[Coral-List] On Science Communication about Coral Reefs

[Giacomo Bernardi]

Dear all,
Thank you Peter for such cogent letter. Slightly off topic but since you
mention it, the dichotomy between geneticist and natural historian is, I
think, or I hope, fading.
As kits and approaches become easier to use, genetics is not reserved
anymore to lab rats but to the entire community that wants to add one
additional piece of information to their work. In fact, I see it as a wedge
to bring to the field people who would not have gone in the first place.
I am typing this for the field, where I am surrounded by students that took
a genetics class and most of them had never seen a coral reef before...
I understand what you meant to say and mostly agree with it so my goal is
not to start an argument or distract from the main message. But just wanted
to keep the story straight.
Thanks again
Giacomo


On Sat, Jun 23, 2018 at 01:52 <tomascik at novuscom.net> wrote:

>
> Hi Peter,
>
> Thank you for all that food for thought that you have posted on your
> blog. Few nights ago I attended a lecture by Iain Stewart at the
> Resources for Future Generations 2018 conference that was held here in
> Vancouver. His lecture “Between a Rock and a Hard Place” addresses
> some of the communication issues that we are dealing with here and
> that you touched upon. That lecture is not on line yet, but I found a
> version of it from his talk in February at another event. For those of
> you who are interested in this topic please have a look at the
> following link
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh31EoUIkZs
>
>
> Cheers,
> Tomas
>
>
> Quoting Peter Sale <sale at uwindsor.ca>:
>
> > Arianna,
> > You may be surprised, but as an academic, engaged my whole life in
> > formal education I agree with you.  I?m not certain that everyone
> > has to experience a coral reef in order to appreciate what we are
> > doing to them, but I am sure everyone has to experience the natural
> > world directly in one way or other, in order to have any empathy for
> > or appreciation of it.  Our society is progressively moving people
> > away from any direct engagement with nature.  I advocate for
> > children eating dirt and climbing trees.  Snorkeling on a reef would
> > be great but most people never get that opportunity.
> >
> > Regrettably, even in ecology and other environmental sciences,
> > direct field experience is being greatly reduced in many
> > universities for reasons of cost & convenience, and because field
> > work is considered so old-fashioned by those who want all
> > environmental questions answered by some genetic test.
> >
> > Peter Sale
> >
> > From: arianna bucci <ariannabucci at yahoo.it>
> > Sent: Monday, June 18, 2018 3:45 PM
> > To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov; Peter Sale <sale at uwindsor.ca>
> > Subject: Re: [Coral-List] On Science Communication about Coral Reefs
> >
> > Dear Peter,
> >
> > I could not agree more about your analysis. But in my personal
> > opinion as an ex-researcher in marine bio, and a current educator in
> > non-formal education and teacher (of marine bio), I think you (and
> > the scientific community) are missing a fundamental thing: you
> > cannot care about something you do not love, you cannot love
> > something you don't know, and, most important here, you cannot know
> > something you don't experience. And when I say experience, I mean
> > it. Formal education is being traditionally highly focussed on the
> > intellectual understanding of phenomena, and less on the whole
> > experiential effects that, as humans/animals/living beings, they
> > cause on us. We are dangerously getting apart from natural
> > experiences.
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Coral-List mailing list
> > Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> > http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>
>
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>
-- 
Giacomo Bernardi
Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of California Santa Cruz
Center for Ocean Health, Long Marine Lab
100 McAllistair Way
Santa Cruz, CA, 95060, USA

email: bernardi at ucsc.edu
http://bio.research.ucsc.edu/people/bernardi