A Social Scientist Meets Sciece - by Gcobani Qambela
('Paper' presented at the 2010 Applied Centre for Climate and Earth Systems (ACCESS) Symposia and Launch)
My name is Gcobani Qambela. I'm a graduate student studying towards Joint Honours in Anthropology and Politics and International Studies at Rhodes University, Eastern Cape, South Africa.
Despite coming from a social science background, I was immediately attracted to the ACCESS 'Habitable Planning Workshop' instantly upon seeing the advertisement for the 2010 workshop.
I grew up in a small village in Lady Frere (rural Eastern Cape) under the name of 'Bangindlala' and the house that we stay in is right by the river.
This river was central to the community for it served as the main source of water for all village inhabitants, and indeed it always had water in abundance for us to the extent that the lower part of the river served as a "swimming pool" for us.
Having been away from home for a few years I was disturbed when I went back in late 2006/early ‘07 to find that the water had essentially run out from the river and that the majority of the people in the village were struggling to find alternative sources of water.
This I believe was the starting point in my interest in the creation of sustainable and habitable conditions on planet earth. For the first time, although climate change had been a ‘buzzword’ in South Africa for a while, it no longer became a mere theoretical model that was detached from me and my community - it became a reality that needed to be uprooted, and while I had no scientific background I knew that whatever career I went into - It would have to be an communal/African resource, for I knew somehow I must do something to assist.
I thus chose a wide array of majors (like Law, Politics, and Anthropology) and minors (like Journalism and Media Studies and African languages). These majors have equipped me with vital skills to gaze critically at both what transpires at the macro level and how it is received at the micro/local level.
I especially enjoyed politics and anthropology with their respective focus on the humans (anthropology) and the role of institutions and governments departments (politics) in influencing both social and environmental change.
I was thus honoured when I was accepted to attend the 2010 Habitable Planet Planning Workshop. The workshop exposed me to critical Earth Science tools necessary to maintain conditions on planet earth habitable, not only for our own generation, but also for future generations.
I learnt that whilst Earth Science tools are important, climate change and global warming are too serious issues to be left to scientists alone. There is a need for a multi-disciplinary look at the human-environmental relationships both in the past and in the present to understand their future impact on climate change and global warming.
The workshop further refuted the largely sensationalist reports on climate change and global warming which are often portrayed as irreversible and all “doom and gloom.” As my esteemed colleagues have shown - this is not yet case (or at least not yet) as we are living at a very special time, for the climate in the world at the moment is “not too hot, not too cold.”
This therefore affords Africa, especially strategically placed Southern Africa in a position to carve out new modes of development that are not premised on high carbon emissions. Africa thus has an opportunity to take the lead in issues of climate change and global warming in pushing for novel solutions to these pressing issues that threaten our very existence.
Both the elders therefore and the youth (both within science and in other disciplines) need to take the lead and be the vanguards of social change. We should as echoed in the 2010 Workshop treat climate change and global warming like most people treat health/personal/household insurance. Although both these issues are highly contested and some leading academics and key policy makers have argued that humans should not concern themselves with these issues. Even if nothing happens, we lose nothing by protecting ourselves - just in-case...
However before these issues can be properly addressed, we further learnt on one of the 2010 Workshop fieldtrips to Hamburg that environmental issues also cannot be separated from social issues. Poverty is still a reality that most of South Africa’s communities have to live with. Science is still a subject that is accessible only to a few of South Africa’s population.
One woman that we met for instance, uMama ‘uNozethi brought our attention her previous illegal poaching activities of abalone in Hamburg to provide subsistence for her family (although such poaching has negative effects on the abalone as it takes a very long time grow again). She noted the need for scientists to help them maintain their abundant fauna and flora that Hamburg houses for when they were poaching abalone they were not cognisant of the detrimental effect that this had on the environment.
She concluded that “we want nature - we do not degradation”: and thus scientists are charged to help communities (together with other disciplines) to coach communities to better utilise their natural capital as a sustainable safety net to provide subsistence for both the present communities and the future ones.
The Hamburg trip again showed the flaw in science as a discipline working alone. While science does indeed help to explain things, it never tells people how to live their lives - the ethical issues are largely ignored.
The scientific approach is traditionally top down, and I believe Mam' Mazethi's story clearly shows a bottom up approach is needed to making science more accessible even to no-scientists. Telling people what to do from a top down approach clearly did not work, even though they knew poaching abalone was illegal.
It was only when scientists sat down and worked with them and explained to them the environmental effects of poaching that they stopped and started to find alternative means of income (where social scientists also came in and helped).
Before attending the 2010 workshop I was met with a lot of apprehension. While I was excited about the workshop, I was also worried about my ability to comprehend and engage with science having last done it in high school.
However I was pleasantly surprised at how accessible the workshop was presented. While we still did engage with 'real' science. It was really surreal to experience and witness how the presenters at the workshop utilised the environment as a vehicle to tantalising interest in science. The workshop exposed me to the best kept secret in the world – it showed me that science can indeed be "fun" when presented in a accessible, bottom-up and comprehendible manner.
I believe therefore that key policy makers should especially tap into the energy and tenacity of the youth, especially those who have not yet been fortunate enough to gain exposure to science. Indeed when the honourable deputy-minister retires we are going to need younger people to fill up such positions.
I strongly believe therefore that we need more initiatives like the ACCESS Habitable planet, to educate and train not only university students but also go out into communities to communities to inform them of viable ways of existence that will not jeopardize our environment and also show them that science is not only for ‘nerds’ but that it too can also be hip and fun.
Can we do it? "YES WE CAN" :-)
With the Deputy Minister of Science and Technology in South Africa: Derek Hanekom
