Real-Life Decision Making
You're an entomologist. You are working with the government, specializing
in the agricultural field. A large portion of your time each day is spent
identifying and analyzing insects that are hazardous to local growers'
crops.
You arrive at your office early Monday morning to the sound of a ringing
phone. It's one of the local growers. He sounds panicked, even angry.
"Something is eating my canola crop!" says the grower anxiously. "You've
got to come out and take a look at this right now. I've never seen anything
like it."
You leave your office and drive 45 minutes to meet the grower at his canola
fields. You're confident you'll be able to offer the grower an explanation
as to what's eating his crop, recommend a chemical he can spray his fields
with to kill the bug, then head back to your office to continue working on
your current project.
After taking a tour through the grower's canola crop,
however, you're not feeling as sure of yourself as you were back at the
office. The way the leaves have been eaten don't look familiar and after
glancing quickly at the insect, you're not sure of its identity. You've
never seen anything like it before, either.
You collect a few insects to take back to your lab. You don't want
to recommend anything until you've positively identified what species
this insect really is. You tell the grower you'll have to get back to
him, hopefully by the end of the week, but you may need next week as well,
especially if you can't identify the bug in your own lab.
But the grower says he can't wait two weeks. He needs to know what
he can do to prevent the insect from further destroying his crops. His whole
growing season could be at stake. He wants to begin spraying his crops immediately.
Is there not some kind of chemical available for him to use?
You know the grower shouldn't begin spraying any chemicals until you
can precisely identify the insect. However, the insect seems to be moving
through the grower's crop quickly, meaning it could well affect other
crops in the area.
But it is illegal to spray chemicals when the insect you're spraying
for is unidentified. It's an important decision for you to make and you
don't have much time to make it.
What do you do?