It’s been over a year now. 15 months to be exact, and I find that remarkable. I mean, who would have thought that (a) I could come up with enough material to write weekly blog posts this entire time and (b) my random, confusing, and at times whimsical posts would still have an audience? You all are far too kind.
One of the challenges in writing this blog is making sure that I don’t recycle any material (which is probably the only time I will advocate against recycling). To that end, I keep a spreadsheet with a quick description of each blog post I’ve ever written, so that I can look back and make sure I’m coming up with new content. It’s proven valuable, as I’ve come close to plagiarizing myself multiple times.
But today, I am breaking my rule. I am going to reuse the same premise I used one year ago in a blog titled “Let’s Play a Game.” I’m fairly confident you don’t remember it (heck, I wrote the thing and still needed my handy spreadsheet to spark my memory), so I think this will work.
Here’s the game. I will give you a quote, and then I will challenge you with the impossible task of guessing who said it. It could be Justin Bieber. It could be Kim Jong-un. Who knows?!?!
(Well, I guess I know, and I guess Google knows too, but please don’t Google it – you’ll ruin the game.)
Here’s the quote – “I would say that it falls to scientists, who work free of political, economic or ideological interests, to develop a cultural model which can face the crisis of climatic change and its social consequences, so that the vast potential of productivity will not be reserved for only a few.”
While you ponder who said it (answer to come at the end), I want to add my own reflection. When I read this quote, it was jarring. In 49 words, my entire perspective on the scientific community shifted. I’ve always respected scientists for their intellect and the value of providing research and understanding of the world to all of humanity. But this quote is getting at something else.
The key words are “a cultural model.” What if we turned to the scientific community to be the purveyors of culture change? They are often the people with the greatest understanding of the threats we face, whether medical, environmental, social or otherwise. They also understand which solutions are the most promising. But do we empower them in creating better cultural models? I think not.
And so, I strongly agree with the quote. We need a new cultural model, one predicated on the express purpose of responding to climate change and its consequences. We should rely upon our scientific community in crafting this change.
So who is our mystery person? It’s actually the same person I quoted one year ago – Pope Francis. He stated this at a gathering of scientists at the Vatican at the end of November. I for one am thrilled to see that the Pope continues to call for stronger action in response to climate change. His is an important voice, and we need all the voices we can get!
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