific knowledge” to the society under a clear, complete audience-friendly format. This does not exclude that our communication must include ideas about how science works. This is another very sensitive point that I will not address in this commentary.
Time is currently an issue in taking care and understanding our environment, but the decision to start acting in the long term, starting with ourselves, will be a starting point to share sound scientific knowledge in “simple words”, without oversimplifying facts, and with ad hoc formats (e.g., articles, public seminars, and supporting local events) depending on our audience. Perhaps, our seminar “Effective communication of science to the public” can be the initial stepping stone to jump into solid ground to promote the suggested long term communication with the society as we defined more convenient. It is up to me, or to us, to do it, right?
No comments:
Post a Comment