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| News & Events > Distinguished Lecture Series |
Science, Values, and Climate Change: Probing the Limits of ObjectivityDaniel SarewitzDirector, Center for Science, Policy, and Outcomes More than a decade and $20 billion into the U.S. Global Climate Change Research Program, and after a series of massive assessments from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, it is fair to say that these scientific endeavors have had little discernible impact on societal efforts to confront the challenges posed by a dynamic climate. A simple interpretation of this situation might be that politicians simply lack the will to pay attention to the science and take appropriate action. Another interpretation might hold that five or ten more years of research will provide the knowledge necessary to guide political response. In this talk I will present a different perspective. The importance of climate change research for policy making has been justified by three widely held assumptions: first, that science can reduce policy-relevant uncertainties about climate change; second, that reducing uncertainties will catalyze effective policy making; and third, that reducing uncertainties is necessary for effective policy making. These assumptions are analytically and logically false. They derive from a misunderstanding of the relations between facts and values in science and politics. I will present a more realistic framework for viewing the role of science in decision making, and then discuss the implications of this framework for climate change research priorities, and environmental science more generally. About the LecturerDaniel Sarewitz is the Director of Columbia University's Center for Science, Policy, and Outcomes in Washington, DC. His work focuses on understanding and strengthening the connections between scientific research and social benefit. He is the author of Frontiers of Illusion: Science, Technology, and the Politics of Progress (1996), and the co-editor of Prediction: Science, Decision-Making, and the Future of Nature (2000), and the forthcoming Living with the Genie: Essays on Technology and the Quest for Human Mastery, among many other published works. From 1989-1993, he was science consultant to the House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, and principal speech writer for Committee Chairman George E. Brown, Jr. Before moving into the policy arena, Dan was a research associate and lecturer in the Dept. of Geological Sciences at Cornell University. He received his Ph.D. in geological sciences from Cornell in 1986. More Information |
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