Public protest

On January 29, 1935, the anniversary of Haber s death, the Kaiser Wilhelm Society held a memorial service. The Nazis forbade government and university employees from attending, so many officials sent their wives instead. In an audience of almost 500 women sat a few men, including Carl Bosch. It was the closest thing to a public protest that scientists as a group staged during the Third Reich. 

In 1972, Senator Robert Dole, a Kansas Republican, publicly protested the House Select Panel s decision to terminate the... 

Technology is not an end in itself but a means to an end, which is public welfare. Scientists tend to forget that it is the public which in the final analysis has the responsibility to decide what it considers to be in its best interest. One of the most important duties of the scientist is to communicate his knowledge to the public. Too often the scientist sees his role as a decision-making one and often even without explanation. Subsequent public protest is then labelled emotional or worsen Incidentally, the term emotional is, in my opinion, the most misused word in the pesticide controversy. The word which should be substituted for emotional is irrational, for we must not be irrational about a subject as important as pesticides. At the same time we should be, and cannot escape being, emotional as well. 

The series of public protests that led to the return of the traditional Coca-Cola was an unparalleled success in the history of American consumerism. 

In some countries, notably Japan, incineration is the major method of disposing of combustible waste products from domestic sources. Japan has over 5000 incinerators and most municipalities have their own installations. Until recently, there appeared to be little public protest about this disposal technique in Japan but recent reports have caused some concern about the environmental safety of incineration in heavily populated areas of Japan. Dioxin levels in the air are three times higher than in the USA and in some European countries. Perhaps more significantly, infant mortality rates are 40-70% higher downwind of Japanese incinerators than elsewhere and there is concern about the increase in dioxins in human milk. 

Soneryd, L. (2007) Deliberations on the Unknown, the Unsensed, and the Unsayable Public Protests and the Development of Third-Generation Mobile Phones in Sweden , Science, Technology en Human Values 32,3 287-314. 

Due to public protest and controversy surrounding incineration as a method for disposal, the US has researched alternative technologies. After considerable study and recommendations made by the National Research Council Panel on Alternative Chemical Disposal Technologies, Aberdeen, Maryland, and Newport, Indiana, were chosen as chemical neutralization sites. Both sites held CW agents in bulk form, making such decontamination methods more practical. Aberdeen only stores mustard agent, which means that other novel treatments using microbes could also be used after neutrahzation. 

Ecologic transformation resulted from the development of coastal area inevitably will lead to a reduction in the catch of fish. The deterioration of the fishery area sometimes will drive the fishermen into public protests. 

Plans to construct large-scale yeast SCP plants (60,000-120,000 tons/year each) in Japan by Kanegafuchi, Kyowa Hakko, Asahi, Mitsui Toatsu, and Dainippon were canceled because of public protests over questions on safety of the products and subsequent Japanese government regulatory action banning the use of these products. 

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