Soil Science Journal Club : opinion

Astonishing reasoning on Greenland from U.S. scientists

Andrew.Rate — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 05:47:00 GMT

The good news (for some of the approximately 57,600 Greenlanders, at least): Greenland now has much more control over its destiny, following the decision from Denmark to allow self-rule for Greenlanders (see the article at the Sydney Morning Herald).

The not-so-good news: the following excerpt from this, and other, articles on this event is a real jaw-dropper:

"US scientists believe Greenland's northern tip is especially rich in oil and gas and they say global warming could help unlock the untapped wealth under the ice-cap and provide a solid foundation for an independent economy."

Let's just hope that these are the same ubiquitous and apocryphal "U.S. scientists" who seem to crop up occasionally in news articles to justify not-to-be-disputed points of view. Let's also hope they have sufficient integrity to be greenhouse sceptics.

It's hard to imagine a more cynical and blithely pragmatic approach to the issue of global warming, whether or not one has doubts about the anthropogenic hypothesis (which would be too large a can of worms ever to be opened on this blog).

Image from cartophilia.com

New Comment on A Soil Scientist's Lament

Andrew.Rate — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 07:19:00 GMT

A new Comment has been posted in reply to A soil scientist's lament, by Professor Philippe Baveye (the author of the article mused upon in the original post).

It's well worth reading. You can get to it by clicking here, too (scroll down to the bottom of the page).

Mood-changing students

Andrew.Rate — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 03:03:00 GMT

Yesterday I could have had a very bad day. Things felt busier than usual, I felt less than well-prepared for a class, and to top it all off I forgot my USB thumb drive on which I had some material prepared the previous evening for a class.

[USB drives seem essential small items these days, along with mobile 'phones. I have a gonzo theory about both technologies; 'phones, fairly obviously, fulfil our need to connect with other humans; on the other hand, our USB drives help us remember important things in our lives (unless, of course, we forget the drive itself). It does seem risky to delegate two of our most important characteristics, communication and memory, to devices... ]

So I turned up to my 9 am 'Earth Surface Processes and Soils' lecture feeling somewhat frazzled and grumpy. Usually in that frame of mind the message doesn't get across so well; that may well have been the case, because (unusually) there were a number of good questions about the material which turned into a useful class discussion. My mood improved markedly. The next class, the one which could have done with more preparation, went smoothly as well.

My afternoon practical class was the last mood changing experience; the students were wrestling with a computer-based problem in Land & Water Management and my interactions with them helpful for both parties, and (certainly from my point-of view) pleasant.

I learned something about being an academic yesterday. Maybe the lesson was just for me; it certainly reinforced an idea that relationships are central to the teaching and learning experience. My anxiety was about the mechanics of teaching; what made the difference was how a group of humans, having a common focus, interacted with one another.

But I'm still lost without my USB...

Year of Planet Earth

Andrew.Rate — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 03:49:00 GMT

The journal Nature is marking The Year of Planet Earth in 2008 with free access to their Year of Planet Earth feature - find it at http://www.nature.com/nature/supplements/collections/yearofplanetearth/.

Many of the articles in the feature have relevance to soil science:

From landscapes into geological history - Philip A. Allen Nature 451, 274–276 (17 January 2008) doi:10.1038/nature06586

Terrestrial ecosystem carbon dynamics and climate feedbacks - Martin Heimann & Markus Reichstein Nature 451, 289–292 (17 January 2008) doi:10.1038/nature06591

An Earth-system perspective of the global nitrogen cycle - Nicolas Gruber & James N. Galloway
Nature 451, 293–296 (17 January 2008) doi:10.1038/nature06592

Earth science and society - Frank Press Nature 451, 301–303 (17 January 2008) doi:10.1038/nature06595

Image from http://www.nature.com/nature/supplements/collections/yearofplanetearth/images/cover.jpg

Journal club Christmas

Andrew.Rate — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 04:25:00 GMT

Two quotes from Bruce Cockburn appropriate to the Christmas season (and the mood it gets me in):

"This bluegreen ball in black space
Filled with beauty even now
battered and abused and lovely"

from the song "Planet of the Clowns" on the album The Trouble With Normal (1983)

This was written in the early 1980s, and there seems little doubt that the "bluegreen ball" has suffered more battery and abuse since then.

