Apr 13, 2018 06:48 PM
Editor’s note: With the second March for Science scheduled for April 14, *The Conversation* is publishing articles in which scientists share their perspectives, including this one, on the role of scientists in society.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/04/im-expa...d-science/
EXCERPT: . . . I am a marine conservation scientist studying human impacts on coral reefs and other ocean ecosystems. Given what’s happening in Washington, D.C., the recent move by a handful of prominent U.S. climate scientists who have accepted French President Emmanuel Macron’s “Make Our Planet Great Again” offer of millions of euros to relocate to France for the rest of Trump’s presidency makes perfect sense.
Their choices make a bold and important statement – one that I strongly support. But I’m going the other way.
I’m an American expat in Australia, where I moved in 1999 as a Fulbright scholar to study how human activities were harming the Great Barrier Reef. Except for four years doing my Ph.D. at the University of California, Santa Barbara, I’ve lived here ever since. During that time, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Australian Research Council and the World Wildlife Fund have funded the majority of my research and salary.
But now, after many years abroad, my husband (also a marine biologist) and I are moving back to the United States with our three children. Although this choice may seem counterintuitive in a political climate that is overtly hostile to science and solving environmental problems, I believe that science and scientists are needed in the United States now more than ever before....
MORE: https://www.rawstory.com/2018/04/im-expa...d-science/
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/04/im-expa...d-science/
EXCERPT: . . . I am a marine conservation scientist studying human impacts on coral reefs and other ocean ecosystems. Given what’s happening in Washington, D.C., the recent move by a handful of prominent U.S. climate scientists who have accepted French President Emmanuel Macron’s “Make Our Planet Great Again” offer of millions of euros to relocate to France for the rest of Trump’s presidency makes perfect sense.
Their choices make a bold and important statement – one that I strongly support. But I’m going the other way.
I’m an American expat in Australia, where I moved in 1999 as a Fulbright scholar to study how human activities were harming the Great Barrier Reef. Except for four years doing my Ph.D. at the University of California, Santa Barbara, I’ve lived here ever since. During that time, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Australian Research Council and the World Wildlife Fund have funded the majority of my research and salary.
But now, after many years abroad, my husband (also a marine biologist) and I are moving back to the United States with our three children. Although this choice may seem counterintuitive in a political climate that is overtly hostile to science and solving environmental problems, I believe that science and scientists are needed in the United States now more than ever before....
MORE: https://www.rawstory.com/2018/04/im-expa...d-science/