A friend of mine, a hydrologist doing actual hydrology, simplified something I’ve been thinking about. He said when his work crosses over to the environmental field it’s like a vacation. There’s no charts or data to analyze. It’s simply check-the-box, compliance, and explaining. “There’s no real science anymore.” That’s the line that hit me. Although I refer to myself as an environmental scientist, I’d been thinking about how I do little actual science. Then he said it. “There’s no real science left in the environmental field.” Bam! He’s right, from a certain point of view. Is science gone from the environmental field? Continue reading