Why Objective Science Does Not Resolve Environmental Policy Issues.

Policy vehicles such as the 2001 Data Quality Act and the Trump Administration "Transparency" rule inappropriately conflate this simplistic model of science with the integrated multi-disciplinary assessments (see Figure 2) that are necessary to inform real-life environmental policy interventions.(Adapted from Helmenstine 2021, note 28.) PHOTO (COLOR): Figure 2. The Scientific Method: It is common to hear admonitions that policy must be informed by science; that policy actions must be "grounded" by an "adequate foundation" of objective science. The Role of Judgment in the Application of Science to Environmental Policy Questions: The EPA Weight of Evidence process provides a good, if somewhat generalized, depiction of how scientific methods and information are deployed in the context of environmental policy. [Extracted from the article]