Bouyoucos Conference On Soil Stewardship in An Era of Global Climate Change.

Scientists often struggle with ways to effectively communicate the scope of environmental degradation, the potential consequences, and viable actions to ameliorate those consequences.  There has been a recent and unexpected environmental movement sometimes referred to as “green faith” where religious leaders have focused on teachings taken from various faith traditions that support enhanced stewardship of the earth’s resources.  Environmental scientists and the “green faith” leaders are found on separate but parallel paths working toward the goals of improving efficient resource utilization while protecting environmental quality for future generations.  Interaction between these two groups has been severely limited by the secular nature of science in western culture and real or perceived disagreement on sensitive social issues. The objectives of this conference were 1) to briefly review the development of environmental ethics as it relates to modern western science, 2) to discuss the possible advantages and risks of linking scientific analyses and arguments on environmental issues with human value systems as represented by ethical principles, and 3) to develop recommended practices for engaging non-technical audiences on the contributions soil scientists are capable of making in addressing environmental concerns.  Participants in the conference discussed how science is perceived by non-scientists, especially those individuals whose actions may be influenced more by ethical principles than scientific or economic analyses.  This awareness should improve educational efforts and augment our profession’s contribution to developing solutions for pressing environmental problems like global climate change.  Various written products of the conference prepared by writing teams will summarize the conference proceedings, list relevant resources for further study (books, articles, web sites), and identify opportunities and recommendations for more effective outreach activities.