Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Precautionary Principle / Global Warming

In class we had a discussion about the precautionary principle and were presented with the question, if you knew a plane had a ten percent chance of the wing falling off would you still fly on it? A couple of people ventured to say yes however realistically if this scenario were reality I highly doubt anyone would get on the plane. Ten percent is a lot to risk when your gambling with life, its all or nothing.

I agree with Stewart Brand's view that the Earth is a self regulating mechanism that will eventually remove humans. Yes global warming is occuring but it is only its natural cycle. Polution, though definately not a good thing for the environment, is not the sole cause for temperature increases. Since theres always a small possibility that either side of the debate is wrong I believe just as the precautionary principle states we should be as responsbile as realistically possible and reduce our pollution. At the very least it will be better for everyone else living here. We must be responsible in our actions and not abuse the Earth and its resources but at the same time we must not go overboard wasting precious time and money trying to support a view of humans as the primary catalyst for everything bad with the Earth.

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