As a part of UW-Madison's Green Week,"" students gathered in Science Hall Monday to hear UW-Madison botany professor Timothy Allen speak on the issues of going green.
Allen explained the role of narrative and myth in ecological economics, the study of economics in a world with environmental limitations.
Allen discussed the differences between how ecologists and economists view available resources, and the goal of combining the two for more complete ""stories"" about the environmental system.
According to Allen, attempts to solve global warming and international energy initiatives are not succeeding because scientists need newer issues to guide their experiments.
""In social sciences there are values everywhere and you can't sweep them under a rug. You must have a narrative,"" he said, adding narratives are necessary to inform the public of certain social theories. Allen said the main problem is that scientists are not trained in how to use narratives correctly.
""They don't know how to tell stories; they are brutally literalists. They find it really hard to recognize they have got a narrative,"" Allen said.
According to Allen, scientists usually do not begin investigating an issue with an outline of what questions they are trying answer.
Allen stressed the importance of educating scientists by having people with backgrounds in humanities to assist in interpreting narratives.
""What we need are people in the humanities to come in as principle investigators with veto power over what goes on in the lab,"" Allen said. ""When scientists don't know what they are going to study, get some guy from the humanities because that is what will save you.""
Allen said scientists might feel uncomfortable with this idea, but change is necessary in order to get scientist's objectives organized.
""Being green is about taking responsibility for your narratives,"" Allen said.
Allen ended the presentation by reminding the audience of the importance of their involvement.
""Get informed, get real and be prepared to make hard decisions,"" Allen said. ""These are very difficult times, and we need all different sorts of people with different perspectives, and we certainly need self-righteous green people drawing attention to how dreadful things are.""
