Role Of Environmental Scientists

Environmental scientists play a key role in society"s responses to environmental problems

, and many of the studies they perform are intended ultimately to affect policy. The precautionary principle, proposed as a new guideline in environmental decision making, has four central components: taking preventive action in the face of uncertainty; shifting the burden of proof to the proponents of an activity; exploring a wide range of alternatives to possibly harmful actions; and increasing public participation in decision making. In this paper we examine the implications of the precautionary principle for environmental scientists, whose work often involves studying highly complex, poorly understood systems, while at the same time facing conflicting pressures from those who seek to balance economic growth and environmental protection. In this complicated and contested terrain, it is useful to examine the methodologies of science and to consider ways that, without compromising integrity and objectivity, research can be more or less helpful to those who would act with precaution. We argue that a shift to more precautionary policies creates opportunities and challenges for scientists to think differently about the ways they conduct studies and communicate results. There is a complicated feedback relation between the discoveries of science and the setting of policy. While maintaining their objectivity and focus on understanding the world, environmental scientists should be aware of the policy uses of their work and of their social responsibility to do science that protects human health and the environment. The precautionary principle highlights this tight, challenging linkage between science and policy.

Introduction

The precautionary principle encourages policies that protect human health and the environment in the face of uncertain risks. In this broad sense it is not a new concept, and some may object to giving it a new name, when similar ideas go by different names in other disciplines. For example, public health practitioners use the term primary prevention to mean much the same thing. The physician"s obligation to first do no harm is a precautionary approach to treating a sick person. The governments of several Scandinavian countries have made regulatory decisions about electromagnetic fields and other hazards using a concept called prudent avoidance, which is also similar The term precautionary principle has the advantage that it provides an overarching framework that links environmental sciences and public health.

Motivating Factors

The precautionary principle has arisen because of the perception that the pace of efforts to combat problems such as climate change, ecosystem degradation, and resource depletion is too slow and that environmental and health problems continue to grow more rapidly than society"s ability to identify and correct them. In addition, the potential for catastrophic effects on global ecologic systems has weakened confidence in the abilities of environmental science and policy to identify and control hazards. There are also the apparent contradictions of our regulatory process: if the laws governing toxic chemical release are effective, then why are mercury levels in freshwater fish so high that pregnant women should not eat them ? How is it possible that human breast milk may not meet U.S. Food and Drug Administration contaminant limits for baby food

Narrow Definition of Uncertainty

The formal evaluation of error or uncertainty in many environmental science papers is limited to a presentation of p-values or confidence intervals for the main results. Beyond this, there may be a qualitative examination of limitations of the findings, which is relegated to the discussion section at the end of the paper. The standard p-values and confidence intervals indicate the magnitude of potential error in the statistical parameter estimates due strictly to sampling variability. But in observational studies of complex, poorly understood systems, this may be the least important source of uncertainty. Potentially more important are errors in the independent variables, errors arising from choice of the wrong form for the model(s) used to analyze and interpret the data, and biases from problems in the conduct of the study.

Limitations

Environmental scientists study highly complex, poorly understood systems. Often the most informative experiments cannot be conducted for logistical or ethical reasons (there is only one Atlantic Ocean to study; potential carcinogens cannot be administered to humans in double-blind trials). At the same time, this work is of great interest to those who seek to balance economic growth and environmental protection. In this complicated and contested terrain, it is useful to examine the methodologies of science and to consider ways that, without compromising integrity and objectivity, research can be more or less helpful to those who would act with precaution. It would, for example, be useful to policy makers if scientists were more explicit about the limits of knowledge and about the nature and amount of uncertainty in research findings.

Conclusion

It is important to clearly distinguish between the development of scientific information about an issue and the setting of policy, but in practice, there is not always an unambiguous demarcation. Policy makers set agendas that determine the questions asked of scientists; scientists formulate hypotheses in ways limited by their tools and their imaginations; thus, the information they provide to the policy makers is limited and to a degree socially determined. There is a complicated feedback relation between the discoveries of science and the setting of policy. While maintaining their objectivity and focus on understanding the world, environmental scientists should be aware of the policy uses of their work and of their social responsibility to do science that protects human health and the environment.

by: Navin

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