Leaders Consider Gap Between Science, Public Policy

United States policymakers are challenged today by a set of problems that are global in scope and require unprecedented international coordination of scientific and technical resources, as well as a decades-long commitment of resources.

Trillions of dollars are needed, for example, to research, develop, and deploy new forms of sustainable, clean energy within the next few decades if the world is to avoid the worst consequences of global warming. But despite the urgent need to act, the very size and scope of the problem has lead to intractable political debate, miring policymakers at precisely the time when decisive action is needed.

Dozens of the nation’s leading science policy advisers gathered at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy last November to discuss this quandary and others that confront policymakers as they try to deal with complex issues such as the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the environmental impacts of the use of fossil fuels, the conflict between the need for foreign scientists and stricter visa controls for homeland security, and the U.S.’s dismal performance in grade-school science education.

A major theme of the conference was the dilemma of energy’s central role in both economic prosperity and environmental disruption, a theme established early the first day in a keynote address by John Holdren, director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and a former member of President Clinton’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology.

“We need to think about the potential for political tensions and upheavals that result from energy strategy inadequacies or energy policy blunders that create or perpetuate economic or environmental impoverishments,” Holdren said, “because those impoverishments are among the most fundamental and enduring causes of tension and conflict in the world in which we live and the future world into which we are moving.”

Several speakers pointed to the intricate connections among national security, energy, environment, and science policy, particularly as it relates to dependence on oil. “American science and technology policy will have a pivotal influence on whether the world will become increasingly dependent on Middle East oil in the coming decades,” Baker Institute director Edward Djerejian commented. “War in the Middle East, the recent political disturbances in Venezuela and Nigeria, emerging environmental pressures—all these events underscore the need for new, more secure sources of energy.”

Also highlighted was the need for increased funding for research into both alternative energy technologies—particularly hydrogen—as well as the need for a serious commitment to developing new energy-conserving technologies. But competition for science resources is fierce, and major new initiatives aren’t likely to get funded at the federal level anytime soon, said keynote speaker John Marburger, the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House. “In the immediate future,” Marburger said, “budget difficulties are going to make it hard to change patterns of support very much, but there are priorities, and this administration is determined to make those priorities apparent.”

Several conference participants called for continued support of nanotechnology as a means of developing novel new materials, not only for new energy and energy-conserving technologies but for information technology and healthcare as well. The president’s science adviser echoed that, saying nanotechnology remains a high priority for the Bush administration. “The remarkable, inexorable convergence of nano-, info-, and biotechnologies is a major driver for [administration] priorities,” Marburger said.

The conference, titled “Bridging the Gap Between Science and Society: The Relationship Between Policy and Research in National Laboratories, Universities, Government, and Industry,” was co-sponsored by the Baker Institute, Rice’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the National Science Foundation.

—Jade Boyd