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Agenda

Participants

Contact: Pam Stephens
202 737-9006 ext. 403

 

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
--Albert Einstein

Enjoy present pleasures in such a way as not to injure future ones.
--Seneca
(5 BC - 65 AD)

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
   -- George S. Patton, Jr.

Isn't it interesting that the same people who laugh at science fiction listen to weather forecasts and economists?
--Kelvin Throop III

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
   -- Mark Twain

Change is the process by which the future invades our lives. --Alvin Toffler

The future is uncertain... but this uncertainty is at the very heart of human creativity.
--Ilya Prigogine
(1917 - )

For in the final analysis, our most basic common link, is that we all inhabit this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children's futures, and we are all mortal.
--John F. Kennedy (1917 - 1963), Speech at The American University, Washington, D.C.,
June 10, 1963

I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.
--E. B. White
(1899 - 1985)

All human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those of the present but neither see nor feel those of the future; and hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse. --Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)

Because we don't think about future generations, they will never forget us.
--Henrik Tikkanen

The consequences of our actions are so complicated, so diverse, that predicting the future is a very difficult business indeed. --J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.
   -- Michel de Montaigne

"To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival."
   -- Wendell Berry

"There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew"
   -- Marshall McLuhan

A real leader faces the music, even when he doesn't like the tune.
   -- Anon

We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.
   -- Aldo Leopold

However good our futures research may be, we shall never be able to escape from the ultimate dilemma that all our knowledge is about the past, and all our decisions are about the future.
   -- Ian Wilson

Even a correct decision is wrong when it was taken too late.
   -- Lee Iacocca

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
--Albert Einstein

Enjoy present pleasures in such a way as not to injure future ones.
--Seneca
(5 BC - 65 AD)

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
   -- George S. Patton, Jr.

Isn't it interesting that the same people who laugh at science fiction listen to weather forecasts and economists?
--Kelvin Throop III

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
   -- Mark Twain

Change is the process by which the future invades our lives. --Alvin Toffler

The future is uncertain... but this uncertainty is at the very heart of human creativity.
--Ilya Prigogine
(1917 - )

For in the final analysis, our most basic common link, is that we all inhabit this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children's futures, and we are all mortal.
--John F. Kennedy (1917 - 1963), Speech at The American University, Washington, D.C.,
June 10, 1963

I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.
--E. B. White
(1899 - 1985)

All human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those of the present but neither see nor feel those of the future; and hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse. --Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)

Because we don't think about future generations, they will never forget us.
--Henrik Tikkanen

The consequences of our actions are so complicated, so diverse, that predicting the future is a very difficult business indeed. --J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.
   -- Michel de Montaigne

"To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival."
   -- Wendell Berry

"There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew"
   -- Marshall McLuhan

A real leader faces the music, even when he doesn't like the tune.
   -- Anon

We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.
   -- Aldo Leopold

However good our futures research may be, we shall never be able to escape from the ultimate dilemma that all our knowledge is about the past, and all our decisions are about the future.
   -- Ian Wilson

Even a correct decision is wrong when it was taken too late.
   -- Lee Iacocca

 
 
 
 
AMS Policy Program Underwriters: ITT, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon
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In Our Best Interest: Unlocking the Potential Value
of Environmental Information and Services

May 1-2, 2007
Washington DC

 

Summary

Purpose:

This forum sought to initiate a discussion of “valuation” as it applies to environmental data and services and to consider the question, “what needs to be done in order to improve the national investment strategies for environmental science?”  The meeting was not intended to produce a formal set of recommendations; rather, it was to stimulate discussion and surface issues about the role of environmental information and services in environmental policy decision making and to identify gaps in our knowledge and methodologies – all of which could serve as the basis for further discussion at a subsequent workshop.

Sponsorship

The meeting was hosted by the American Meteorological Society Policy Program and was underwritten by the Policy Program’s underwriters:  ITT, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon.

Participants

The meeting was attended by 35 representatives from the private sector, federal agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and academia.

Organization of the Meeting

In advance of the meeting, the Policy Program organizers provided some of their own initial thoughts to motivate the workshop. They asserted that humankind has reached a critical juncture with respect to the future of the planet and that, in the absence of an appreciation of the value of environmental information and appropriate environmental investments, the potential for making policy decisions with negative consequences for environmental quality as well as economic and social stability is high.  They also suggested that national interests would be better served if federal investments were based on an expected rate of return as estimated by sound economic and social analysis, although it is unclear that the requisite body of work exists.  In addition, they suggested that the extent to which the extant policy framework affects the federal budget allocation process is not well known or appreciated.

Participants were invited to share their own initial thoughts or questions prior to the meeting, which a number did.  These comments were provided to all participants ahead of time.

The meeting itself was held in plenary and consisted of five sessions.  The first was The Environmental Scan in which participants considered the environmental, political, and economic landscape and how it frames the discussion and decisions about the future.  The second session, Articulating An Ultimate Goal, was aimed at reaching some consensus about what the group was trying to achieve with this forum.  The session on Defining “Value” aimed to explore the meaning of “valuation”, with some discussion current methodologies.   Near – and Long – Term Options and Priorities, and Next Steps are self-explanatory.  In reality, all of these topics were interleaved throughout the session discussions. 

Meeting Discussions and Initial Conclusions

The discussion was wide ranging.  Among others, topics included the widening gap between science and technology advances and society’s ability to benefit from it, the applicability of “valuation” to public goods, the effectiveness of economic analysis arguments versus playing on emotional responses in when dealing with policy and decision makers, the future and the choices we might face (mitigation or adaptation) in the event of significant climate change, the role of/need for public support in making a case for a particular policy option, the “cost” of doing economic analyses, what constitutes the science of science policy, the lack of sufficient documentation of the ways environmental data is employed (especially by the private sector), whose values need to be/are considered as decisions are made, GEOSS and related US organizational structures, the realities of “trade space” and its implications for the federal budget process, and more.

As originally envisioned, the meeting sought to combine discussion of very long-term, broad-based policy, and even philosophical and theoretical, considerations with more practical issues related to valuation methodologies.  By the end of the meeting, the group found itself focusing on the more practical considerations of how valuation should be done and the relationship between economic valuation and other political and societal considerations.

Some initial “conclusions/realizations” that came from the forum were:

  • While there was no consensus regarding the relative urgency of the various (global and regional) environmental problems that we face or how they will evolve over the next several decades, it was agreed that sustained environmental observations and associated infrastructure will be required to deal with any future scenario.
  • Without adequate environmental information, we lack a rational basis for making environmental policy. 
  • It is not clear whether existing valuation methodologies are adequate or, at a minimum, that a sufficient number of analyses have been completed to provide the basis for making comparisons among various options.   
  • There is a lack of vision and leadership in the environmental policy arena, which should be of concern to the nation.
  • A set of principles for prioritizing among disparate, competing elements in the federal budget allocation process is urgently needed; the path to identifying and establishing those principles is not obvious.

 

Next Steps

Several activities were suggested as logical next steps.  The participants agreed that the initial forum had, indeed, been stimulating, but there was a strong desire to explore in greater depth the issues raised in this initial meeting with a larger group and with additional expertise. A suggestion made during the forum, which was enthusiastically endorsed, was to develop a “primer” on environmental observations and services that could be used to educate Congress and the general public about their importance and impact on our lives.  Finally, the participants discussed the importance of providing information to the policymakers about these issues related to environmental science.  It was suggested that developing a “transition” document for the next Administration would be one good means of highlighting the issues.

 

 

 

 
 

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