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. |
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... mortality criterion—that is, the threat of death to any human being, no matter how lowly that human being may be, outweighs similar threats to members of other species, no matter how magnificent those species. Moreover, in general ...
... mortality and morbidity criteria. For example, if the action might directly or indirectly increase net human mortality but improve the environment by increasing the recreational potential of a water body, then the action ought to be ...
... mortality and morbidity due to malaria, but that the increases would occur relatively rapidly. A recent study by Whitworth et al. (2000) raises the worrying possibility of interactions between HIV—1 and malaria. Their study showed that ...
... mortality, uncertainty, and immediacy criteria to the public health impacts of banning DDT, one must conclude that the precautionary principle requires that indoor spraying of DDT be continued, and even encouraged, in developing ...
... mortality, we should bolster programs to (a) research and develop safer and more cost—effective alternatives to DDT, (b) constantly monitor and evaluate the effectiveness and impacts of DDT and potential substitutes, and (c) disseminate ...