Norm MacLeod's random notes

[kaesler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Roger L. Kaesler)]

Dear colleagues,

Norm MacLeod's message "Random Notes" is an important and, in my opinion,
accurate assessment of the situation facing paleontology.  Participants in
Paleo21 must come to grips with the issues he raised if we are to be
successful in laying groundwork for the future of paleontology.

Perhaps it comes down to this.  Practitioners of the various fields of
geology--let's say paleontology, sedimentology, geochemistry, petrology,
and geophysics--can devote themselves to solving intradisciplinary problems
or to working on interdisciplinary, societal problems.  The various fields
of geology seem to flourish when they address primarily societal problems.
Their apparent importance in the broad scheme of things is diminished when
they focus their work on only intradisciplinary problems.  If this overly
broad generalization is so, the reasons for the growth in geochemistry and
geophysics in the past 15 years reported by Karl Flessa and Dena Smith must
stem at least in part from the fact that these fields have addressed
societal problems:  e.g., exploration for oil and gas, developing means of
solving of environmental problems, and ensuring a supply of safe, clean
water.  Geophysicists, for example, have been actively involved in the
search for petroleum, in attempting to understand devastating earthquakes,
and--at the most mundane level--in developing means of detecting leaking,
buried barrels of toxic waste.  Low-temperature geochemists have focused
attention on such topics as the leaching of heavy metals from landfills,
pesticide and nutrient-laden runoff from agriculture, and other sources of
pollution of surface and groundwater.  Especially in the recent past,
paleontologists have contributed to society through biostratigraphy.

Fields of science that have focused on intradisciplinary research have
failed to flourish.  For example, for decades, it seems, metamorphic
petrologists have worked on solving the problems of metamorphic petrology
without any clear-cut attempt to apply their results to solving society's
problems.  As a result, the employment outlook for  recently educated
metamorphic petrologists in their chosen field of metamorphic petrology has
been abysmal for decades.

Paleontology is now in a very exciting period, one that will certainly be
noted when the histories of our discipline written at the end of the 21st
century.  We are making unprecedented progress in understanding many
aspects of the history of life:  extinction events, recovery from mass
extinction, and community evolution, to name only a few.  Most of this
work, however, consists of paleontologists solving the problems of
paleontology.  We should not be surprised, therefore, if society does not
rush to our doorsteps with funds and positions to expand our discipline.
This impetus to grow will come about only if we are somehow able to make
the work of modern paleontology seem as important in the solution of
society's problems as biostratigraphy has been in the past 150 years.

This is not to say that what we are learning is not important.  Of course
it is important, even vital to the intellectual development of
paleontology.  Nevertheless, if during the coming century paleontologists
devote themselves to solving only the problems of paleontology and not the
problems of society, we cannot expect support for our science to keep pace
with other disciplines that are aiming at the day-to-day problems that the
ordinary citizen faces.

Finding applications of much of what we do will not be easy.  The view is
sometimes expressed that society cannot understand the extinction event
that is underway in the rain forest if we do not understand, for example,
what happened at the Frasnian-Famennian boundary.  I judge that this is
mere grasping at straws and is likely to have the effect of drawing
unfavorable attention to our plight and, perhaps, our lack of understanding
of it.

Best wishes,

Roger L. Kaesler



--
Roger L. Kaesler
Paleontological Institute
The University of Kansas
121 Lindley Hall
Lawrence, Kansas 66045-2911
(913) 864-3338 = telephone
(913) 864-5276 = FAX

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