Strategic Interdisciplinarity: Integrating Scientific and Ethical Analysis in Environmental Studies

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Strategic Interdisciplinarity Integrating
Scientific and Ethical Analysis in Environmental
Studies

• Russell A. Butkus
• Chair, Department of Theology
• Associate Director, Environmental Studies Program
• Steven A. Kolmes
• Rev. John Molter, C.S.C., Chair in Science
• Director, Environmental Studies Program

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New Directions Initiative

• Physical scientists, social scientists, and
  humanists working together with public agencies,
  private firms, and communities to deepen our
  understanding of and develop effective responses
  to environmental problems.

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Science, Theology, and the Interdisciplinary
Nature of Ecological Restoration

• Four Models of Interaction (Barbour, 1997)
• Conflict
• Independence
• Dialogue
• Integration

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• A Fifth Model Strategic Interdisciplinarity
• The collaborative attempt to address a complex
  problem, utilizing scientific and
  theological-ethical analysis, with the aim of
  proposing ethical solutions and policy guidelines.

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The Interdisciplinary Process Dialectic and
Dialogue
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Salmon Restoration in the Lower Columbia Basin
The context in which we will describe
Strategic Interdisciplinarity and the Iterative
Praxiological Method
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Recognizing the Severity of the Crisis

• 1991 Nehlsen, Williams, and Lichatowich
  Pacific Salmon at the Crossroads Stocks at Risk
  from California, Oregon, Idaho, and Washington

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• Out of 214 runs of naturally spawning anadromous
  fish,
• 106 runs had already become extinct
• 101 were at extreme risk of
  extinction
• 58 were at moderate risk of extinction
• 54 were of concern

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Anadromous Fish Life Cycle
University of Washington School of Aquatic
Fishery Sciences 2003
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The Columbia River Watershed Caring for Creation
and the Common GoodAn International Pastoral
Letter by the Catholic Bishops of the
Region(January 8th, 2001)
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• Significance of the Pastoral Letter
• A Collaborative Process that is a Model of
  Interdisciplinarity
• Incorporated Social, Scientific, Ethical,
• Theological Perspectives
• Provides a Novel Baseline Document for
  Theological and
• Ethical Analysis on a Complex Ecological
  Problem
• Provides 10 General Ethical Norms (Considerations
  for
• Community Caretaking) for Promoting and
  Protecting the
• Columbia River Watershed
• Identifies Wildlife Conservation and Protection
• Calls for Ongoing Scientific Research Focused on
• Ensuring the Presence of Habitat Suitable for
  Native Fish
• of the Region

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Foci for a Scientific Analysis ofSalmon Recovery
Efforts the Viable Salmonid Population Concept
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Overview of NMFS Viable Salmonid Population
(VSP) Concept

• Partition Evolutionarily Significant
  Units (ESUs) into demographically independent
  populations
• Develop viability criteria for individual
  populations
• Growth rate
• Abundance
• Spatial Structure
• Diversity
• Develop criteria for how many and which
  populations need to be in what status for a
  viable ESU

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Lower Columbia Basin Listed ESUsLower Columbia
ChinookLower Columbia SteelheadUpper Willamette
ChinookUpper Willamette SteelheadColumbia Chum
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Overview of NMFS Viable Salmonid Population
(VSP) Concept

• Partition ESU into demographically independent
  populations
• Develop viability criteria for individual
  populations
• Growth rate
• Abundance
• Spatial Structure
• Diversity
• Develop criteria for how many and which
  populations need to be in what status for a
  viable ESU

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Overview of NMFS Viable Salmonid Population
(VSP) Concept

• Partition ESU into demographically independent
  populations
• Develop viability criteria for individual
  populations
• Growth rate
• Abundance
• Spatial Structure
• Diversity
• Develop criteria for how many and which
  populations need to be in what status for a
  viable ESU

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Evolutionary Dynamics

• Diverse life history
• Diverse habitats
• Population connectivity

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Lower Columbia Basin Listed ESUs
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NMFS Recommendations

• The greater of 2 populations per stratum or 50
  of the historical at Viable Salmonid Population
  levels (5 or less risk of extinction in 100
  years). (An example of a stratum would be the
  Cascade Ecoregion summer run of Lower Columbia
  Steelhead, which had 4 historical populations.)
• Remaining populations?
• NMFS says some level of natural origin returns
  which means any level of returning fish

