Description

My thesis is that the genesis of unrealistic, unresponsive, or inappropriate environmental policy at the business, national government, and trans-national levels derives, not from lack
of scientific data, economic capability, or political will, but from an unwillingness to adequately name and confront the “powers and dominions;” the System which routinely places its own survival and well-being over the economic, social, and biological sustainability of the earth’s natural systems (“the environment”). From this vantage, ecological policy-making requires much more than the thoughtful practice of marshalling scientific data and producing convincing arguments of economic feasibility or prudence. In addition, ecological policy-making requires an illuminating vision and embodiment of alternatives to those aspects of the System that are sowing death instead of life on earth. One place to start thinking through what post-modern ecological policy making looks like is to investigate the conflictual hermeneutical strategies for interpreting a common set of data to produce facts (interpreted data) on a specific environmental policy topic of import.