[Coral-List] Hector Reyes and the Coral Guild
Gene Shinn
eshinn at marine.usf.edu
Fri Mar 16 10:53:24 EDT 2007
Hector Reyes, You are right on Target. It's a Slippery Slope
In 1948 Leo Szilard, The man who had talked Einstein into
writing the letter to the President that kicked off the Manhattan
Project and development of the Bomb, wrote an amusing short story
called the Mark Gale Foundation. In it the science hero, sometime in
the future, is asked by a wealthy entrepreneur who believes that
science has progressed too quickly, "what he could do to retard this
progress." The hero answers: "You could set up a foundation, with an
annual endowment of thirty million dollars. Researchers in need of
funds could apply for grants, if they could make a convincing case.
Set up ten committees, each composed of twelve scientists to pass on
these applications. Take the most active scientists out of the
laboratory and make them members of these committees. First of all,
the best scientists would be removed from their laboratories and kept
busy on committees passing on applications for funds. Secondly the
scientific worker in need of funds would concentrate on problems that
were considered promising and were pretty certain to lead to funding
and publishable results. By going after the obvious, pretty soon
science would dry out. Science would become something like a parlor
game. There would be fashions. Those who followed the fashions would
get grants. Those who wouldn't would not." That was 1948!
Was that prophecy or what? Most of you would agree that we
reached this stage long ago. The difference is that in addition to
writing proposals and reviewing proposals to do coral reef research
we generally spend even more time writing and waiting for permits to
do the research than we spend writing the actual proposals. It
happens to me every time!
Now we are being asked to sign on to a coral reef guild and take
an oath that we will not harm any corals while doing research! That
smacks of making an omelet without cracking an egg. Is this not a
slippery slope that will lead to even greater restrictions, more
paper work and delays? Might not the granting and permitting agencies
then be petitioned by the NGOs and faith-based organizations that
thrive on public contributions to create new rules (after a long
costly series of public hearings in exotic places) so that extra
layers of bureaucracy to comply with the new rules can be made into
law? Oh Leo, if you could have truly seen into the future. Gene
--
No Rocks, No Water, No Ecosystem (EAS)
------------------------------------ -----------------------------------
E. A. Shinn, Courtesy Professor
University of South Florida
Marine Science Center (room 204)
140 Seventh Avenue South
St. Petersburg, FL 33701
<eshinn at marine.usf.edu>
Tel 727 553-1158----------------------------------
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