The challenge of soil science meeting society's demands in a “post-truth”, “fact free” world

Abstract

Assuming that “post-truth” and “fact-free” attitudes are only symptoms of deeper misgivings about “elite” behavior of scientists and lack of understanding of the scientific method, approaches to overcome problems should focus on improved interaction processes and on ways to better illustrate the goals of science. Regarding interaction processes, soil science has a rich history cooperating and interacting with land users that can be continued by closely involving stakeholders when defining goals and research procedures, creating joint learning and ownership, negating possible “elite” impressions. This takes a lot of time that is not available in current scientific regimes, that will have to change. Clear goals of land-related science can be derived from the UN-Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's) with a broad societal focus offering excellent opportunities for soil science to show its crucial role in reaching several of the land-related SDG's. This will require active cooperation with other sciences going beyond delivering basic data. Use of soil-water-plant-climate simulation models can facilitate interdisciplinary cooperation. Internally, the soil science community can form Communities of Scientific Practice where basic and applied scientists work in a team with knowledge brokers and educators. Soil science has a bright future because it has a central position when considering SDG's and a comprehensive systems analysis of the soil-water-plant-climate system, aiming at several SDG's at the same time, presents a promising direction for future research.