Emotion trumps science in sewage-plant issue

Re: “Sewage panel should base findings on science,” Aug. 17.

As a scientist, I sympathize with the writer. As I see it, two bizarre things got us into the current situation: one scientific, one emotional.

First, a calculation by a scientist in Ottawa that assumed the receiving environment for our sewage, the Juan de Fuca Strait, was a highly sensitive water body, and that consequently there was urgency in building a treatment plant. This decision has been questioned by many local scientists, but once Ottawa says it is so, it is so.

Second, there is Mr. Floatie and the emotion he channels. He is, or was, our local comic character who acted out the yuck factor in the current system. Mr. Floatie does not represent science, but people really relate to him and the feelings he encapsulated.

This leaves the public and the politicians conflicted. The scientists apparently cannot agree and the politicians in these circumstances tend to go with the senior government, not the local rabble.

Then there is the difficulty the public has in weighing the logic behind various scientific arguments. In general, our society does not understand, does not value and does not trust science.

Society runs on emotion, not logic. When you weigh all the opinions of all the scientists in B.C. against Mr. Floatie, Mr. Floatie wins hands down.

This is a cosmetic sewage plant. It will not be as energy-efficient or environmentally friendly as our current system, but we are a democracy; people have voted for it. Suck it up; just build it. Joe Harvey Victoria