Current Environmental Research: Benefits and Drawbacks

This week we studied contemporary environmental inquiry. We looked at scientific
research and the problem of interpretation of data, as well as the preexisting notions
and values that scientists bring to their research.

This phenomenon is not, however, unique to the present. In fact, we read two very different interpretations of the Dust Bowl in the Great Plains. Paul Bonnifield's The Dust Bowl, for example, portrays the pioneers of the Great Plains as heroic conquerors of nature, whereas Donald Worster's Dust Bowl, considers the fragility and ever-changing nature of the soil
and climate of the Great Plains, claiming that humans degraded the land to such an extent that it was no longer fertile, and the dust storms that resulted were a direct effect of our ignorance.

Looking at the study of environmental issues in the present is even more
complicated because of the technology that we now have available to collect
data on issues ranging from loss of biodiversity to climate and how global
climate is changing to the effect of nutrient loading on bacteria in wetlands.
Because of this vast amount of knowledge available to the scientific
community, as well as the public, it can be difficult to find common ground
when considering this multitude of data. There exists inevitable discrepancies
in values and priorities among those interpreting the data, which is ultimately
the basis of the political structure that informs our policies toward the environment.
All of this is very disconcerting, especially because every scientist or researcher genuinely
wants to perform the most subjective studies possible. The task, therefore, is to select
research topics that are relevant to problems that need to be solved, collect data
with a subjective approach, and engage policy makers such that the data is used to support
the most ecologically sustainable policies regarding the environment.