Jonathan Adler on science and public policy

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Jonathan Adler on science and public policy

Sunday, November 29th, 2009 | Environment, Political Survival Kit, Quotes, Science |

Jonathan Adler - “‘We’re the Experts, Trust Us,’ Has Clearly Gone by the Wayside”:

The effort to compile an “official” scientific “consensus” into a single document, approved by governments, has exacerbated the pressures to politicize policy-relevant science. So too has been the tendency to pretend as if resolving the scientific questions will resolve policy disputes. This is a dangerous pretense. Science can — indeed must — inform policy judgments, but it does not determine such judgments. It can tell us what is, and perhaps what will be, but it cannot tell us what should be. A more honest climate policy debate would acknowledge that there are uncertainties, acknowledge that there are risks of action and inaction alike, and focus on the relative merits of different ways to address the real, albeit necessarily uncerain, risks of climate change.

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Tags: climategate, global warming

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