3 On Moral Failures in Dealing with Environmental Issues: The Europipe Experience
Fig. 3.4. Polemic caricature
published in the local press to
arouse anti-Europipe sentiments in public opinion. Thus,
the sympathetic troll illustrated
in Fig. 3.2 has been converted
into a fat monster bulldozing its
way through the Wadden Sea
National Park and the district
name "Ostfriesland" has been
replaced by"Ostgasland"
21
torn between the rational dictates of scientific fact and their sympathy for the environmental movement. In the Europipe conflict local biologists remained conspicuously quiet when confronted in the media with claims that pipeline construction would
destroy the Wadden Sea ecosystem. There is ample evidence to prove that such scenarios are ludicrous. The fact is that the ecosystem was to be severely disturbed in the
immediate vicinity of the pipe track, but that the detrimental effects of such an intervention were expected to become obscured within a few years, at the very most.
Episodic natural disasters such as severe ice winters or catastrophic algal blooms
(Delafontaine and Flemming 1997) have lethal effects that are quite comparable to such
localized one-time trenching and dumping of the dredge spoil, but in these cases
on a truly Wadden Sea scale. Yet, the Wadden Sea ecosystem has to date always recovered from such natural large-scale catastrophes within a year or two. The reluctance of
many scientists to express clear, unambiguous and scientifically well-founded opinions in such circumstances not only damages the image and credibility of science in
public perception, but also at the same time does a profound disservice to the environment.
Fig. 3.4. Polemic caricature
published in the local press to
arouse anti-Europipe sentiments in public opinion. Thus,
the sympathetic troll illustrated
in Fig. 3.2 has been converted
into a fat monster bulldozing its
way through the Wadden Sea
National Park and the district
name "Ostfriesland" has been
replaced by"Ostgasland"
21
torn between the rational dictates of scientific fact and their sympathy for the environmental movement. In the Europipe conflict local biologists remained conspicuously quiet when confronted in the media with claims that pipeline construction would
destroy the Wadden Sea ecosystem. There is ample evidence to prove that such scenarios are ludicrous. The fact is that the ecosystem was to be severely disturbed in the
immediate vicinity of the pipe track, but that the detrimental effects of such an intervention were expected to become obscured within a few years, at the very most.
Episodic natural disasters such as severe ice winters or catastrophic algal blooms
(Delafontaine and Flemming 1997) have lethal effects that are quite comparable to such
localized one-time trenching and dumping of the dredge spoil, but in these cases
on a truly Wadden Sea scale. Yet, the Wadden Sea ecosystem has to date always recovered from such natural large-scale catastrophes within a year or two. The reluctance of
many scientists to express clear, unambiguous and scientifically well-founded opinions in such circumstances not only damages the image and credibility of science in
public perception, but also at the same time does a profound disservice to the environment.