Goodbye for now

Hello everyone - it's been a good ride. I intend to pick up this blog again in future when I have more time on my hands, but thank you for all your time and comments. I have thoroughly enjoyed writing here and I've learnt a lot, and I hope you all have as well (Or else I haven't done a very good job!). I'd like to leave you with one closing thought, or ramble as it may turn out to be.

Should we be optimistic? In writing this blog, I think I've definitely made more negative conclusions than I have positive. Whilst some of the facts and figures I, and many of my colleagues, have come across and written about are pretty sobering, I feel that it is important to maintain some kind of positive outlook, as hard as it may be. Yes, probably some things are set in stone from the emissions, chemicals and otherwise that are already in the earth systems but unless we try to fight to stop anything else being written off, the black list of species is going to be a lot longer. That fight is a hell of a lot easier if we don't give up, and that attitude needs to grow and extend beyond the reaches of academia.

As I've emphasised in many of my posts there is a relationship between society and the media and the sciences that we are wise not to ignore. Personally, I feel that there should be a dialogue between the public and academics and that those of us who have been privileged enough to learn have a responsibility to communicate some of these ideas to everyone else. In fact, I think this is an essential part of how we should approach global environmental issues such as climate change, mass extinctions and the rest of it. The interface between science and society is now more important than ever and I hope through this blog I have done (some of) my part in bridging that gap.

Thank you!

Thank you everyone!; Source.