EasyBiology

"The state of North Carolina's actions in this instance suggested to her that science was being politicized on a higher level, and in her mind it went straight to the very issue that she had argued needed to be addressed during the coastal futures process: how government handled scientific findings that bore directly on the established policies and practices. "

This quote shows the relationship that government has with science. In North Carolina, as estuaries and lakes became infested with bacterial, the issue of the toxic dinoflagellate became a political issue; some wanted to take action while others ignored the scientist's claims.

"Plead ignorance if you want, I don't care. But your the deputy director of this agency and you out to know whats going on"

This quote those the ignorance that the Director of the Coastal Futures agency and others like him possess about real and scientific dangers that come from the environment. In this case the Director does not acknowledge how his agency slandered Dr. Burkholder and denies her claims of a toxic dinoflagellate explosion in North Carolina's Waters.

"Although officials in the department of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources were frequently quoted as saying that North Carolina was doing a top-notch job of protecting natural resources and environmentalists who said otherwise were guilty of a sensationalist distortion of the facts, a compelling body of evidence argued that those officials were deceiving the public. 

This quote shows how officials tried to deceived the public by playing off Burkholder's research as "sensationalist distortions of facts." In reality, the officials did not want to believe in the dinoflagellate because they did not want to admit the failures in the systems methods to protect the state's rivers and lakes from such toxic agents.

"At this point she was thoroughly disgusted with the environmental bureaucracy in North Carolina. "

This quote illustrates the exasperation that Burkholder experienced as she tried to get the Coastal Protection programs to listen to her research. They just outright slandered her without looking at her evidence and continued to use ineffective polices that failed to protect the environment.

"[Officials], in his opinion, was admitting that [their] policies for protecting coastal water was a failure." 

This quotes shows that finally after many attempts, Burkholder and Dove were able to convince the officials that the toxic blooms exist and are a danger to human health. As they now recognize their mistakes these departments can now move to better polices which combat the dinoflagellate.