[Coral-List] A lesson for the coral sciences?

[Steve Mussman]

A recent NYT opinion piece tried to rationalize the reasons why many Americans turned on Dr. Anthony Fauci. (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/30/opinion/why-anthony-faucis-covid-legacy-is-a-failure.html ). As I read the op-ed I was struck by the ways it might serve as a warning to the coral science community. I couldn’t help but think about the many discussions we have had relating to the various causes and proper responses to the steady decline of the world’s coral reefs. “As the information changes, then you have to be flexible enough and humble enough to change how you think about things,” “When you’re dealing with something that’s changing in real time . . . that’s really the nature of science.” Does this rationale apply to and therefore excuse the coral science community as it debates (ad nauseam) the relative significance of over-population vs. consumption vs. water quality vs. over-fishing vs. climate change?

Here are some primary points made that we might want to consider:

“Dr. Fauci toed a perilous line‌‌ by invoking the scientific method as justification for the inconsistencies. This suggested that because science is all about change, scientists’ mistakes aren’t really failures”.

“Follow the science” became a failure to lead, a way to shift the onus of responsibility . . . “

“There’s another way of thinking about science, one that might flourish as America’s most recognizable scientist hangs up his lab coat. We should see science as something people do: as a way of solving problems, a project that does not just‌ describe the world but brashly wants to change it”.

“We must learn to see science as a vehicle, not a dodge, for human agency: something we are right to make demands of, right at times to get angry at, whose terrible failures it must own along with its triumphs”.

And finally . . .

“A science that people will follow must lead”.

Regards,

Steve Mussman