By Robert Sopuck, Frontier Centre for Public Policy

Environmental policy must be based on the good science and not emotion. In brief:
(1) Environmentalists can be divided into a number of categories ranging from “conservationists” who advocate a policy of “wise use” to the “deep ecologists” who tend to “humanize” nature.
(2) The public at large demands clear and unambiguous statements from environmental scientists while the scientists themselves are dealing with uncertainty and ever-changing information flows.
(3) Science has been described as the “self-correcting process of discovery” which means that what is the received wisdom of today may need to be discarded or modified based on new information.
(4) Policy makers must be aware of the flux inherent in environmental science and ensure that environmental policies must reflect the best science. Read more here.

Robert Sopuck directs the Centre’s Smart Green Frontiers Project which explores how to solve environmental problems without reducing human freedom.