In an article "US consumerism poses global recession threat" on the ABC news website, Richard Vietor (Professor of Environmental Management at the Harvard Business School) warns that unbridled (American) consumerism may lead to "catastrophic recession". Easy to point the finger at the USA; there are lots of Americans, but other western countries should not feel too righteous either. I have pessimistic moments when I worry a lot about humanity's impact on our planet. I had one cycling to work this morning in fact, dodging traffic until the sanctuary of the cycle path through the King's Park bushland, prompting me to include Cockburn's bittersweet lyrics above. What will become of Earth? -- the weary Terra may shrug her scarred but resilient skin yet, and rid herself of parasites...

...but Christmas is still a time for hope, as an older Cockburn observes:

"Like a stone on the surface of a still river
Driving the ripples on forever
Redemption rips through the surface of time
In the cry of a tiny babe"

from the song "Cry of a Tiny Babe" on the album Nothing But A Burning Light (1991)

Images from www.cockburnproject.net

A soil scientist's lament

Andrew.Rate — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 02:26:00 GMT

Musings on:
Baveye, P. C. & Jacobson A. R. (2008). Soil science education and the "age of money": reflections and concerns for the near future. Water, Air and Soil Pollution 187:1-4.

This was a guest editorial in Water, Air and Soil Pollution, and I decided it to be worth reading; there's much to be said for a catchy title. The topic summarised in the title seems to be a consistent point of angst for the first author; this editorial self-cites two other articles (Baveye, 2006; Baveye et al., 2006) with similar themes.

Baveye & Jacobson start off by emphasising the importance of soils. Ironically, given the title, this is framed in terms of climate change and the role of soils in carbon cycling. (The irony I perceive is that while the authors decry the inevitable money chasing activity by researchers, any mention of climate change - "big money" science, in anyone's terms - implies a fair amount of money-chasing pragmatism itself. Maybe I'm wrong.) Next, the question is asked about who will be around to conduct the soil science research humanity will need given the pervasive background of climate change. The answer: not many scientists, if the authors' concerns about declining graduates in soil science (and indeed declining numbers of soil science departments themselves) are founded.

There is an assumption in these concerns that only soil science (post)graduates are adequately trained to conduct soil science research, a point made more insistently in another paper (Baveye, 2006). This may be true, but my observation is that in soil science academia, not many soil scientists actually have a first degree (or in some cases, a postgraduate degree) in soil science. Certainly at my University, I can not think of any academic within the soil science discipline who has a first degree in soil science, and only two who have soil science-related PhDs. So Baveye & Jacobson's contention, that only "pure" soil scientists will do, seems unsupported by hard evidence (or, at least, will be subject to many exceptions).

The decline in soil science is attributed to a few factors. One seems reasonable; an insistence on teaching soil science in the context of crop production (where soil science has many of its traditional roots) is probably outdated, especially with " ...the open intention of a majority of students to pursue careers dealing predominantly with environmental issues.". It's hard to argue with that - but not the second point, that "... the fact that soil science faculty do not seem to find that their craft is really exciting any more..." (a point also made in Baveye, 2006). Baveye & Jacobson's evidence for this seems to be the re-naming of many former soil science departments as "earth" or "environmental" something-or-other; we've seen that trend over this way as well, but still soil science research (and teaching!) gets done. The authors are also worried about soil science departments being subsumed into physical geography (or whatever); again, my own discipline may be heading that way, and my interactions with the new discipline have only served to increase my interest in my discipline. Opening up new ideas, and developing new relationships (interpersonal, and between ideas), is exciting too!

The "age of money" referred to by Baveye & Jacobson is linked to their premise that the success of an academic discipline depends on its adherence to the following criteria (reproduced unchanged here):

"A Promise of Money. The field is popularly linked (even if erroneously) to improved chances of securing an occupation or profession that promises above-average lifetime earnings.
A Knowledge of Money. The field itself studies money, whether practically or more theoretically, i.e., fiscal, business, financial, or economic matters and markets.
A Source of Money. The field receives significant external money, i.e., research contracts, federal grants or funding support, or corporate underwriting."

