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The Precautionary Principle

"Prevention is about preventing known risks, precaution is about preventing unknown risks."

Governments of today are wonderful when it comes to pointing out the obvious problems in today's society and if it is significantly beneficial for their public appearance, they are effectivly and quickly fixed. Also, if there is a proven harmful result to an activity, action is quckly taken to preventing it. However, the difference between the governent covering preventable issues, and precautionary issues is quite significant.
When an issue isn't obviously apparant, it is not in human nature to immediately take precautionary action. And i believe in this area, governments are a prime example when it come to precaution with environmental sustainability. The majority of our governments are in for a short-term period and prevention methods gain priority over precautionary issues. I believe this is less obvious in monarchical countries because their time in parliament is much longer so they concentrate on the longer term problems, not simply 'i will fix your problems in society to the best of my ability before the next election.'
NB: I think "precautionary approach" is much more effective than "precautionary principle" as changes must be made subtly for society to accept them.

posted by Mel Binks @ 9:04 PM