(Managing the global environment)

Technical Report · Tue Oct 03 00:00:00 EDT 1989

OSTI ID:5568499

Rayner, S F

The conference was stimulated by concern that policy makers increasingly have to make environmental management decisions in the absence of solidly established scientific consensus about ecological processes and the consequences of human actions. Often, as in the case of climate change, some decisions may have to be made in the absence of information that is desirable but may not be available for years to come, if ever. Six topics were identified as running throughout the Congress. These were: the epistemology and history of the sciences or disciplines concerned with the environment, including the scientific basis of rationality and modes of dealing with uncertainty and complexity; the social, economic, and institutional conditions for the production of knowledge bearing on the environment, including the politics of research and the improvement of scientific data; the structuring and institutionalization of expert assessments on national and international levels, including the global distribution of expertise; the means of establishing scientific information, the role of the media in transmitting and processing knowledge about the environment, and the organization of public environmental debate; and decision making and management under conditions of uncertainty; and, finally the relationship between science and ethics. 13 refs.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE/EH
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 5568499
• Report Number(s): ORNL/FTR-3403; ON: DE90001396
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
GLOBAL ASPECTS
BIOLOGICAL MODELS
DATA ANALYSIS
DECISION MAKING
ECONOMICS
ETHICAL ASPECTS
FORECASTING
FRANCE
GREENHOUSE EFFECT
INFORMATION DISSEMINATION
INSTITUTIONAL SECTOR
MEETINGS
PUBLIC HEALTH
RISK ASSESSMENT
SOCIAL IMPACT
TRAVEL
UNITED KINGDOM
WATER QUALITY
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
EUROPE
GOVERNMENT POLICIES
500200* - Environment
Atmospheric- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (-1989)
570000 - Health & Safety
530100 - Environmental-Social Aspects of Energy Technologies- Social & Economic Studies- (-1989)
530200 - Environmental-Social Aspects of Energy Technologies- Assessment of Energy Technologies- (-1989)