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Making sense of the precautionary principle (and its critics)

By Steve Gardiner
24th of May 2005
In the recent past, the Precautionary Principle (PP) has come to achieve some prominence in environmental policy and law. But its rise has been met with two sharply opposing attitudes: some (usually pro-environment, and especially European) actors see it as a foundational principle to apply at all levels of environmental protection; but others (usually pro-business, and especially American) argue that it is hopelessly vague, stupidly myopic, and ultimately irrational. In this paper, I try to do two things. First, I argue that the dispute may be more apparent than real. Second, I illustrate this by a discussion about the role of precaution in climate policy. Third, I address some possible objections to this approach.