People paddle on the Santa Fe River in High Springs.

File
By Lucinda Faulkner Merritt
Special to The Sun
Published: Friday, May 6, 2016 at 6:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, May 4, 2016 at 3:19 p.m.
Bob Knight of the independent nonprofit Florida Springs Institute says our water management districts use flawed computer models to make decisions that affect our drinking water supply. Steve Minnis of the Suwannee River Water Management District — whose directors are appointed by Gov. Rick Scott — says we shouldn't worry because the district employs skilled staff members and its models are based on sound science.

Which of these two gentlemen should we believe?

Leaving aside the huge question of an independent scientist's opinion versus decisions made by political appointees — and it's those appointees, not staff members, who make decisions at our water management districts — it's not unusual for different scientists to disagree about their findings.

When there is scientific disagreement, we must remember that science was never designed to make decisions for us. Science is a way to describe how the world works, not a system for considering the ethical, moral and legal implications of decisions.

Scientific findings, for example, are determined by the questions scientists ask and the data they choose to consider. You've heard the phrase, “Garbage in, garbage out,” and statistical analyses are only as good as the statisticians who prepare them.

So when it comes to making important decisions that affect our drinking water, we must consider not only science but also our ethical, moral and legal obligations to each other, to our children and to the natural world that sustains life.

One guideline is the precautionary principle: When in doubt — given different scientific opinions about the damage that could be inflicted on a natural system such as a spring or river — we should choose the most conservative course of action guaranteed to cause the least amount of damage.

Rest of article:
http://www.gainesville.com/article/2...ON03/160509877


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk