Discerning Experts: The Practices of Scientific Assessment for Environmental Policy

Description

Discerning Experts assesses the assessments that many governments rely on to help guide environmental policy and action. Through their close look at environmental assessments involving acid rain, ozone depletion, and sea level rise, the authors explore how experts deliberate and decide on the scientific facts about problems like climate change. They also seek to understand how the scientists involved make the judgments they do, how the organization and management of assessment activities affects those judgments, and how expertise is identified and constructed. Discerning Experts uncovers factors that can generate systematic bias and error, and recommends how the process can be improved. As the first study of the internal workings of large environmental assessments, this book reveals their strengths and weaknesses, and explains what assessments can—and cannot—be expected to contribute to public policy and the common good. Contents......Page 8 Preface......Page 10 List of Abbreviations......Page 14 1. The Need for Expert Judgment......Page 18 2. A ssessing Acid Rain in the United States: The National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program......Page 36 3. Assessing Ozone Depletion......Page 98 4. Assessing the Ice: Sea Level Rise Predictions from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, 1981–2007......Page 144 5. Patrolling the Science/Policy Border......Page 188 6. What Assessments Do......Page 212 Conclusion......Page 228 List of Interviews......Page 240 Notes......Page 244 Bibliography......Page 274 Index......Page 290