Limiting risks: Environmental ethics as a policy primer

This article constructs framework for policy-oriented a conceptual and normative discussions of environmental uncertainty and risk. Human-caused environmental risks me unavoidable in a technologically cmd economically advanced society. Contemporary environmentalists deploy ecological and ethical axioms to structure the debate over environmental uncertainty and risk management. They adopt the "imperative of sustainability" and the "precautionary principle" as the foci of an ethical and ecological effort to evaluate and limit environmental risk. The policy implications of these axioms for those engaged in environmental risk and cost/benefit analysis are explored.