How Science Makes Environmental Controversies Worse

How Science Makes Environmental Controversies Worse

Sarewitz, Daniel
Environmental Science & Policy 7, no. 5 (2004): 385-403
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2004.06.001

“From these brief discussions I hope to have made clear that there is no reason why environmental controversies must be highly “scientized.” Even if science brings such a controversy into focus (for example, by documenting a rise in atmospheric greenhouse gases), the controversy itself exists only because conflict over values and interests also exists. Bringing the value disputes concealed by—and embodied in—science into the foreground of political process is likely to be a crucial factor in turning such controversies into successful democratic action, and perhaps as well for stimulating the evolution of new values that reflect the global environmental context in which humanity now finds itself... ”

— Daniel Sarewitz