Feed Your Brain: Science In Society

Feed Your Brain

I attended the Feed Your Brain session titled Earth Science In Public Policy: What Society Needs From Scientists, given by Dr. Lucy Jones. This talk was absolutely phenomenal! I wish I could have recorded it for everyone to see, or may I suggest this presentation as an Earth Talk Lecture...? Dr. Jones delivered her material in a manor that was entertaining, serious, relatable, and just dang enjoyable/fun. Packed full of knowledge and jokes, this was probably the most entertaining talk that I attended during the trips entirety.

So, down to the meat and potatoes of the lecture. Dr. Jones founded, after retiring from the USGS where she currently still consults, The Dr. Lucy Jones Center for Science and Society. She is a scientist emerita for the USGS and a visiting professor at the California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech). Dr. Jones, upon her retirement and founding of her organization, was given an opportunity to work for the mayor of Los Angeles, CA in efforts to promote public knowledge and provide awareness to the public officials in a local, state, and federal level. Dr. Jones stands firmly in her belief that, quote,"... A scientists job is to make sure that the decision maker and officials understand the implications of their actions, not to make the decision(s) for them." Dr. Jones was given a break from the USGS for the period of one year, in its entirety, so that she could work directly with the LA and California govt. officials. During this time, Dr. Jones and the mayor of LA developed the Resilience By Design campaign, the Shakeout, and a series of amazing commercials promoting public awareness of potential disasters in the area. Dr. Jones never took credit for the success that LA and California has had with their efforts to involve science in public policy more so than ever before, instead she stated that it was a collaboration between all local and scientific communities.

One of the new practices that was put in place regarding the discussion and implementation of new ideas and policies was a reorganized progression from idea(s) through the successful passing of new policies. These new guidelines consisted of, in order: the idea of a likely disaster, the problems associated with the occurrence of the disaster, solutions to these problems, peer reviews from other scientists and officials involved, the results from the reviews, changes made in response to the reviews, an action plan to minimize problems during the disaster should it actually occur, then to practice the action plan until it's learned and familiar to all government and emergency officials.

Some ideas that were proposed and have been implemented into city, county, state, and in some cases federal policy include the water and gas mains, other utility lines, and infrastructure including building codes/ordinances. Using the water main as an example, let's explore what Dr. Jones said about an idea that seems so simple. If there is a fault that slips, an earthquake, or any type of ground movement, then water main(s) could break in their fittings or split entirely. Should this happen, what's the plan? There's only so many emergency water crews available to repair lines at any given time, and there's only so many parts at the warehouse to make the repairs at that time. So, the issue is now water mains that may or may not be fixed in a timely manor. But let's keep going... Say the water department(s) are unable to flush the mains due to low pressure from other breaks in the area, then there's a Boil Order issued to the area. Well, the issue now is where there's a water main there's likely power lines and gas lines as well. If the water main broke, the others likely did too. So now there's a boil order with no way to boil the water, no power for a stove and no gas for heating the water either. Some said that water could be boiled with fire outside... True! But is it really smart for everyone to start lighting fires outside with winds and flame sparks flying around in an area of the country that's prone to wild fires? Plus, there's no/little water available to extinguish the fire should it arise. So, we have no/little water and we can't boil it for sanitation purposes if necessary. This combined with the endured wait on crews/parts to make all of the repairs needed could potentially take weeks, months, or years to fully recover from. So then the mayor of LA and other officials were asked, "would you stay in this location under these circumstances while trying to take care of yourself, family, and children, or would you have had enough and simply move elsewhere?" Theft, break-ins, water shortages, etc. can all spiral out these conditions. The officials were astonished by the question and ideas presented, imagining what it would mean to the city/area to have all these infrastructure issues and be losing the citizens that ultimately assist in the funding/from it (tax $). As you can see the issues have a domino effect and could continue well into another paragraph, but I'll spare you because you deserve it for making it this far! :)

The above scenario leads right back to Dr. Jones' first description of the role of a scientist in policy, which was "...A scientists job is to make sure that the decision maker and officials understand the implications of their actions, not to make the decision(s) for them." The results from this scenario consisted of immediate funding and repair to old, decaying utility mains, including the use of new coupling designs that have up to several feet of shifting capabilities during ground movement and new codes/ordinances governing the placement and materials used in all future lines installed. Furthermore, this and other scenarios were practiced as if they had actually occurred so that response teams would know how to react if and when it actually does take place in the future. The purpose of these styles of action are to help solve tomorrows issues today while we have time and can pay for them slowly over that time, not wait and have it all dropped in your lap at once.

In the words of Dr. Lucy Jones, "Science is not a series of facts, it's presentations of evidence that provide clues and give plausibility to a hypothesis."

I thoroughly enjoyed this talk and my words herein have not provided it its deserved justice. For more information, videos, pictures, action plans, etc., you can visit Dr. Jones' website at www.drlucyjonescenter.org .

* * * Comical note: Dr. Jones stated that she received lots of letters and calls with questions and comments about all of the work she's done with public officials in the California/federal level. One that she read to us stated," Dear Dr. Jones, I know that you can't tell me when the BIG ONE is coming, but could you at least let me know when you send your kids out of town." HaHaHaHa! This was the type of talk that Dr. Jones gave... I wish you all could've been there!

Thanks for reading,

Kevin Gardner