This summer a group of faculty and I are collaborating with
some students from Science and the Humanities and Fine Arts to explore ways to
communicate science to a broader audience, especially people who haven’t
traditionally thought that science could float their boats. Science can help solve many of the
environmental problems facing society today, but science alone will not pave
the way to swift resolutions, because public perception has a large impact on
the likelihood of political and societal action. Interactions between
scientists, artists, writers, and education have the potential to
synergistically ignite and advance conservation issues. We are seeking
synergism. We are looking for the
ignition.
Our focus this summer is land-use impacts in the watershed
with groups focusing specifically on “The Watershed,” “Pesticide Impacts on
Biodiversity,” and “Crop Diversity.” We are learning some skills from each
other—photography, art, videography, design, and science—and exploring the ways
we humans transform nature and can be inspired by these changes to communicate
a message that is grounded in science. Nature has been transforming since the
pieces of the planet came together to form this Earth, so transformation is
natural. And from the evolution of nature
arose humans, who have been shaped by the forces of nature and who shaped the
environment and biota around them. Today
we are living in a world transformed by humans for our shelter, our food, and
the business of our lives. We can
transform our environment in ways that have positive or negative consequences
for the species we share the planet with, and our hope is that projects like
ours can remind ourselves and our fellow hominids that, in the words of Mary
Oliver, “the world offers itself to your imagination, / calls to you like the
wild geese, harsh and exciting-- / over and over announcing your place / in the
family of things.”
Although scientists do not lack inspiration or charisma (um, more or less), we
need help in sharing the take home messages from the sciences, especially in
the field of conservation biology where human impacts are putting the genetic
and species diversity of life on earth at the precipice. Life will go on and recover from humans, but
it would be nice if we could rediscover our place inside of nature before the
rest of biodiversity pays the price for the human disconnection (even if this is
only a mental disconnection) from the rest of creation. Here’s to hope and the
students that are creating the path forward.
