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ECOLOGICAL POLICY: DEFINING APPROPRIATE ROLES FOR SCIENCE AND SCIENTISTS - 8/2006
Citation:
LACKEY, R. T. ECOLOGICAL POLICY: DEFINING APPROPRIATE ROLES FOR SCIENCE AND SCIENTISTS - 8/2006. Presented at Seminar, Hatfield Marine Science Center, Oregon State University, Newport, OR, August 10, 2006.
Description:
Resolving many ecological policy issues requires an array of scientific information. The ability of scientists (and scientific information) to constructively inform policy deliberations diminishes when what is offered as "science" is inculcated with personal policy preferences. Science is not free of values, nor is it objectively independent, but it should be policy-neutral. By definition, scientific information is "normative" when it contains implicit policy preferences and thus, by extension, promotes or at least tends to favor particular policy options. Normative science may corrupt deliberative process for developing sound ecological policy because it can be a tool for policy advocacy that operates under the guise of policy-neutral science. With its implicitly derived value and preference character, normative science provides little substantive help in reconciling the most divisive elements of ecological policy. My recommendation is for scientists to play the vital role of informing ecological policy discussions by providing policy-neutral scientific information, but the role of scientists should be carefully circumscribed. Scientific information is important, even essential, for developing wise ecological policies, but scientists should be vigilant to letting personal policy preferences infect their scientific input.