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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 7, NUMBER 3, MARCH 1994

PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS...

• OF GENERAL INTEREST: SCIENCE AND POLICY

Item #d94mar12

"Importance of Scientific Uncertainty in Decision Making," K.H. Reckhow (Sch. Environ., Duke Univ., Durham NC 27708), Environ. Mgmt., 18(2), 161-166, Mar.-Apr. 1994.

Illustrates with a simple example how we often informally account for uncertainty by hedging decisions away from large losses. This hedging can be made explicit and formalized using decision analysis. Scientific uncertainty warrants additional monitoring, experimentation, or information acquisition to improve the scientific basis for decisions.

Item #d94mar13

"Science, Policy and International Affairs: How Wrong the Great Can Be," W.A. Nierenberg (Scripps Inst. Oceanog. 0221, La Jolla CA 92093), Environ. Conserv., 20(3), 195-197, Autumn 1993.

A comment on the degree to which science finds its way into policy discussions, based on examples including climate change and acid precipitation. In view of the current rapid revision of knowledge on climate change, crisis actions can wait for at least another decade.

Item #d94mar14

"Science and Policy Making" (see Special issue: Ambio, 23(1), Feb. 1994).