About
Trust—a relational, conditional, action-inducing judgment—has become central to the controversies over shale resources and hydraulic fracturing. The lack of it poses a problem for companies intending to access land, acquire operations permits, build infrastructure, and, ultimately, participate in the energy commodity chain. Using a case study from northern Canada, Kate Neville, a post-doctoral fellow in Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment, will link three factors of unconventional oil and gas developments—scale and pace, risk and uncertainty, and visibility—with two broad trends in trust: skepticism about and divisions concerning the validity of scientific evidence and mistrust of consultative processes and political decision-making.
This talk is part of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions and the University Program in Environmental Policy seminar series featuring leading experts discussing a variety of pressing environmentally focused topics.