12. Toward the Reasonable

In this summary chapter we seek to demonstrate that most environmental policy is driven by assured assertions about what is the best solution. Whether driven by the certitudes of economic models, or the equally assured claims of environmental ethicists—or ecologists—much environmental policy is carried out in terms of confident “truth claims.” We close with a call for a greater reliance on Deweyan discourse to counteract the scientific certainty often on display. Of course, there is an important role for scientific input on matters of water chemistry, the medical implications of particular pollutants, and the vicissitudes of systems ecology. But it does not follow that scientists always have the wisdom to frame the preferred solution to environmental problems. Economists seek solutions that are judged to be rationally efficient. Ecologists want solutions that privileges natural systems over other pressing social needs, and water chemists invariably wish for certain chemical properties to be “just right.” Our position is that searching for the reasonable among a large and informed community will lead to acceptable solutions that, in the fullness of time, will be considered to be ideal.