Precautionary Principle: A Critical AppraisalCato Institute, 2001 M10 25 - 124 pages The "precautionary principle" -- the environmental version of the admonition first, do no harm -- is now enshrined in numerous international environmental agreements including treaties addressing global warming, biological diversity, and various pollutants. Some environmentalists have invoked this principle to justify policies to control, if not ban, any technology that cannot be proven to cause no harm. In this innovative book, Goklany shows that the current use of the precautionary principle to justify such policies is flawed and could be counterproductive because it ignores the possible calamities those very policies might simultaneously create or prolong. The precautionary principle, unfortunately, does not provide any method of resolving such dilemmas, which are commonplace in the field of environmental policy. To address that problem, Goklany develops a framework consistent with the precautionary principle to resolve such dilemmas. That framework ranks potential threats to the environment on the basis of their nature, magnitude, immediacy, uncertainty, persistence, and the extent to which they can be alleviated. Applying that framework to three contentious environmental policy issues facing humanity and the globe -- DDT, bioengineered crops, and global warming -- Goklany shows that some popular policy prescriptions, despite good intentions, are in fact likely to do more harm than good. |
From inside the book
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... habitat loss worldwide. Between 1980 and 1995, developing countries lost 190 million hectares of forest cover mainly ... habitat and biodiversity (Goklany 29 3. The Risks and Rewards of Genetically Modified Crops.
A Critical Appraisal Indur M. Goklany. other natural resource products while conserving habitat and biodiversity (Goklany ... HABITAT Loss To CROPLAND vs. INCREASE IN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY, 1997 To 2050 _l\) O O O ' . j 200 1 > ~ N'et ...
... habitat loss and fragmentation, and put severe pressure on the world's remaining biodiversity and on in situ conservation. On the other hand, a productivity increase of 1 percent per year, equivalent to a cumulative 69 percent increase ...
... habitat loss in their wintering grounds in Mexico (Lewis and Palevitz 1999; see also Sheridan 2000), which is a result of pressure from a growing population in need of land. Notably, in a recent analysis, EPA (2000b) concluded that ...
... habitat loss and land conversion that would result from such a ban may be at least as irreversible, particularly if they lead to the extinction of species. It is worth noting that the precautionary principle supports using terminator ...