{"id":1191,"date":"2009-05-20T14:33:19","date_gmt":"2009-05-20T18:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=1191"},"modified":"2009-05-20T14:33:19","modified_gmt":"2009-05-20T18:33:19","slug":"citizens-first-scientists-second-the-argument-for-advocacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2009\/05\/20\/citizens-first-scientists-second-the-argument-for-advocacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Citizens first, scientists second: The argument for advocacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Attention, ecologists. Have you ever wondered how to reconcile the supposed objectivity of the scientific profession with the urge to speak up as an ecologist and say something about environmental protection? Or have you avoided the topic, thinking that advocacy for a cause would undermine your credibility as a scientist?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"ResearchBlogging.org\"<\/a><\/span>In a new paper online in Conservation Biology<\/a> (abstract only; subscription required), Michael Nelson<\/a>, an environmental ethicist at Michigan State, and John Vucetich<\/a>, a wildlife ecologist at Michigan Technological University, get together to say that as citizens first and scientists second, scientists \u201chave a responsibility to advocate to the best of their abilities and in a justified and transparent manner.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The authors \u00a0then go on to debunk the logic of many reasons not to advocate \u2014 and, interestingly, one reason why scientists should <\/em>advocate (#4).<\/span><\/p>\n

(1) <\/strong>Advocacy compromises the credibility of the scientist and the field of science as a whole<\/span><\/p>\n

(2) <\/strong> Advocacy conflicts with the essential nature of science, which is to objectively observe phenomena and report facts in an impartial manner<\/span><\/p>\n

(3) <\/strong> In a practical sense, advocacy simply takes too much time away from scientists\u2019 real job of doing science<\/span><\/p>\n

(4) <\/strong> Science and advocacy are both value-based processes, and are therefore alike.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>The only two logically sound arguments that emerge, say the researchers, are the social harm that might resu<\/span>lt if scientists, who are the true experts, don\u2019t advocate; and the fact that researchers are citizens first and scientists second, and therefore have an obligation to advocate. They write:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to this argument scientists, by virtue of being citizens first and scientists second, have a\u00a0 responsibility to advocate to the best of their abilities and in a justified and transparent manner. Importantly arguments against science advocacy are valuable for offering insight about how one should or should not be an advocate, not whether one should advocate.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s all well and good; they didn\u2019t need to convince this blogger that scientists should advocate. But at the end of their paper they throw in an interesting twist:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBroad participation, however, will undoubtedly result in disagreement among good scientists and in some scientists advocating in an unjustified and dishonest manner. Thus broad participation will substantially complicate the policy-making process.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So even though they prove with logical arguments that scientists should advocate, here they say that if everyone advocated, mass confusion would result in the halls of our lawmaking bretheren, defeating the purpose of the exercise?\u00a0 But, say the authors:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough this might seem undesirable, our goal here should not be simplicity but rather the betterment of society.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It seems like a highly unlikely issue, that the world would have so many science advocates that the truth would be obscured.\u00a0 So maybe it\u2019s better, at least when the current issues \u2014 like climate change, infectious disease and invasive species are so complicated themselves \u2013 for scientists to have representatives who deliver a clear message. But then again, when will environmental problems ever be simple?<\/span><\/p>\n

I welcome your thoughts.\u00a0 Should scientists advocate?<\/span>
\nNelson, M., & Vucetich, J. (2009). On Advocacy by Environmental Scientists: What, Whether, Why, and How Conservation Biology<\/span> DOI: 10.1111\/j.1523-1739.2009.01250.x<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Attention, ecologists. Have you ever wondered how to reconcile the supposed objectivity of the scientific profession with the urge to speak up as an ecologist and say something about environmental protection? Or have you avoided the topic, thinking that advocacy for a cause would undermine your credibility as a scientist? In a new paper online in Conservation Biology (abstract only;…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,10,2,48],"tags":[59,231,133],"class_list":["post-1191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservation","category-ecology-in-policy","category-research","category-ecology-and-society","tag-advocacy","tag-ethics","tag-science-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}