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Types of Recovery Goals
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Viable Salmonid Population and Habitat Criteria
The four VSP criteria (population growth rate,
population abundance, spatial structure, and life
history diversity) have been given preferential
importance over habitat restoration in salmon
recovery planning.
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The Habitat Question in Salmon Recovery
The VSP approach to salmon recovery makes habitat
criteria secondary to fish population
data. Scientifically, the attempt to separate
the recovery of a species from it habitat
requirements is a violation of ecological
principles.
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In the case of Columbia Basin salmon, a
threatened or endangered species means a
threatened or endangered habitat. This is
simultaneously a scientific issue, and also a
problem requiring ethical analysis.
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An Axiological-Ethical AnalysisSalmon Recovery
and Creation Theology

• One approach in assessing salmon recovery is to
  engage in an axiological analysis of the
  values that are driving the process.
• Axiological analysis and a deontological ethic
  values hold the capacity of generating moral
  obligation and duty.
• Salmon and steelhead carry a spectrum of value
  for the people in the Columbia River Basin,
  ranging from scientific to sacred value.

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• The ethical perspective of the Columbia River
• Watershed suggests the following
• Creation theology, stewardship, and the value of
• creation raises the axiological ante of salmon
  recovery.
• From this perspective, the current recovery goal
  derived
• from the VSP concept reduces salmon recovery to a
  minimalist bottom line standard, which is
  inadequate
• and inconsistent with a religious axiological
  horizon.
• Broad sense recovery is a more adequate target
  for salmon restoration in keeping with the
  ethical demands of stewardship and the value of
  creation.

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• The disconnection between a viable salmon
  population and habitat criteria
• This issue is at once a scientific and an
  ethical problem.
• Ethically, this problem violates Aldo Leopolds
  concept of the biotic community, which
  highlights the interrelatedness of a species
  with its ecosystem.
• Holmes Rolston III It is not preservation of
  species that we wish, but the preservation of
  species in the system. It is not merely what
  they are but where they are that we must value
  correctly.

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The theological extrapolation of biblical
creation theology to the current
species-habitat question seems to justify the
valuation of salmon-in-their-habitat and the
ethical obligation to conserve and restore both.
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The crux of the problem in salmon recovery our
need for a scientifically justifiable ethical
praxis of sustainability in light of our refusal
to recognize or deal with overconsumption in a
rapidly growing region with diminishing natural
resources.
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Collaborative Interdisciplinarity an Iterative
Praxiological Method

• An iterative praxiological collaboration
  between science and theology to analyze complex
  ecological problems from scientific, theological
  and ethical perspectives, within a horizon of
  sustainability.

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The Iterative Praxiological Method
Scientific Analysis
Theological Analysis
Social Analysis
Ethical/Policy Implementation
Reading the Signs of the Times
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The Praxis Model of Theology Emerging during
the 1960s and 1970s in Christian theology, the
praxis model of theological reflection arose out
of specific sociocultural contexts and was
oriented towards ethical engagement and social
transformation. This method of theology subjected
present realities to critical analysis for the
purpose of proposing future possibilities.
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The Iterative Method in Science Scientific
analysis often proceeds through a series of
cycles of model definition and data collection
that incrementally moves towards a reliable
approximation of the causal relationship under
examination. Hypotheses are repeatedly
articulated and rigorously tested in successive
attempts to disprove them.
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Movement 1 Social Analysis Social analysis
interrogates the historical, institutional, and
structural aspects of the problem seeking to
unmask the economic, political, cultural and
social subtext of environmental conditions.
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Movement 2 Scientific Analysis As an essential
source of knowledge, the scientific method is
preserves the integrity of the investigative
process, involving critical scrutiny of theories,
models, and evaluation of real world data that
can be used to disprove testable hypotheses. A
process of successive approximation is often used
here as a problem solving tool.
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An example of successive approximation in salmon
recovery is modeling risk predictions over time
for 1 population, 2 populations, etc., eventually
narrowing to a solution that matched the NMFSs
assumptions for sufficient risk reduction in
salmon recovery planning. This iterative approach
can be broadened to incorporate ethical
evaluation as well.
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Movement 3 Theological/Ethical Analysis This
movement is an explicitly hermeneutical task
whereby the meaning and context of the problem
are interpreted in light of lived faith, biblical
theology, social theology, and theological
environmental ethics.
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The overall objective of theological reflection
is to create an ethical framework for action and
may involve the articulation of specific ethical
norms intended to shape and guide salmon recovery
and influence the creation of public policy.
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Movement 4 Ethical Praxis and Policy
Inplementation The overall goal is to produce
committed ethical engagement and political action
with the aim of creating and implementing policy
within the personal, private, and public sectors.
It is here that the scientific/ethical horizon of
sustainability might be achieved.