Resolving Conflicts Arising from the Privatization of Environmental Data (2001)

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WAR AND PEACE AMONG STAKEHOLDERS 65 States interpretation is that it is sufficient to label such posted data as not to be re-exported for commercial purposes. Whereas WMO Resolution 40 prevents private-sector organizations from competing with European governments, U.S. legislation is aimed at preventing the government from competing with the private sector (see Box 2.2). The commercial weather industry has testified to Congress on a number of occasions, calling for a reduction in services provided by NOAA's National Weather Service.b Some congressional committees have agreed, stating that the National Weather Service “should not directly or indirectly compete with the private sector” and directing it to confine its activities to those that “protect the lives and property of the general public.”c Such an instruction ignores all the other public-sector users of weather data, such as climate researchers. It is not a foregone conclusion that private-sector organizations will meet public-sector needs. Lessons learned. Legislating to prevent competition between government agencies and the private sector may not always be in the best interest of all the stakeholders. This is particularly true when there are several publicly funded activities that depend on the roots and trunk. A process for negotiating among stakeholders is needed at both the agency implementation level and the international policy level. a P.N.Weiss and P.Backlund, 1997, International information policy in conflict: Open and unrestricted access versus government commercialization, in Borders in Cyberspace: Information Policy and the Global Information Infrastructure, B.Kahin and C.Nesson eds., MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, p. 300–321. b For example, see the testimony before the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Energy and Environment by Michael S.Leavitt, on behalf of the Commercial Weather Services Association on April 9, 1997, 105th Congress, 1st session; and by Joel Myers on behalf of AccuWeather, Inc., on March 25, 1998, 105th Congress, 2nd session. c Report 106–146 to accompany H.R. 1553, the National Weather Service and Related Agencies Authorization Act of 1999, 106th Congress, 1st session. Confidential Government Data Data that are confidential because of national security or privacy concerns pose many of the same challenges as proprietary data. To be useful in public- purpose environmental information systems, the data must undergo a scientific audit (see Example 5.10), and be produced or 

WAR AND PEACE AMONG STAKEHOLDERS 66 gridded by trusted brokers to remove the confidential elements (see Examples 5.10 and 5.11). EXAMPLE 5.10 DECLASSIFICATION OF MILITARY DATA The U.S. government has been declassifying data for many years. The effort picked up speed in 1995, when then president Clinton signed two executive orders, one calling for the declassification of documents 25 years and older and the other specifically declassifying images from the first intelligence satellite systems.a Declassification has led to the release of many datasets of interest to the scientific community, including geodetic data that the civilian community can now use to study global ocean floor topography (collected by the Navy Geodetic satellite, GEOSAT), data on Arctic Ocean ice cover thickness (collected by submarines) that provide information relevant to the effects of global warming, and images from current satellite systems to support scientific investigations of atmosphere- ocean heat exchange in the Arctic.b Declassification of images taken by U.S. intelligence satellites is being facilitated by MEDEA, a group of scientists that works closely with the intelligence community to examine and use national security data for scientific research. Their audit gives other scientists confidence in the quality and reliability of the declassified images and information derived from currently classified data. Some of the images that have been released or are being reviewed for declassification have resolutions that are comparable to the resolution of commercial imagery. For example, the best resolution of declassified CORONA reconnaissance satellite images is 2 m, compared with 1 m commercial IKONOS data, although the CORONA data were collected 40 years before IKONOS.c The release of GAMBIT and HEXAGON imagery, which offer submeter resolutions in small areas and wide-area coverage at coarser resolutions, is under discussion. Because of the potential impact on the commercial market for high-resolution imagery, Congress is considering authorizing the Secretary of Defense to withhold images collected by the National Imagery and Mapping Agency that could “compete with, or otherwise adversely affect, commercial operations in any existing or emerging industry, or the operation of any existing or emerging commercial market”.d Applying this commercial filter would greatly slow the declassification of high-resolution imagery to the public and would hinder the availability of historical data. Yet, current observations are commonly far more valuable for deriving information when coupled with historical data. If data of potential commercial interest are withheld, the public will bear both the original cost of collecting the 

WAR AND PEACE AMONG STAKEHOLDERS 67 military data and the cost of obtaining similar data from a commercial vendor. Lessons learned. Declassified military data can be a valuable component of public-purpose information systems, particularly if a broker trusted on both sides certifies that the data are reliable. However, such data may become publicly available only if both national security and commercial concerns can be allayed. It is generally in the economic interest of private-sector organizations to restrict competition and to establish a monopoly over information sources. Such monopolies are not in the interest of the public, which deserves a good return on its investment. a <http://www.fas.org/sgp/clinton/eo12958.html>; <http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/ eo12951.htm>. b W.H.F.Smith and D.T.Sandwell, 1994, Sea floor topography predicted from satellite altimetry and sparse shipboard bathymetry. Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 99, p. 21,803–21,824; <http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/1999/08/wh080299.html>. c See Historical Imagery Declassification Fact Sheet, <http://www.nro.gov/corona/ facts.htm>. CORONA, GAMBIT, and HEXAGON are code names for military imagery intelligence satellites. d Conference report to accompany S. 1059, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000, Public law 106–65. EXAMPLE 5.11 HORMONALLY ACTIVE AGENTS IN THE ENVIRONMENT An emerging public health concern is the effect of hormonally and antimicrobially active agents that originate in pharmaceutical drugs and additives to animal feed. The drugs and animal-synthesized hormones pass through the digestive tracts of humans and animals, through surface and groundwater systems, and in some cases end up in the public water supply. Ingestion of hormonally active agents has been demonstrated to cause adverse reproductive and developmental effects in people and animals.a However, it has been difficult to define the concentrations at which specific contaminants become harmful. Existing data were collected from large rivers and streams that average contaminant levels from large populations. Collecting data at smaller scales would conceivably permit collection of contaminant information from small groups of individuals or neighborhoods. Such information would violate the rights of individuals to keep their medical records confidential.