The Precautionary Principle, Libertarianism and Paternalism

This chapter analyses the ethical aspects contained within the precautionary principle’s approach towards its goal of risk minimisation/prevention, namely, balancing the views of the expert and non-expert within the environmental decision-making process. It will analyse views that either integrate or discount public opinion within the PP’s decision-making process, and also the ethical issues surrounding the information received by the public in relation to environmental risks. It will be broken into two specific sections: (i) Libertarianism: Policymakers should provide the public with all of the information that is available, in relation to risks they face, and should let them decide for themselves about what actions should be taken. However, the general public might not understand the details of this information, leading to irrational actions being taken that do not represent the probability, impact, or importance of these risks. (ii) Paternalism: Deciding what is best for the public and implementing policies accordingly, or only providing limited information, is the best approach to take towards risk. The public would not understand a lot of the technical jargon used and their views towards risk are often irrational. However, this raises the ethical issue that these types of policies do not represent the public’s interests. Information received about a specific risk(s), or lack thereof, is vital in how risks are perceived. There is the potential for alarmist-type reactions towards risk because of the quality and quantity of media coverage, which has the capacity to distort the reality and likelihood of a risk. This can blind individuals’ capacity to understand accurate levels of probability, and can thus cause governments to act on their population’s misguided views surrounding these risks.