Scientific Illiteracy

[James Marple <jesl@carolina.net>]

David Hahn-Baker

Your explanation of experiential knowledge will be appreciated by most EPA techs.  I've had senior County engineers trumpet to officials that Professional Engineers I invited to provide an opinion on managing our watershed "can't possibly understand this area's problems because they haven't seen the floodwaters that did terrible damage to it", yet in the same discussion these engineers insisted my own personal experience in grading over fifteen thousand homesites was of no value since I was not a Professional Engineer.  Yes, they could have it both ways, because the politicians they were speaking to were only looking for ways to justify approval of a $90 million rainwater disposal project instead of the $700,000 rainwater retention one I suggested as an alternative. With such an enormous difference in cost it was easy to accept that my testimony was incompetent so that they could approve channelization that will exacerbate the loss of rainfall in South Coast California where water is worth well over $1,000 yearly to a household.  (The approved project will maximize aquifer pollution and dump additional billions of gallons upon downstream properties during major storms, with the potential for even greater damage than the more than $100 million done in '93.)  

Is experiential knowledge valuable?  That depends on how the person who has it presents it.  If the audience doesn't care to accept it for whatever reason, it is useless. Those who serve profiteers are hired for the ability to convincingly point to anecdotal evidence when this suits their ends, yet dismiss it as inadequate otherwise.  Those who serve profiteers are masters and pointing to anecdotal evidence when it suits their ends yet dismissing it otherwise.  

When you refer to common sense you sum up the 'problem' of an apparently ignorant public.  Individuals cannot have all the specific knowledge needed to discuss details meaningfully, but they don't need this! Planning must begin with concepts and persons who lack specialized training, which imposes tunnel vision on experts, are better able to deal with conceptual planning than specialists.  An 'ordinary' person is fully capable of choosing the most sensible means to keep pollutants from entering their drinking water, as long as public servants have done a good job of informing them. Only rarely will there be more than one sensible planning route, more than a single choice to be made at each stage of planning.  Planners who set up a choice between several options without fully and fairly illuminating every step leading up to these are either incompetent or dishonest.  

One needs not count the pathogens or toxic particles that flow from a sewage outfall to recognize that these can cumulatively damage a fetus.  We don't have to be able to name each constituent of a mine's outflow or farmlands runoff to know that these will be concentrated by surface transport and storage evaporation into what may be a harmful amount.  

All public servants have an obligation to fully and fairly inform us about how our affairs are being managed, just as a banker must tell us our balance or doctor advise of our chances to see another Christmas.  But the USEPA and USDA are specifically instructed to keep us aware of the conditions of our natural resources and our opportunities to manage these properly, so that that we may better choose and inform the persons we elect to represent us. 

As you point out, common sense is the major player in every planning game, dictating the path that should be followed.  Experts would like us all to believe we lack  qualification to decide whether it is best to intercept pollution where it originates or to try to control the fate of pollutants.  But accepting the premise that we cannot understand conceptual planning makes us vulnerable to the massive misdirection that has given us inexcusable flooding, water shortages and contamination. Local planners are but chauffeurs who pilot our vehicle, they should never dictate our destination.  Our EPA, USDA and State university public servants can provide the best road map and advice on road conditions, but each of us must choose goals according to our education, experience and common sense.