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Dear followers, I know some of you are here to talk about bees & flowers. Or maybe about #academiclife. And all you're getting from me these days is politics. Here's a thread about why that is.
Some people think science shouldn't be political. But being able to separate politics from science is a privilege not everyone has. As someone who experiences microaggressions on almost a daily basis, I can't pretend this isn't a part of my every day.
There's a lot going on in the world right now and I'm trying to amplify voices which are often ignored. Indigenous rights are human rights and all Canadians (even people who care about bees) should care about what's going on.
Climate change and pipelines are bad for bees and other wildlife. As a Conservation Biologist and human, I need to get on board with lowering carbon emissions stat. smithsonianmag.com/science-nature…
Have you all seen this paper by the amazing @RicSchuster et al re biodiversity value of Indigenous lands? Conservationists cannot only be focussed on protected areas, which sometimes come into conflict with community livelihoods and human rights themselves biorxiv.org/content/early/…
I'd also like to highlight the research by my friend @JeanPolfus, who has show me how important incorporating other knowledge systems is in understanding the natural world. ecologyandsociety.org/vol22/iss2/art…
Also, politics plays a huge role even in my subfield of bee conservation. The policy isn't always related to the best available scientific evidence, the people with power and decision-makers are often influenced by big business, etc.
People who rely on free natural pollination and thus are dependent on wild bee biodiversity, are often low SES communities, making this a food security and social justic issue. There are so many ways politics weaves into my work.
So maybe I won't get on any of the big #scicomm lists because my twitter is all over the place, but there you have why I think being vocally political is important as a scientist and a human. I can't be silent and complicit.
I would also like to acknowledge that my ability to not stay silent comes from buckets of privilege, I myself have as a cishet, able, middle class woman with an academic position and amazing support network.
