Radioactive Waste Disposal at Sea: Public Ideas ... - IMO

56 Chapter 3
for a regime that reflected its perception of the scope of this problem. Those
countries in which the epistemic community had access to domestic decision
makers would be the strongest supporters of stringent controls on ocean
dumping. Conversely, those countries in which it had limited or no access
to domestic decision makers would be the weakest supporters of stringent
controls on ocean dumping.
Although Haas focuses on the role of knowledge and new information
when explaining why Mediterranean states complied with and expanded
the Med Plan, he actually points to erroneous beliefs instead of scientific
knowledge when he explains the establishment of the regime: “Many
[national] officials thought that pollution was a commons problem, and
thus required coordinated action throughout the region. They assumed that
currents transferred the pollutants fairly freely among countries. UNEP officials
were well aware that currents were not sufficiently strong to transmit
pollutants across the Mediterranean Basin . . . but they hoped to complete
an agreement, so they just smiled and nodded when others characterized
Mediterranean pollution as a commons problem. . . . This false perception
actually facilitated the resolution of the problem.” (Haas 1990a, pp. 70–71)
Paradoxically, therefore, persuasion by an ecological epistemic community
apparently was not necessary in bringing decision makers to begin controlling
regional pollution.
Elsewhere, Haas briefly mentions that “Jacques Cousteau was active in
attracting publicity” to Mediterranean pollution, and that “gloom-anddoom
prophesies” produced widespread concern about the state of health
of the Mediterranean in the early 1970s (1990a, pp. 83, 104). Moreover,
Haas occasionally juxtaposes the influence of popular science and hard science
in his explanations. He writes, for example: “An ecological epistemic
community was consulted by governments in order to dispel uncertainty
about the extent of environmental pollution. Such concern was precipitated
by a crisis; the alarm that the Mediterranean was in danger of dying.” (ibid.,
p. 224) Yet, the fact that prominent scientists and ecologists together with
popular science accounts of Mediterranean pollution identified the need
for regional environmental cooperation is not taken into account by the
epistemic-community approach. 57
To create the global ocean dumping regime, the epistemic-community analyst
would expect that an ecological epistemic community would supply
international leadership. Domestic decision makers would be uncertain