Limnology and the post-normal imperative: an African perspective

摘要

"An implicit and almost universal assumption of discussions published in professional and semi-popular scientific journals is that the problem under discussion has a technical solution. A technical solution may be defined as one that requires a change only in the techniques of the natural sciences, demanding little or nothing in the way of change in human values or ideas of morality." Hardin 1968 Although it is 40 years since Hardin wrote these words, when I consider the redefinition of limnology they seem as applicable today as they where back then. Despite the undisputa-ble fact that great strides have been made across the spectrum of limnology during the tenure of the International Society for Theoretical and Applied Limnology (SIL), the continued poor state of the global water resources presents a serious "problem" to humanity. The question for us is, "To what extent does limnology as a discipline, and particularly limnology as portrayed by the outputs of SIL, currently engage the challenge?" And, in deference to Hardin, to what extent are the technical solutions we offer defined by, or tempered with, human values? A quick search through the contents pages of the Proceedings of the 29th SIL Congress suggests that despite being a society of "theoretical and applied limnology," less than 2% of papers struck me as "theoretical" and about 10% as "applied," almost all of which were aimed at achieving a "technical solution" to a problem defined in scientific terms.