Rationale
In March 1990, the Institute for Research on Environment and Economy (IREE) sponsored a Workshop on the topic of 'Breaking the Barriers to Environmental Information'. In this day of mounting concern for the health condition of the earth's ecosystems and the biosphere, it is imperative to identify and remove present barriers to solid information about the condition of changing environments and their management. The Workshop's themes -Scientific, Technological, Political, Social and Institutional Barriers, and Opportunities in the Third World-suggest some of the broad dimensions of this important topic. Identifying barriers to the flow of useful information on the changing states of natural and managed ecosystems is but a first, although critical step. All sectors of society must be involved in removing these barriers to achieve a better basis for rational decision making on environmental futures.
In their classic work, A Strategy for Decision, David Braybrooke and Charles E. Lindbloom (1970) present a unique decision making model. Their model is constructed of two intersecting continua. Along the horizontal continuum, the authors identify a change dynamic ranging from small or incremental change on the left to large or structural change on the right. Along the vertical continuum, they denote a high level of problem understanding at the top, and a low level of understanding at the bottom. It is indicated that change along either line of tendency can be positive or negative. In effect, Braybrooke and Lindbloom (1970 p. 66) have created four recognizable types of decisions: decisions that effect large change and are guided by adequate information and near-perfect understanding -an environmental utopia (Quadrant 1); decisions that effect only small change and are guided by adequate information and understanding -an environmental possibility (Quadrant 2); decisions that effect small change but are based on imperfect scientific knowledge and, therefore, demand constant remedial, serial and exploratory activity -the environmental reality (Quadrant 3); and decisions that effect large change and are subject to unpredictable consequences because of the inadequacy of the information base -the environmental catastrophe (Quadrant 4). It is our hope that this Workshop has taken us a step away from the third and towards the second quadrant. In this region there exists balance between synoptic and pluralist perspectives, and the underpinnings of a new environmental ethic.