Raison d'être - or why blog?

I believe much of ecology is focused on two activities: 1) finding out with ever better precision how bad things are and 2) finding technical solutions to fix them (e.g. soil inoculation for ecosystem restoration). But are these solutions to the right problems? Do they take us to a desirable interbeing between nature and society? As we formulate our solutions, we have to constantly check, not only if they are feasible, but also if they meet the end we have in mind. And is it the same end we have in mind? And maybe even more importantly, is it what a well-informed (this is often lacking) society wants?

So the goal of the Macroscope blog is to come up with actionable answers and insights to help tackle these global crises. In this I take, great inspiration from people such as Jonathan Foley and Bill Schlesinger. The blog takes a macroscope viewpoint, hence the name. It wants to elucidate what is important in the hubbub of ecologically 'important' effects. What really can make a difference to the crises we are in.

Am I in a position to provide these answers? No. My ecological knowledge is limited, my experience with societal change is limited. I am only one person and I have all these obnoxious biases too (see below section on 'What this blog is not'). Still I am writing this, and it is for the sake of time that I try my best to come with answers. These crises require society to act, and to act now. Therefore, I think we scientists need to vocalise our answers to these crises much more clearly and noisily.

On top of that, as I recently experienced when becoming a father, time is progressing faster then you would think. Horizon 2030 is 6 years away (only 1.5-2 PhDs). Furthermore, the older generations are not just getting older. They are dying. The ecological leadership we have grown used to, our great teachers, are retiring and passing on: E.O. Wilson (1929-2021), Georgina Mace (1953-2020), Phil Grime (1935-2021). David Attenborough (born 1926) is 98 years old. Jane Goodall (born 1934) is 90 years old. So, it falls to the younger generations of ecologists and scientists broadly to help find ways to make a sustainable living on this planet. It falls to us.

Often in debates with other ecologists it seems the highest wisdom of our trade is “it depends”, the outcome of ecological interactions depends on the environmental context, the management, the weather..... In fact often a list is then produced with all the (contextual) factors that may affect the outcome in question, without much informed qualification of which will dominate and which will be minor. To policy makers and society this is precisely useless. This is the academic equivalent of God’s mystery - without the 10 commandments. They might as well flip a coin on what to do next.  To me, how you deal with these situations is distinguishing great ecologists from ordinary ones: by their ability to separate contributing factors into major and minor ones. To do so is to focus research and practise on what drives 95% of the responses. It allows for informed choices to be made., by taking stock of what we do know. This is a wholly different enterprise then the foundational research many of us engage in, in giving advice you have to tell the obvious, not the things that need to be checked. In order to fascilitate actionable perspectives, you tell what you know and what you interpolate or extrapolate based on your best judgement. And that's it, that is the current standin of science, and society cannot wait for science to come up with ever more precise answers. We need action today.

This blog is born out of frustration. A personal frustration that in many instances I can only say ‘it depends’ without much further guidance. Like I said, the hallmark of a great ecologist is to separate the important factors from the unimportant, the effective measures from the uncertain. As the baton passes to younger generations, we need to have our answers ready. So we can inject them into the (political) conversation at the right moment.

Keeping the analogy above, this blog will start its next post with my own 10 commandments for sustainable societal change. Likely, with your comments, the list will grow and improve. These commandments are tentative  (I am human after all!), and it will be updated with growing experience and in talking with others: with you.