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Towards a strategic interface: SAEON vis-à-vis SA business
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From mountain top to ocean floor - the scope of SAEON’s systematic long-term environmental observations is clearly articulated in this issue.
SAEON’s six nodes are functioning beyond expectation due to the resourcefulness of the scientific staff and the excellent services provided by the support staff. Our own data sets are growing steadily, which is giving rise to that pre-dawn excitement of a drama looming just below the horizon ...
Wanted - a Chief Research Scientist for SAEON
The time is ripe for the recruitment of a Chief Research Scientist to play a leading role in taking SAEON’s science to higher levels. This position will undoubtedly be a life-changing opportunity for the deserving candidate.
One area in which SAEON is growing slowly, is that of offering direct value to business in South Africa. Currently, with funding from the mining, energy and conservation sectors, SAEON is doing research and collecting a limited amount of observational data. The bulk of SAEON research has general value for society at large and is therefore funded by the public.
Business impacts on Earth systems
Formal business is arguably the largest user of all forms of natural resources and impacts on Earth systems in significant ways. South Africa’s business sector is therefore in a crucial position to bring about positive changes in Earth systems if it will muster all its resources and available knowledge for that purpose.
Instigating those changes will require a change in organisational mindsets from mere compliance with the law and regulations to a realistic long-term view of business sustainability as severely threatened by hazardous climatic events and deteriorating ecosystem services. This is also the morally correct position to take in view of the potentially catastrophic impact of environmental changes on the human population. Leonard Cohen’s lyrics come to mind: “Get ready for the future: it is murder”.
SAEON and SA business
How then may SAEON and South African business join hands to brave an uneasy future? SAEON’s expertise is in establishing systematic observing programmes to inform on exactly how ecosystems are changing as a result of human activity. Where appropriate and as is already happening, business may involve SAEON when designing and adopting new practices that are designed to be ‘environmentally friendly’.
SAEON is capable of measuring the impact of new practices on the specific natural resources at which these improvements are directed. These measurements will serve to validate or adjust the particular practices, and the business will therefore be able to show evidence of the usefulness of the new business strategy.
Such SAEON-Business collaborations will provide SAEON with opportunities to research real-life experiments and to gain additional data that could inform the improvement of theory, leading to an improved understanding of how ecosystems respond to various stressors.
