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This book reveals how embedded beliefs more so than a lack of
scientific knowledge and understanding are creating a cognitive
bias toward information that coincides with personal beliefs rather
than scientific consensus—and that this anti-science bias exists
among liberals as well as conservatives. In 2010, an outbreak of
whooping cough in California infected more than 8,000 people,
resulting in the hospitalization of more than 800 people and the
death of 10 infants. In 2015, an outbreak of the measles in
Disneyland infected more than 125 people. Both the whooping cough
and the measles are vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs) that have
been largely nonexistent in the United States for decades. As these
cases demonstrate, individuals who prioritize ideology or personal
beliefs above scientific consensus can impinge on society at
large—and they illustrate how rejecting science has unfortunate
results for public health and for the environment. When Ideology
Trumps Science examines how proponents of scientific findings and
the scientists responsible for conducting and communicating the
applicable research to decision makers are encountering direct
challenges to scientific consensus. Using examples from high-stakes
policy debates centered on hot-button controversies such as climate
change, GMO foods, immunization, stem cell research,
abstinence-only education, and birth control, authors Wolters and
Steel document how the contested nature of contemporary
perspectives on science leads to the possibility that policymakers
will not take science into account when making decisions that
affect the general population. In addition, the book identifies
ways in which liberals and conservatives have both contested issues
of science when consensus diverges from their ideological positions
and values. It is a compelling must-read for public policy students
and practitioners.
The management of public lands in the West is a matter of
long-standing and oft-contentious debates. The government must
balance the interests of a variety of stakeholders, including
extractive industries like oil and timber; farmers, ranchers, and
fishers; Native Americans; tourists; and environmentalists. Local,
state, and government policies and approaches change according to
the vagaries of scientific knowledge, the American and global
economies, and political administrations. Occasionally, debates
over public land usage erupt into major incidents, as with the
armed occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016. While
a number of scholars work on the politics and policy of public land
management, there has been no central book on the topic since the
publication of Charles Davis's Western Public Lands and
Environmental Politics (Westview, 2001). In The Environmental
Politics and Policy of Western Public Lands, Erika Allen Wolters
and Brent Steel have assembled a stellar cast of scholars to
consider long-standing issues and topics such as endangered
species, land use, and water management while addressing more
recent challenges to western public lands like renewable energy
siting, fracking, Native American sovereignty, and land use
rebellions. Chapters also address the impact of climate change on
policy dimensions and scope.
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