Discerning Experts: The Practices of Scientific Assessment for Environmental Policy

Michael Oppenheimer · Naomi Oreskes · Dale Jamieson · Keynyn Brysse · Jessica O'Reilly · Matthew Shindell · Milena Wazeck

2019-03 · University of Chicago Press

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This groundbreaking study of environmental assessment “provides an essential examination of the factors that shape and dictate our climate policy” (Choice).

Discerning Experts reexamines the assessments that many governments rely on to help guide environmental policy and action. Through their close look at reports involving acid rain, ozone depletion, and sea level rise, the authors explore how experts deliberate and decide on the scientific facts about problems like climate change. They also seek to understand how the scientists involved make the judgments they do, how the organization and management of assessment activities affects those judgments, and how expertise is identified and constructed.

Discerning Experts uncovers factors that can generate systematic bias and error, and recommends how the process can be improved. As the first study of the internal workings of large environmental assessments, this book reveals their strengths and weaknesses, and explains what assessments can—and cannot—be expected to contribute to public policy and the common good.

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Michael Oppenheimer is the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs at Princeton University. Naomi Oreskes is professor of the history of science at Harvard University. Dale Jamieson is professor of environmental studies and philosophy at New York University. Keynyn Brysse is a historian of science with a focus on the history of paleontology. Jessica O’Reilly is an assistant professor of international studies at Indiana University Bloomington. Matthew Shindell is a space history curator at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. Milena Wazeck is a historian of science and the author of Einstein’s Opponents.