The war on the right to know.

• Author: Runyan, Curtis
• Position: Brief Article - Editorial

In October 2001 a new international treaty, the Aarhus Convention, went into force. This far-reaching community right-to-know law, ratified by close to 20 European countries, mandates that signatory governments increase information sharing and consult with their citizens on environmental matters. The convention, an "ambitious venture in environmental democracy," as U.N Secretary-General Kofi Annan called it, requires public access to information about local environmental quality (such as pollution from industrial facilities) and gives citizens opportunities to review and comment on new projects with environmental impacts.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic in the United States, security concerns incited a number of efforts to curtail open access to information. Government agencies and industries shredded reports, restricted access to databases, and shut down websites containing material that might aid terrorists. The U.S. Geological Survey requested that libraries destroy its new publication charting the sources of public water supplies. The Office of Pipeline Safety cut access to its internet maps and pipeline data. And the Environmental Protection Agency put holds on all information about chemical plants and disaster-response plans for nearby communities (the reports can still be viewed, but not copied, in a few secure reading rooms). "People have a right to know what kinds of risks there are," an EPA official told the Associated Press. "But unfortunately terrorists are people, too."

Of course it is important to strike a balance between open access to information and the need to protect a nation's security. But locking up information about environmental hazards is likely to be more life threatening than a terrorist attack. Take the 1984 Union Carbide disaster in Bophal...