FROM THE TOS PRESIDENT
Deborah Bronk

Hello TOS members!

This month I want to focus on a skill that is a critical ingredient to progress that seems increasingly rare.

The ability to disagree respectfully and productively.

As a citizen of the United States of America, I have watched my country’s ability to debate issues with respect and courtesy deteriorate to an alarming degree. It seems too often we don’t just disagree with each other’s opinions – we hate each other for having them. The impact on our republic has been demoralizing and corrosive.

I raise the issue here because I have witnessed enough heated scientific discussions that turned personal that I think, as a community, we need to inoculate ourselves against heading down this path. Take one area where civility is especially important – anonymous reviews. While I served at the US National Science Foundation, I read thousands of proposal reviews and sometimes they would take me aback. We need to be honest, but we don’t need to be mean. We need to provide constructive criticism of the ideas and approaches being proposed, but we don’t need to attack the person proposing them.

The ability to disagree productively will be increasingly important as we confront the full magnitude of climate change. As one example, as the warming intensifies, the calls to do something drastic will get louder. Geoengineering approaches that were unthinkable a few years ago are back on the table, and I fear seem increasingly inevitable. We must hone our ability to discuss, debate, and disagree with each other within the science community if we are to maximize our voice in how humanity faces an increasingly challenging future. The stakes are high and we need to be ready.

I’m here to serve, so please reach out to me at [email protected] if you have any concerns or ideas about how TOS can better serve its members and the work they do.