History of US Presidential Assaults on Modern Environmental Health Protection.

The Trump administration has undertaken an assault on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an agency critical to environmental health. This assault has precedents in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. The early Reagan administration (1981-1983) launched an overt attack on the EPA, combining deregulation with budget and staff cuts, whereas the George W. Bush administration (2001-2008) adopted a subtler approach, undermining science-based policy. The current administration combines both these strategies and operates in a political context more favorable to its designs on the EPA. The Republican Party has shifted right and now controls the executive branch and both chambers of Congress. Wealthy donors, think tanks, and fossil fuel and chemical industries have become more influential in pushing deregulation. Among the public, political polarization has increased, the environment has become a partisan issue, and science and the mainstream media are distrusted. For these reasons, the effects of today's ongoing regulatory delays, rollbacks, and staff cuts may well surpass those of the administrations of Reagan and Bush, whose impacts on environmental health were considerable.

Science, salmon, and sea lice: constructing practice and place in an environmental controversy.

Over the last three decades salmon aquaculture has become both a significant coastal industry and a focus of controversy regarding its environmental impacts. Both circumstances have also provoked a great deal of environmental research. This article examines one episode in the history of this research. The Broughton Archipelago is a region of islands and channels on the Pacific coast of Canada, densely populated with salmon farms. Beginning in 2001 this region attracted researchers from several institutions, who examined the ecology of the farms, and particularly the possibility that they release large numbers of parasites (known as sea lice), which then infect wild salmon. This local research community drew on aspects of the regional environment, including its ecological conditions, and opportunities for surveys, field experiments, and ecological modeling, to construct methods that were both situated in this place, yet intended to be persuasive to audiences outside the region. Knowledge of this environment was also influenced by knowledge from elsewhere, including the results of European research on sea lice, and various disciplinary perspectives. Research results were invoked to support opposing views of the impacts of salmon farms, as well as contrasting perspectives on the region's identity. Sea lice themselves, within the context of the ecosystem that gave them meaning, were objectified as the ecological link between salmon farms and the environment, and the basis for research and debate over these farms. This historical episode therefore demonstrates the inseparability of scientific practice, knowledge and place, particularly in the context of controversy.

Mobile knowledge and the media: The movement of scientific information in the context of environmental controversy.

This paper examines the role of the news media in transnational flows of knowledge. Its focus is on salmon aquaculture, an industry operating in Europe, Canada, and elsewhere. To examine the movement of knowledge from Europe to Canada, a sample of 323 news stories mentioning European aquaculture was drawn from 1261 stories about aquaculture published in Canadian newspapers between 1982 and 2007. Their analysis demonstrates the role of the media in selectively moving and shaping scientific knowledge. This role has been influenced by numerous factors, including journalistic norms, source strategies, and the assertion of trust, relevance and scientific credibility. This analysis corrects the common assumption in the internet era that information flows freely: new technology has not obviated the role of social factors. The media's role in the movement of knowledge also has implications for the geography of science, and for the status of science as a situated practice.