Keep policymakers honest, top scientist says

Australian ecologists urged to speak out when evidence is misrepresented or “replaced with magical thinking”

Ecology researchers in Australia are still struggling with the balance between speaking out on big issues and maintaining good relationships with government and businesses, a leading scientist has said.

Speaking at the Ecological Society of Australia’s annual conference on 22 November, Martine Maron, a professor in the University of Queensland’s school of earth and environmental sciences, said that researchers were often faced with “tradeoffs” in their work.