In a 2003 issue of Science magazine, Tulane Law School Professor Oliver Houck wrote about the troubled marriage between law and science. Simply put, law seeks certainty and rules, while science deals with nuanced and complex data that is far from absolute.
Climate chage now is arguably more a political issue than a legal or scientific one, at least to the extent nations struggle with whether they should regulate carbon. In my College Magazine of the University of Chicago, The Core, I came across the winning essay of the John Crear Foundation Science Writing Prize for College Students entitled “Karl Popper and Antartic Ice: The Climate Debate and Its Problems.” It is certainly worth a read for it illustrates that difficulty that politics (as law) have in dealing with science.
July 30, 2010 at 11:13 AM
Jason–great blog! thanks for posting the link to this essay.
July 30, 2010 at 12:47 PM
Thanks!