Improving Risk Communication (1989) / Chapter Skim
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3 Conflict About Hazards and Risks
3 Conflict About Hazards and Risks
Pages 54-71
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From page 54... ...
In some accounts people are concerned about the risks of technology because there is an increasing threat of technological disaster; in other accounts, public concern flies in the face of a demonstrable decrease in net risk to human health and survival. Although we do not believe this debate to be productive for risk communication, a brief and simplified account of it will serve to introduce the discussion that follows, concerning the sources of increasing conflict about technological choices.
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From page 55... ...
It Is the Safest of Times 55 Proponents of the view that this is the safest of times2 point out that the best overall measure of health and safety risk is average life expectancy. They note that during this century there have been dramatic increases in life expectancy even as the society has increased its use of the chemicals and other hazardous substances that are the subject of intense debate about risk.
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From page 56... ...
They point out that the synergistic effects of technological hazards remain almost entirely unstudied even though people are rarely exposed to one hazard in isolation from others. They point to a range of global environmental threats whose ultimate implications for humanity are unknown but potentially catastrophic: the rapid rate of extinction of species and the destruction of their habitats; deforestation and decreases in biological diversity in the tropics; the possibility of major climatic change due to human activity; and, of course, the possibility of nuclear holocaust.
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From page 57... ...
O~ ;_ 11-A ~libel ___1 at- __ ~n ~ This can be al cue pressures gnat culminated in a Furry ot environmental legislation in the late 1960s and the 1970s, in evidence of increasing public opposition to nuclear power since the early 1970s (Ahearne, 1987; Freudenburg and Rosa, 1984; Hively, 1988) , and in the continuing strong public support for environmental regulation during tne Reagan years in the face of the administration's commitment to deregulation (Dunlap, 1987~.3 The following sections elaborate on the major factors contributing to intense conflict over technology and on the nature of that conflict.
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From page 58... ...
Awareness of the human influence over life and death makes technological choices into moral issues. In most modern societies harm to a person readily becomes a moral issue if a responsible party can be identified.
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From page 59... ...
There is dispute over the probability of a climatic catastrophe, but little dispute that global climatic changes of historic proportions are now possible as a result of human activity (Jaeger, 1988~. Similarly, the threat to the earth's ozone layer suggests the possibility of human-generated environmental damage on an unprecedented scale.
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From page 60... ...
There is increasing evidence that technological activities can now affect people around the earth by altering air quality, exposing them to ultraviolet radiation, or changing climate. When side effects spread more widely and when that change is recognized, collective action often follows.
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From page 61... ...
Individuals on their own are helpless to reduce the risks of nuclear war, depletion of the ozone layer, and global climatic change. Media accounts make people acutely aware of other hazards that strike more or less at random, such as airplane hijackings and releases of toxic substances such as at Bhopal or radioactivity such as at Chernobyl.
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From page 62... ...
More and more people have attained a level of economic security that allows them to take up concerns beyond those of feeding and housing themselves and their families, securing basic health care, and providing for these security needs for their old age. And, regardless of socioeconomic level, people whose chief personal values extend beyond personal security are more likely to be concerned with environmental problems than the average citizen (DunIap et al., 1983; Inglehart, 1977~.
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From page 63... ...
It was, no doubt, influenced by a series of formative political events of the 1960s and early 1970s. The civil rights movement, the war in Vietnam and the protest against it, the assassinations of three major national leaders, and, finally, the Watergate scandal all forced attentive people to look at the dark side of our national character and national institutions.5 A climate developed in which major decisions by government and industry, including decisions about technology, were increasingly open to question.
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From page 64... ...
They have became an institutional presence in opposition to a range of efforts by industry and government to implement controversial new technologies and to further spread existing ones.6 New Public Institutions During the 1960s and 1970s national institutions were being restructured to pay more attention to social goals, including improved management of societally shared risks. Beginning with passage of the National Environmental Protection Act in 1969, several new government bodies, such as the U.S.
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From page 65... ...
Regulatory proceedings were opened to more than just the parties who suffer direct legal injury from government action (Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ v. Federal Communications Commission, 1966; Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference v.
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From page 66... ...
Federal agencies are required by the courts to prepare detailed scientific analyses in support of regulatory actions. These changes occurred in response to increasing conflict about risk and created a channel for the expression of opposition to government agencies' positions.
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From page 67... ...
Because of the difficulty, as discussed in Chapter 2, of gathering and interpreting all the scientific knowledge relevant to modern technological decisions, there is considerable room for scientists to disagree. When a decision that may have major political effects by altering the distribution of money, power, and well-being in society is made through procedures that emphasize scientific judgment, scientific disagreements tend to become proxies for political disagreements, and political adversaries often express their positions in the language of science (Dickson, 1984; Mazur, 1981; Nelkin, 1979a)
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From page 68... ...
Conversely, nonexperts sometimes have local knowledge about exposures or the practical operation of a hazardous activity that technical experts do not share. When conflict arises mainly from differential knowledge, risk messages focused on information, which promote the sharing of knowledge, can improve the risk communication process.
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From page 69... ...
This kind of conflict is most clearly evident in decisions about the siting of locally unwanted facilities such as hazardous waste sites, power lines, and radioactive waste repositories, but it is characteristic of other conflicts about risk as well. When a conflict is based in large part on vested interest, risk messages can be helpful if they clarify what different groups' interests are and describe how the available options would affect each of those interests.
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From page 70... ...
Thus the statements of scientific experts in risk debates are seen by the skeptical parts of the public as reflecting political positions rather than unbiased assessments. Particular types of messages cannot by themselves alleviate mistrust, although altered procedures for the design of risk messages may help (see Chapters 6 and 7~.
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From page 71... ...
3. Although public support for increased environmental regulation is strong, as evidenced by direct questions on opinion surveys, environmental problems are not usually mentioned with great frequency in response to openended questions such as, "What are the three most important problems facing the nations 4.
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