Edward Laws
School of the Coast and Environment
Louisiana State University
Abstract:
Environmental policies and regulations reflect decisions influenced by a variety of inputs. Information from the natural sciences is invariably one of those inputs, but social science, political science, and economics also come into play. The impact of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans has provided a provocative example of how these various inputs influenced decision making, sometimes with disastrous results. Post hoc analyses have made it clear that failure to take into account the long-term consequences of environmental policies is foolish. Unfortunately the educational system in the United States tends to produce environmental policy makers who lack adequate training in the natural sciences, and this can lead to very unenlightened decision making. Environmental science is inherently interdisciplinary. The challenge for institutions of higher education is to produce graduates who have the tools they need to address environmental problems in an informed way. The ongoing debate (and a lawsuit) involving EPA policies with respect to monitoring of public water supplies, wastewater, and recreational waters provides a good example of the way social, political, and economic forces influence environmental policies that are officially rationalized largely on the basis of information derived from the natural sciences.