« Patents and injunctive relief | Main | Getting the currency data right »
December 02, 2005
The Information Society with less information
From today's LA TImes: "Thousands of Firms Could Stop Reporting Emissions":
For nearly 20 years, the national Toxics Release Inventory has allowed people to access detailed data about chemicals that are used and released in their neighborhoods. In about 9,000 communities, the annual reports identify which industrial plants emit the most toxic substances, whether their emissions are increasing and what compounds may be contaminating their air and water.
Seeking to ease the financial burden on industry, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed eliminating some requirements for smaller facilities that must monitor their emissions and file the complex annual reports. The EPA will make a final decision on the proposal next year, after a public comment period.
And I thought that a principle of the Information Society would be better access to information. Silly me.
(BTW - one of my favorite New Yorker cartoons, published at the height of the dot.com frenzy, shows a group of executives sitting at a table surrounded by computers, etc. The caption reads "We have lots of information technology, we just don't have any information.")
Posted by Ken Jarboe at December 2, 2005 12:41 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.athenaalliance.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/454