摘要
This paper examines the broad social purpose of US climate science,
which has benefitted from a public investment of more than $30 billion over the last
20 years. A public values analysis identifies five core public values that underpin the
interagency program. Drawing from interviews, meeting observations, and document analysis, I examine the decision processes and institutional structures that lead
to the implementation of climate science policy, and identify a variety of public
values failures accommodated by this system. In contrast to other cases which find
market values frameworks (the ‘‘profit as progress’’ assumption) at the root of
public values failures, this case shows how ‘‘science values’’ (‘‘knowledge as progress’’) may serve as an inadequate or inappropriate basis for achieving broader
public values. For both institutions and individual decision makers, the logic linking
science to societal benefit is generally incomplete, incoherent, and tends to conflate
intrinsic and instrumental values. I argue that to be successful with respect to its
motivating public values, the US climate science enterprise must avoid the
assumption that any advance in knowledge is inherently good, and offer a clearer
account of the kinds of research and knowledge advance likely to generate desirable
social outcomes.
中文摘要
本文考察了美国气候科学的广泛社会目的，它从过去300多亿美元的公共投资中受益20年。公共价值观分析确定了支撑跨机构计划。通过访谈、会议观察和文件分析，我研究了导致执行气候科学政策，并确定各种公众对该系统所适应的故障进行评估。与其他发现市场价值框架（“收益即进步”假设）公共价值观的失败表明，“科学价值观”（“知识即进步”）可能是实现更广泛目标的不充分或不适当的基础公共价值观。对于机构和个人决策者来说科学对社会利益的贡献通常是不完整的、不连贯的，并且往往混为一谈内在价值和工具价值。我认为要想在这方面取得成功激励公众价值观，美国气候科学企业必须避免假设知识的任何进步本质上都是好的，并提供更清晰的对可能产生期望的研究和知识进步的种类的说明社会结果。
