Precautionary Principle:In Defense of Common Sense

Richard Berman

City of Santa Monica

(310) 458-8711

rich-berman@santa-monica.org

It is Not Common Sense To: The Construction Manager

“When I started in this business …

Now you need a piece of paper in your hand before you can put one foot in front of the other.”

It is Not Common Sense To: The U.C. Berkeley Professor

(Political Science and Public Health)

“Precautionary Principle … is a marvelous piece of rhetoric.”

Common Sense andCritical Thinking

• Make explicit the sense in common sense

• Internal logical consistency does not always confer validity.

• Examine our assumed ways of thinking, and the premises we unconsciously accept.

Premise 1Acknowledges Traditional

Economic Buffering

• Market Capitalism– The primary mediator of economic activity and

use of technology since 1750 to present– Historically externalizes and buffers negatives.

Challenges traditional economic buffers.

Premise 2Changes In Science and Knowledge

• Ecology and Systems Theory • Toxicology and Epidemiology• Accident Literature• What a scientist knows v. believes

Language and method for complexity and uncertainty that challenges historic ignorance.

Premise 3Incorporates Expansion of

Democratic Ideal

• Race• Ethnicity• Gender• Religion• Sexual Preference

• Rights of Nature• Environmental Quality• Community Right To

Know• Environmental Justice

Gives voice to traditionally externalized interests.

Premises and Tenets of Precautionary Principle

AlternativesAnalysis

CostsAnalysis

Public Process

Science & Knowledge

No EconomicBuffering

ChallengesIgnorance

Expansion ofDemocratic

Ideal

Premises

Tenets

Alternatives Analysis 1

What does this mean to the traditional economic agent or activity?

Why might it not appear as common sense?

Alternatives Analysis 2

BEFORE PP• Economic activity is

mediated by classic economic competition only.

WITH PP• Economic activity is

not buffered from consideration of a breadth of alternatives.

Premise 1: Challenges traditional economic buffers.

Alternatives Analysis 3EXAMPLE: Fuel Oxygenates / Pesticides

ECONOMIC

COMPETITION• MTBE (petrol)

• Chemical Pesticides

ALTERNATIVES

COMPETITION• Ethanol (corn)• No oxygenate

• Integrated Pest Mgmt.

Public Process 1

Who is else is represented by a more Public Decision Making Process?

• Communities (geographical, economic, ethnic…)• Vulnerable populations (elderly, children …)• Environment (Locally, regionally, globally)• Resources held in common

Public Process 2

What does this mean to the traditional economic agent?

Public Process 3

BEFORE PP• Economic agent and

partners can prioritizing self-interest.

WITH PP• Economic agent and

partners are subject to a more public, societal decision making process.

Premise 1: Challenges traditional economic buffers.

Premise 3: Gives voice to traditionally externalized interests

Public Process 4EXAMPLE: Incinerator

ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS

• Municipal Waste Incinerator without community input.

CONSIDERATION OF OTHERS

• Concerned Citizens of South Central Los Angeles

Public Process 5What has it historically meant to the the

general public not to have a public decision making process?

• First warnings of harm have been ignored.• see “Trade Secrets” with Bill Moyers• Environmental Injustice• PCB body burden of infants v. Hazwopper

Science / Knowledge 1

What does this mean to the traditional economic agent?

Science / Knowledge 2

BEFORE PP• Economic activity is

buffered by ignorance or uncertainty.

WITH PP• Economic activity is

subject to full breadth of information.

• Science and its uncertainties are only one of tools.

Premise 2: Challenges historic ignorance

Premise 1: Challenges traditional economic buffers.

Science / Knowledge 3EXAMPLE: Polar Bears and Seals

ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS

• Economic activity buffered from knowledge of ecological relationships.

CONSIDERATION OF OTHER

• Domoic acid poisoning of seals

• Dioxins in polar bears

Costs Analysis 1

What does this mean to the traditional economic agent?

Why might it not appear as common sense?

Costs Analysis 2BEFORE PP

• Economic activity is subject to cost analysis w/ classic boundaries of economic activity.

WITH PP• Economic activity is

also subject to a broader cost analysis.

Premise 2: Challenges historic ignorance

Premise 1: Challenges traditional economic buffers.

Premise 3: Gives voice to traditionally externalized interests

Costs Analysis 3EXAMPLE: Household Hazardous Waste

ECONOMIC

CONSIDERATION• Purchase of

household chemical products.

EXTERNAL

CONSIDERATIONS• Safety and Costs of

use and disposal of these products

(consumers, trash haulers, landfills etc.)

Common Sense in Precautionary Principle

1. The world is ‘smaller’

2. All our actions are less buffered

3. Sciences / knowledge for complexity

4. More inclusive democracies

Precautionary Principle is a foundation to meet this challenge.

Road TO the Present May Not Be Acceptable

IN The Present

Rich BermanCity of Santa Monica