Communicating science - mission impossible?

Abstract

Knowledge sharing Water resource and other environmental and related social issues have become so complex that there is increasing pressure for science to serve society via the decision-making needs of elected officials. But how is this to be achieved, especially when we perceive the scientific and political worlds to be divergent in terminology, values and objectives? For the most part, scientists do not make much of an effort to communicate their findings to politicians. When scientists do communicate with government, their attempts are often limited to providing politicians with complicated scientific reports. These are sometimes incomprehensible to non-specialists and may not be user friendly or adequately integrated for decision-making. Thus, while scientists do try to communicate sometimes, they tend to make assumptions about the palatability of their products to a political recipient. The apparently obvious answer to this problem would be for scientists to package their information more effectively.

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