The ethics of communicating scientific uncertainty: Understanding how scientists, environmental lawyers, and reporters treat uncertainty

Environmental Law Institute

Investigators

Abstract

This award to the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) supports a 1.5-day multi-disciplinary workshop in Washington, D.C. at which scientists, lawyers, and media professionals will discuss how they address and communicate scientific uncertainty on environmental issues, subject to the ethical standards of their respective fields. In particular, the treatment of subjects such as climatology, weather forecasting, hydraulic fracturing, and synthetic biology inevitably requires that uncertainty be explained and addressed. The goal of this workshop is twofold: (1) to facilitate more effective cross-discipline communications by having participants better understand the approaches their peers take to scientific uncertainty and the ethical reasons underlying these approaches; and (2) to promote more transparent and constructive discussion of major environmental issues by ensuring that people understand the professional constraints on the scientific, legal, and media professionals charged with communicating the nature and importance of scientific uncertainty. Important questions of public policy often involve varying degrees of uncertainty in the science - for example, over what particular data or trends mean, or over the significance of a lack of data. Public decisions are heavily informed by the data, information, and analysis developed and communicated by scientists, lawyers, and members of the media. Each of these professions,however,thinks about scientific uncertainty differently with differences shaped, in large part, by internal ethical standards. This workshop, and the resulting proceedings which ELI will publish, could contribute to a fuller, fairer, and more transparent discourse on controversial public policy issues where decisions must be made in the face of scientific uncertainty. Additionally, the transfer of information at the workshop among a diverse range of scientific, legal, and media participants will allow them to draw on a new understanding when they are working with their peers in other professions. Ultimately, the long-term goal is better decision-making on matters of public policy significance that are affected by scientific uncertainty.