Hello lovely readers!
This is my very first blog post. Ever! I created this blog for sort of selfish reasons: I am studying Environmental/Ecological/Evolutionary Biology in my third year and it's finally hitting me that I need to think about what my hopes and dreams are in terms of a career direction. I am super interested in many big things, including global climate change, farming, land use change, the list goes on. But whereas some of my Biology student cohorts are content going out on the field and collecting samples, then analyzing them in the lab, I've always had more "lofty" ambitions.
I've noticed a trend in the interaction between the scientific community and the public when it comes to human-caused environmental problems. I'll use global climate change as an example: scientists make discoveries and publish hundreds, thousands of peer-reviewed journal articles about human-induced climate change that has vast threatening impacts on the environment from which we harness every single one of our resources. However, citizens, businesses, and governments refuse to make significant changes, instead continuing to act in the same way they've been acting before.
This disconnect between scientists and decision-makers is concerning; in order for community-wide, worldwide change to happen it's necessary for there to be a link between the scientific community and the people who have the power to do something about it. I want to facilitate that connection. I see myself in 10 years being the middle man, having the knowledge of the ecological issues at hand as well as the ability to translate that into language that the public can understand and persuade business leaders and political leaders to see that it is in their best interest to take environmental effects into account when making decisions.
Which brings me to the sort-of-selfish reasons that I started a blog. I see a blog as a way for me to start putting my ideas into the public. By typing them out and sending them into the vast internet, I'm able to learn how to formulate my ideas into a cohesive form that is understandable and palatable to my readers.
Because I'm just starting out, I've accepted that I will make mistakes, I will sometimes miss a crucial point while talking about an issue, and sometimes I may just ramble and get completely off-topic. This is all part of the learning process and over time I'll begin to master the art of translating thoughts into words which then inspire people to change for the better. To my readers, I ask that any comments, questions, suggestions, that you have, please share them with me! I'm very open to opinions outside of my own. I believe that constructive feedback and conversation can only lead to improvement if we let it.
Over time the topics of this blog may change as I decide what I think is most important and thought-provoking at the moment. Some current ideas I have are whether vegans/vegetarians should try to persuade others not to eat meat/animal products, sustainable solutions to the overfishing crisis, and the population explosions of jellyfish and what's causing them.
So I would like to thank you for reading my very first blog post, and I invite you to stay tuned for my next posts!
