Re: [ECOLOG-L] Reply to: 'a few thousand ecologists meet... does anybody know or care?' -- A perhaps radical suggestion

[Wayne Tyson]

Ecolog:

I hope that the details and the messages between the lines are not lost from 
Kali's most courageous and intelligent first post. I hope she keeps it up.

I also hope that the discussion is not sidetracked from the principles 
involved to a few (or a few thousand) cases where something simply went 
wrong.

I do hope that greater attention is paid to the issues of deeply-imbedded 
attitudes that undermine the understanding, by as wide a "public" as 
possible of what ecology is and is not.

While it may be true that "most people" are ignorant of ecology, they are 
not all, as Kali points out, stupid. In order to convey the impression to 
those who, like Kali's mother, do absorb truth quickly (or, for that matter, 
slowly), that ecology is not out to "take jobs away" or other nonsense, but 
is dedicated to maintaining and improving a better world for all. Calling or 
implying that "most people" are stupid or even ignorant, intentionally or 
unintentionally, may not be the best way to convey.

Might opening up discussion with folks like Kali's mother might be something 
of a start?

WT


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Madhusudan Katti" <mka...@csufresno.edu>
To: <ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU>
Sent: Monday, August 08, 2011 10:33 PM
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Reply to: 'a few thousand ecologists meet... does 
anybody know or care?' -- A perhaps radical suggestion


Thank you, Kali, for not keeping your mouth shut! You make some very 
important points and I love your suggestion of having more opportunities 
for local public to participate for free. A free family ecology day like 
the science day they have at AAAS meetings would be a fantastic way to 
engage with the public. This particular meeting does have a couple of free 
events for the public, but I don't think they've been advertised well 
enough to actually draw many members of the public.

As for media coverage, a local science reporter, JP, who heard about this 
meeting via someone's tweet about my blog post, is keen to cover the 
meeting - but got a real runaround trying to contact someone for 
credentials! JP left several comments describing his/her efforts, and the 
rather inadequate media outreach efforts from ESA - I hope Nadine Lymn and 
anyone else from among ESA officials read the comments and think about how 
to improve communications. Here again is the link to my post where you 
will find the comments:

http://leafwarbler.posterous.com/a-few-thousand-ecologists-meet-in-the-city-to

We clearly need to do a better job of outreach, and I am glad my post has 
generated some discussion about the issue.

Madhu

__________________
Dr. Madhusudan Kat
Associate Professor, Dept of Biology
California State University, Fresno

On Aug 8, 2011, at 1:58 PM, Kali Bird <yours.is.the.ea...@gmail.com> 
wrote:

I have never posted to Ecolog before, but I felt I couldn't keep my mouth
shut about this one.

  First, I don't think we can necessarily know why the news doesn't pick 
up
on ESA more.  Likely, it's because the general public doesn't care, but
perhaps it may be that they are tired feeling like ecologists tell them 
that
their lifestyles and values are wrong.  Personally, I think it's because
people don't care.  In my experience speaking with the public, I always
proffer an explanation of what I do immediately after saying that I am a
'microbial ecologist,' because most people I speak with don't even know 
what
ecology is.

  Second, if these thousands of ecologists really want to engage the
public, how about letting the locals come to ESA?  I know that 
non-members
are invited to attend, but honestly, you have to be wealthy or have a
wealthy grant pay for you to come to be able to pay 500$ and take off 
days
to a week from work to be involved in the meeting.  My mother reads my
Frontiers magazine religiously.  She loves it.  She is also part of a
'sustainability' group at her international corporation.  She lives very
close to Austin, has the ability to take time off of work, but as a
middle-class citizen, simply cannot afford it.  If these thousands of
ecologists are really interested in engaging with the public, how about
creating events at ESA for the locals that are affordable?  My mother has 
no
scientific background, but is smart, learns fast, and loves to learn. 
There
are a lot of people like this everywhere we have meetings.  Yet we preach
engagement with the public from our over-air-conditioned conference 
rooms,
doors closed and barred to those we wish to engage with.  Phenomenal.
  I know our over-air conditioned convention centers cost a lot of money 
to
rent and ESA is an expensive venture to host, but surely we can create 
some
sort of scholarship fund for locals, special free events for public
engagement (THIS is how you get in the news), or even a lottery for 
one-day
passes to attend talks.  Let's help people understand what in the world 
it
is we do.  If I could have afforded to send my mom to ESA, I would have 
done
it in a heartbeat. She would have loved it and told all her friends,
co-workers, and her church group all the things she learned. Do we want 
to
engage more with people across religious boundaries?  In the heart of a 
red
state, what a boon actually engaging with the religious public would be.



Kali Bird

Graduate Student
Kellogg Biological Station,
Michigan State University


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