William R. Freudenburg is professor of Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is coauthor, with Robert Gramling, of Oil in Troubled Waters: Perceptions, Politics, and the Battle over Offshore Drilling. Robert B. Gramling is professor of Sociology and director of the Center for Socioeconomic Research at the University of Southwest Louisiana. Shirley B. Laska is a professor of Sociology at the University of New Orleans, where she is establishing the Center for Hazards, Assessment, Response and Technology (CHART). Kai Erikson is professor emeritus of Sociology and American Studies at Yale University.