Crossing Borders, Crossing Boundaries: The Role of Scientists in the U.S. Acid Rain Debate

by Leslie R. Alm

Overview

Alm provides a descriptive analysis of the science-policy linkage that defined the policy debate over acid rain in the United States. He focuses on the role that science and scientists played in both defining the acid rain problem as one worthy of policy consideration and in framing the acid rain issue in a way that would prompt action to reduce pollution levels.

A major concern of Alm's study are the problems scientists have in connecting to the policy side of environmental debates. He provides in-depth exchanges from the floor of Congress between scientists and policy makers as they debated the merits of reducing acid rain pollution. These exchanges provide special insight into the difficulty that scientists have in communicating the findings of their research to policy makers and the public. In addition, he uses in-depth interviews with the acid-rain scientists themselves to delineate the way they perceive how science is and ought to be linked to the policy world. Finally, Alm looks at the different perspectives offered by United States scientists versus Canadian scientists and natural scientists versus social scientists, and he examines the importance and implications of these differences to the future of environmental policy making in the United States.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275969165
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	05/30/2000
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

LESLIE R. ALM is Associate Professor of Political Science at Boise State University. An expert on environmental policy making, his essays and articles have appeared in various books and jourbanals, including Canadian-American Public Policy, The Jourbanal of Environmental Systems, and Science, Technology, and Human Values.

Table of Contents

Preface
The Science-Policy Linkage and Acid Rain
The Politics of Acid Rain: An Overview
Canada and the United States Acid Rain Debate
Science, Scientists, and Acid Rain
Scientists, Policy Makers, and Acid Rain
Scientists, Advocacy, and Objectivity
Acid Rain: From Science to Policy
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

Alm (political science, Boise State U.) takes the development of a transboundary air pollution policy between the US and Canada, centered on the problem of acid rain, as a case study to explore how science and scientists affect the making of environmental policy. Unlike most accounts of that influence, he takes the perspective of scientists rather than politicians, drawing on surveys and interviews conducted with scientists from both countries over three different time periods between 1989 and 1997. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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