I really enjoyed Mel Visser's presentation. Some of the points that stood out to me were the distorted graphs, his experience at "both ends of the spectrum", how he was taught wrong science (believed to be correct at the time) and the "do it right, do it here" mantra.
All very interesting and thought provoking.
As a budding Information Designer/ Technical Writer I appreciated how Mel was able to communicate from a science and environmental background to a broder audience with his book. Also with a future in technical communication near approaching I was especially drawn to the topics of wrong science promotion, and distorted graphs. One day I may be commissioned to create informational documents for a company or organization. My future might be writing instruction sets or promotional material for anti-malaria mosquito nets, working on grants for pollution clean up, or possibly designing website layouts for pesticide companies, or promotional pamphlets for the next agent orange.
But wherever I end up working, or any of us for that matter, we should take the bigger picture into consideration. Mel's book helps illustrate the big picture in a planetary context that is enlightening and persuasive.
It can be hard to identify "wrong science" or "wrong facts". Hopefully my future doesn't include projects with the same after effects as this piece (below)
It is definitely important for scientists, governments, companies, etc. to accurately and effectively communicate with the public. The example of DDT shows that sometimes, people overestimate the benefits and forget about the risks and consequences of actions/products. However, I was surprised to hear that there were flagrant misrepresentations of the truth, coming from companies/the government. It is scary to think that, like Mel said, an organization may request a "study" to determine if their plan is acceptable, and only accept it if the people conducting the study give them a favorable review. It is nearly impossible for the general public to know when they are being lied to. Hopefully, people will make ethical decisions and consider the safety and sustainability of their actions, rather than just their own interests.
ReplyDeleteWow! It is amazing to see these old adverts. How sure we were in our science...thanks for the interesting post, Maddy!
ReplyDeleteWith technological advances there will always be unexpected effects. Just as when the first Model T rolled out the factory. The world was excited for this amazing affordable creation. I am sure Henry Ford did not consider the pollution that would arise with the mass production of cars.
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