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6 - Creating National Environmental Legacy Act Information: The Double Standard

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Walter A. Rosenbaum
Edited by
Alyson C. Flournoy  and
David M. Driesen
Alyson C. Flournoy
Affiliation:
University of Florida
David M. Driesen
Affiliation:
Syracuse University, New York
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Summary

In the scientific and technical world, information and data are commonly judged on their accuracy and precision, repeatability, and, more generally, the degree to which they truthfully reflect conditions in the real world.…In political and policymaking circles, a primary criteria for good information is relevance – does it deal directly with the question at hand, does it illuminate the issue in way that points to a solution?

Robin O'Malley, Kent Cavender-Barnes, and William Clark, Environment Magazine, May 1, 2003

THE NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LEGACY ACT (LEGACY ACT OR Act) would create a profound transformation in national resource policy if it did no more than declare a presumptive, clearly enforceable standard for the nation's future resource management. However, implementingthe Legacy Act's substantive goals also requires the utilization of a rich and, in many respects new, information base that must be sufficiently refined to be accessible to resource managers at many government levels. The Legacy Act is grounded in the development and refinement of this distinctive data foundation. State and local governments, as well as federal resource managers, will be substantially challenged by the innovations inherent to this essential data resource. In the end, the data required by and developed pursuant to Legacy Act should meet two standards: it should be scientifically and technically credible, and it should be policy relevant.

Type
Chapter
Information
Beyond Environmental Law
Policy Proposals for a Better Environmental Future
 , pp. 129 - 144
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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References

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