Daniel Henninger's Wonder Land column in today's Wall Street Journal discusses the East Anglia Climate Research Unit scientists' hacked e-mails and their implications for the future credibility of science as a whole. Henninger quotes a law review article by the EPA's Lisa Heinzerling, who wrote, "Policy formation based on prediction and calculation of expected harm is no longer relevant; the only coherent response to a situation of chaotically worsening outcomes is a precautionary policy..."
"As a public health organization, ACSH doesn't have a position on the global warming debate," says ACSH's Jeff Stier, "but I want to point out Henninger's argument that hard science is being overwhelmed by politics. Lisa Heinzerling's quote demonstrates the new tendency to take all scientific progress we've made and throw it out in favor of the precautionary principle."
