Besides
the factors of responsibility, approval, and scrutiny, it also is important to
remember that mobs want answers and solutions from their leaders, not questions
and problems. In general, science tends to produce more questions and problems
than answers and solutions. This tendency derives from the fundamental nature
of science as an activity and probably is best explained by the metaphor of an Island of Understanding
in a Sea of Ignorance. Remember that as an island
grows in size (increase in understanding), its shoreline (the boundary between
understanding and ignorance) also grows. All the questions and problems lie
along this boundary. In addition, to continue with the metaphor, the larger an
island gets, the more geographically diverse it tends to be; this principle is
well illustrated by existing real islands. If that geographic diversity
involves mountains, then we have a high perch from which to observe the sea of
ignorance. Routinely such observation shows that sea to be much larger than we
imagined when we were only down on our hands and knees in the sand studying
nature at the [metaphorical] shore.
The
familiar case of New Orleans
vs. Hurricane Katrina beautifully illustrates all these points about breadth of
knowledge, comparative thinking, observations, history, and the basic
properties of science. Breadth of knowledge is perhaps the most important
factor that should have been considered in the political decisions involving
the Mississippi Delta ecology. A broadly educated politician would never simply
ask how much money an ecological project—for example, a system of levees and an
artificial river (the New Orleans shipping channel)—costs, or how much money
the public is willing to spend on such a project. Instead, as a minimum, a
broadly educated politician considers history, socio-economic conditions, the
probability of disaster, the quality of expertise consulted, whether or not
that expertise is in agreement with other expertise from diverse sources, the nature
of observations, the process of analysis, and whether the process itself has
obvious flaws or internal contradictions. Thus to really assess the adequacy of
New Orleans levees, one would have to study the Mississippi Delta using
approaches that would be quite familiar to any evolutionary biologist.
Research
over the past half century, an activity increasing both the size of our island
of understanding and the length of its shoreline boundary with the sea of
ignorance, clearly revealed (produced) more questions and problems about the
Mississippi Delta region than answers and solutions. Such research involved new
technologies such as satellite imagery, geographic information system software,
and socio-economic analysis, as well as experience derived from study of the
Achafalaya River and its basin using more conventional methods—measurement of
stream flow, sedimentation and erosion rates, pressures on diversion dams and
gates, etc. Over the years, the scientific community came to realize that the
initial problem and its solution, namely, keeping water out of New Orleans by
building levees, was actually only a small part of a much larger problem,
specifically, long term management of the interrelationship between a nation’s
economy and one of the world’s largest rivers.
This
kind of collective activity, in which a truly massive ecosystem is the primary
player at the center of a highly integrated, far-reaching, transportation and
financial network, does not lend itself to governance by mobs that want answers
and solutions instead of questions and problems from their leaders. Instead,
this kind of system requires almost Jeffersonian dignity, patience, foresight,
and breadth, traits that don’t survive well in our Third Millennium
media-driven electioneering environment.
(INTELLIGENT DESIGNER, as well as TEN MINUTE ECOLOGIST and other Janovy books are available on kindle, nook, smashwords, and from createspace.com)
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