Reconsidering Precautionary Attitudes and Sin of Omission for Emerging Technologies:

[Andrew Lockley]

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-15-8689-7_13

Reconsidering Precautionary Attitudes and Sin of Omission for Emerging Technologies: Geoengineering and Gene Drive

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Atsushi FujikiEmail author

1.

Chapter

First Online: 02 December 2020

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Part of the Kobe University Monograph Series in Social Science Research book series (KUMSSSR)

Abstract

Precautionary attitudes including “precautionary principle” are widely accepted in science and technology governance. Their concept can be potentially applied to emerging technologies such as geoengineering and gene drive. However, precautionary and preemptive attitudes may be also obstacles to decision making because they are used by both the advocates and opponents of these new fields. Therefore, when we examine “innovative emerging technologies that will have unquantifiable and unpredictable influences over a wide spatio-temporally range and produce catastrophic irreversible consequences in a worst-case scenario” from the viewpoint of precautionary attitudes, it is necessary to identify the situations and risks that we really want to avoid because the words “precautionary” and “omission” can have different meanings for different stakeholders.

Keywords

Geoengineering Gene drive Dual use Ecosystem