Dear Ecologgers, I greatly enjoyed the discussions last week. I did note, however, that people who feel strongly opposed to what I am saying feel a lot more compelled to comment by private email than those that agree (which - based on the survey - greatly outnumber those that oppose).
I believe this might be a general problem. I often have the feeling that those who know the facts well and understand an issue might already feel "sanctioned" by doing so, and might not feel the responsibility and urgency to speak up themselves, even though they know it should be done. It is important to understand, I think, that knowing does not help if we do not transfer that knowledge to others. Of course, teaching helps, but here we mostly affect a selected minority of the public. And the best teachers I have had are those who do what they talk about, or they just demonstrate hypocrisy and become not very motivating raw models. I am off to the climate conference in Copenhagen for the week: http://climatecongress.ku.dk/ - several thousand climate scientists will converge to discuss the latest science on climate change. Might be a worthwhile event to follow for those of you interested. Thanks again for all your input. The results of my survey will be posted within a few weeks. Maiken
