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Climate Change: The Role Of Expertise In Environmental Policymaking


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On this edition of Conversations from Studio B, WOUB’s Director and General Manager Tom Hodson talks with Dr. Stacy VanDeVeer, associate professor of Political Science and co-director of the Masters Program of Political Science at the University of New Hampshire.

Dr. VanDeVeer specializes in international environmental policymaking and its domestic impacts, the role of expertise in policymaking, and the politics of consumption and environmental and human rights degradation in global commodity markets.

Dr. VanDeVeer is the author of over seventy articles, book chapters, working papers and reports, and has also co-authored six books related to environmental policy issues and politics.

Hodson and VanDeVeer discuss how the U.S. government should approach climate issues nationally and globally, some of the leading energy efficient economies around the world, and the current hydraulic fracturing boom happening in our region.

Speaking towards the lack of consensus on human-caused climate change, Dr. VanDeVeer says, “Political actors who don’t want a particular policy or are trying to avoid government action or the actions of others – one of their key strategies is to try to undermined confidence in the science. They want us, in many respects, to believe that we are less certain then is generally true.”