In Baveye & Jacobson's view, soil science departments only do reasonably well at 3.; it's possible that the Australian resources boom may see some success in 1. in this part of the world. Admittedly, the constant focus on money is tiresome for many academics. In the current milieu, it may not be something we can address, so we all (somewhat reluctantly) have to live with it, or so my Head of School tells me from time to time.

Another intriguing issue raised, not in this editorial but in Baveye (2006) , is that scholarly journals (and conferences, apparently) in many cases suppress vigorous academic debate. In addition, many academics (and I can heartily relate to this) are simply too busy to have stimulating discussions about their science any more. It certainly would make for more interesting reading if journal editors took some risks and published more "edgy" material. One journal I sit on the editorial board of is concerned about its low impact factor. My view of the problem for that journal: in most cases, the articles are simply boring. Scientifically sound, they may be, but I think it is true, especially for many of the applied sciences, that much our science gets bogged down in activity and loses the passion for ideas. Perhaps making space for risky thinking and learning from disciplines, such as [some of] geography, which still seem to favour truly creative thinking, will inject some life into soil science. If we get the time.

Baveye, P. (2006). A future for soil science. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 61:148A-151A.

Baveye, P., Jacobson, A. R., Allaire, S. E., Tandarich, J., & Bryant, R. (2006). Whither goes soil science in the US and Canada? Survey results and analysis. Soil Science, 171:501-518.

The image is not related to any of the papers discussed!

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Andrew.Rate — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 05:28:00 GMT

Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1^st Perennial classics Ed. New York : HarperPerennial, 1998, 288 p. (first published 1974).

I re-read this book over the last month or so. It's wonderful - a rare book of incredible linguistic beauty. It should be compulsory reading for anyone with an interest in the natural sciences, if only to remind ourselves that the natural world was here long before the science ever was, and of our place in the scheme of things. This reading I discovered that this book (very deservedly) won the Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction in 1975.

The quality of Annie Dillard's prose is evident from the first few paragraphs. Try this quote from p.5:

"Mountains are giant, restful, absorbent. You can heave your spirit into a mountain and the mountain will keep it, folded, and not throw it back as some creeks will. The creeks are the world with all its stimulus and beauty; I live there. But the mountains are home."

Ms Dillard generously provides an afterword, written for this edition. There are some gems here, too, perhaps well-suited to postgraduate writing, for example:

"...mathematicians do good work while they are young because as they age they suffer 'the failure of the nerve for excellence.' The phrase struck me, and I wrote it down. Nerve had never been a problem; excellence sounded novel." (p.279)

Of course, the book does not fail to discuss soils and landscapes:

"Under my spine, the sycamore roots suck watery salts. Root tips thrust and squirm between particles of soil, probing minutely; from their roving, burgeoning tissues spring infinitesimal root hairs, which affix themselves to specks of grit and sip." (p.97)

"Landscape consists in the multiple, overlapping intricacies and forms that exist in a given space at a moment in time." (p.139)

Read this book. Even if natural sciences are not your thing, I doubt you'll regret it.

Book cover image from www.librarycatalogue.act.gov.au

Christmas and soil

Andrew.Rate — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 06:07:00 GMT

Ancient literature like the Christian Bible uses soil or earth as a metaphor for a number of things, and since it's just before Christmas I wondered if something soil-related could be found in the gospel rendition of the Chritsmas story. No such luck . . . but the story below was told by the man of the season himself, and uses soil as a powerful metaphor of the human heart. So, I thought it oddly appropriate at this time of year which is also, unfortunately, characterised by our manic consumerism which I believe approaches mass hysteria in its disturbing intensity.

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."

Matthew 13:1-8 (Today's New International Version)

image from http://www.ebibleteacher.com/

In Excess

Andrew.Rate — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 12:30:00 GMT

"'In Excess' describes the lifestyle of many affluent people, a lifestyle that is purchased with money, a lifestyle some think they are entitled to. This lifestyle entails wastage, excess consumption and the purchase of items not wanted or needed. Yet over a billion people cannot even meet their basic needs for food, shelter, clothing, and health care . . . The Earth does not need more people, more energy usage, more food consumption or more markets to sell useless items. We need non-contaminated water, air and soil to sustain life in the biosphere and to produce food."

from Trevors JT, Saier MH Jr. 2006. Editorial: In Excess. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution 174:1–2.

Image from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/science/nature/4860694.stm