Abstract
In an interview last year in Time magazine, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson commented on congressional efforts to undo her greenhouse gas (GHG) endangerment finding under Clean Air Act section 202: “I don’t think that history will forget the first time that politicians made a law to overrule scientists.” Proponents of aggressive action to control GHGs are frustrated that international scientific consensus that disruptive climate change is highly probable and caused by anthropogenic emissions has not prevailed in the political marketplace of ideas in the United States. This truth-seeking, open marketplace of ideas is not just a recognized foundational principle in First Amendment protection for freedom of expression, but is also a paradigm for our system of self-governance. This marketplace of ideas has historically had mixed success in its truth-seeking function—indeed, there have been many instances where political truth in the United States was demonstrably at odds with objective historical or scientific truth. Nevertheless, few would argue that these market failures in the marketplace of ideas justify restrictions on speech or limitations on the principle of self-governance, substituting some means of establishing political truth other than democratic self-governance.
Recommended Citation
Coplan, Karl S.
(2012)
"Climate Change, Political Truth, and the Marketplace of Ideas,"
Utah Law Review: Vol. 2012:
No.
2, Article 2.
Available at:
https://dc.law.utah.edu/ulr/vol2012/iss2/2