Grayling Blog

Is Science contributing to sound decisions? It’s all in the Wind!

Posted on 21.04.2010 by Russell Patten

It will not have gone unnoticed that Europe has been at a virtual standstill in the air, and it’s all to do with an erupting volcano. Or is it?

On the radio earlier this week there was an interview with a lady in Iceland who was about to take a plane for her annual holiday. She calmly explained that the volcano was not actually the problem, but rather the wind direction and, hence, her plane would literally be taking off in the opposite direction.

Some of us have been stuck in the south of Spain (I hear that a “British Armada” has come to the rescue), others have had to cancel business meetings, and this week’s European Parliament session has had to postpone its entire voting schedule until May, but whatever our plight, our thoughts should go to the airline industry which is losing over €150 million a day. Others of course are enjoying their “windfall” with hotel rooms fully booked and not a single seat to find on any cross-border train, bus or ferry - so at least some people are happy!

This is not the first time that science has played havoc with politics and business. Or put it another way: are decisions being taken on the basis of politics or science?

In an increasingly regulated environment, the role of science is key to providing our politicians with sound information upon which to make sound legislation. However, we are seeing more and more in Brussels and in other European capitals that when our decision-makers regulate on chemicals they ignore the results of official risk assessments and in line with the precautionary principle take the view that that if there is ANY doubt about a given substance, it should be banned! Certainly in Brussels, we see that science comes second to political making, and one has to wonder whether the balance between scientific considerations and political concerns has been permanently skewed in favour of the latter.

As with our Icelandic volcano and the wind, the science to date has led to flying being banned. Yet within the last few days, politicians were coming under pressure from the airline industry and other economic operators and, with major airlines undertaking test flights to demonstrate that there are no problems, the pressure to lift the ban earlier must have been considerable.

So, who will truly decide whether we fly? National authorities on the basis of sound science, economic operators who stand to lose millions each day planes are grounded, or the “flying citizen” who says “enough is enough - let’s get on with our daily lives?”

Regardless of who makes the decision, one hopes that sound scientific evidence plays a crucial role, whichever direction the wind happens to be blowing.