Dear colleagues

I dearly wish this forum could be moderated. It is a waste of time to read things such as:
"Of course nobody knows what will happen in policy, but equally nobody knows what is a scientific fact. The most dangerous scenario in policy making is if scientific errors are used for policy making. Human history is full of these and they can be devastating (resulting in global wars and other mishaps). What is a scientific fact today in one society may be found to be completely wrong tomorrow in the same society or considered wrong today in a different society.

Can we exclude that in 100 years from now our society (if still existing) pities every penny that has been spent in research on biodiversity conservation or any other topic on the commission's agenda??

Science policy should therefore try to remain as open as possible, support as many disciplines as possible and not try to develop large neither mainstream nor "prestigious" research foci.

Errors and wrong scientific facts are simply unavoidable"

But I do not want to let this pass, while wasting still more time (Friday afternoon, anyway):
- it is NOT true that nobody knows what is a scientific fact
- I challenge the writer to come up with an example of a global war that was started due to "scientific errors used for policy making"
- what is a scientific fact (i.e. proven using the scientific method) cannot be found completely wrong in a different society today - the outcome may not be believed or liked by certain people, or even most of those, but this does not alter the facts
- agreed, we cannot unerringly point to a few areas of biodiversity research priorities, but this should not block us from trying. We cannot study everything with equal intensity, so it is natural and desirable to narrow down to topics that we, on the basis of today's best evidence, think are most important.
- errors of judgement are unavoidable, but "wrong scientific facts" are not. Prioritising IS unavoidable. Scientists have to work with policy makers to this end.

Sorry for being blunt.

Greetings to all

Gabor
Dr. Gabor Lövei
Dept. Crop Protection
Danish Institute of Agricultural Science
Flakkebjerg Research Centre
DK-4200 Slagelse
Denmark