The Ethics of Communicating Scientific Uncertainty

• Date: 01 February 2015

2-2015 NEWS & ANALYSIS 45 ELR 10105

D I A L O G U E

The Ethics of Communicating

Scientif‌ic Uncertainty

Summary

Scientic uncertainty is inevitable in many public pol-

icy debates, especially in the environmental and public

health arena. Scientists, lawyers, and media profes-

sionals develop and communicate the data, informa-

tion, and analysis that inform public decisionmaking.

But each of these professions regards and communi-

cates scientic uncertainty dierently, in part due to

varying professional norms and ethical standards. On

September 12, 2014, the Environmental Law Institute

hosted a webinar to examine how the elds of science,

law, and journalism each address scientic uncer-

tainty, and how core professional norms shape the way

they communicate it. Below, we present a transcript of

the event, which has been edited for style, clarity, and

space considerations.

Jay Austin (moderator) is a Senior Attorney at ELI.

George Gray is Professor at George Washington Univer-

sity’s Department of Environmental and Occupational

Health and Director of the Center for Risk Science and

Public Health.

Jim Hilbert is Professor at William Mitchell College of

Law in St. Paul, MN, and Co-Director of the Expert Wit-

ness Training Academy.

David Poulson is Senior A ssociate Director of the

Knig ht Center for E nvironmenta l Journalism at Michi-

gan St ate Universit y.

Jay Austin: I’d like to welcome everyone to this ELI dia-

logue on the ethics of communicating scientic uncer-

tainty. My name is Jay Austin. I’m a senior attorney at ELI,

and I’ll be moderating today. is dialogue is a companion

to a workshop1 that ELI hosted in Washington, D.C., in

September 2014. Both events were organized with support

from the National Science Foundation’s Paleoclimate Pro-

gram.2 e listening audience today is drawn both from

participants in the workshop and from ELI’s broader net-

work of law and policy mavens.

1. Visit Environmental Law Institute, Ethics of Communicating Scientic

Uncertainty, http://www.eli.org/scientic-uncertainty.

2. For more information, visit the National Science Foundation’s website at

http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=12727.

e goal of the two events is to bring together three

disparate groups—scientists, lawyers, and journalists—to

discuss the topic of uncertainty and, more specically, to

compare notes on how each of these professions communi-

cates about scientic uncertainty within their professions,

between the various professions, and to a larger audience

including the general public.

We’re hoping to ta lk about the norms and standards

that guide each of these groups and to tr y to reach a bet-

ter or common understanding of how they approach com-

plex scientic topics. at includes big topics like climate

change with all the attendant uncerta inty, but also reaches

into essentially every area of environmental and public

health policy where decisions are being made based on

uncertain or incomplete information.

at’s a general summary of our scope, and I think our

speakers will help rene it. We’ve got an extremely dist in-

guished panel of experts and teachers to get us started. In

the order you’ll be hearing from them, we have George

Gray, a professor at George Washington University’s

Department of Environmental and Occupational Health

and also director of the Center for Risk Science and Public

Health. Jim Hilbert is a professor at the William Mitchell

College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, and co-director of

the Expert Witness Training Academy there. And David

Poulson is senior associate director of the Knight Center for

Environmental Journalism at Michigan State University.

I’ve asked each of these folks to talk from the perspective

of a longtime practitioner of their respective professions

and to introduce the rest of us to what it means to think

about uncertainty the way that a scientist or lawyer or jour-

nalist does. After they’ve nished their presentations, there

should be some time left for questions.

George Gray: I’m going to talk about how users of science

think about uncertainty. When I say “users,” I’m focusing

on the risk assessment process, which is where individual

acts of science done in a laboratory or out in the eld or

making measurements are brought together to help inform

decisions that we’re going to make as a society. e norm

is full disclosure, and I’ll show you some examples of that

as we go along.

I want to start with a reminder that uncertainty is every-

where. Sometimes, it’s not acknowledged, but it’s revealed.

For example, what if you had a concern about cel l phones

and brain cancer? You could look at the U.S. Food and

Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) fact sheet, where the agency

Copyright © 2015 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. Reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.