The Precautionary Principle
Subtitle: A Critical Appraisal
Publisher: Cato Institute; CATO Institute; Distributed to the trade by National Book Network]
Published: October 25, 2001
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 124
ISBN-13: 9781930865167
Subjects: POLITICS & GOVERNMENT; The Environment; Politics/International Relations; General; Political Science; Politics / Current Events; Public Policy - General; Environmental Conservation & Protection - General; Environmental Science; Environmental risk assessment
Description: "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 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."--BOOK JACKET.