My conference went fine... it really did...
Actually, it was a great conference.
BUT...
One of my heroes, Daniel Hillel, gave the plenary address in my session. His description of soil as "the ecstatic skin of the earth" first piqued my interest in studying soil organic matter. During his (amazingly poorly-attended) talk (it was lovely, literary, and scientifically-sound), more than one early career scientist left early with that "sigh, old news" attitude. It's such a shame - I think Hillel has what so many of my colleagues (and myself) lack. We lack the ability to take our relatively obscure science and present it in a manner, literary and historically-based, that conveys the importance of soil-stored organic matter as a global reservoir of stored carbon. I could wax nerdy for hours about how the survival of humanity and the preservation are so intimately linked but suffice it to say - we all should care.
The science was great... really great! Now, we have to figure out how to make the public care about our science and how to make our science care about people - in particular, farmers.
Enough of that. I'm happy to be home and not sorry to be taking a break from my work to get a better idea of how I want to pursue my interest in soil fertility in the much longer term.
No comments:
Post a Comment