Values and Ecological Risk Assessment: Two Policy Paradigms

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This research project is undertaken by an experienced team: a philosopher who specializes in environmental risk assessment and the ethics of scientific research and a biologist who specializes in habitat evaluation and ecological restoration. The project has four objectives: to examine and clarify the ethical dimensions of two dominant paradigms of ecological risk assessment; to discover major ethical assumptions built into the paradigms, so as to clarify the normative dimensions of these procedures; to assess the ethical consequences, for ecological research and environmental management, of alternative stances on questions about the normative foundations of these paradigms; and to evaluate the ethical adequacy of important applications of these assessments. The research plan involves careful reading and analysis of ecological risk assessments that incorporate the animal-toxicity and the ecological health approaches to identify and clarify their value assumptions and ethical implications. The investigators will consider such questions as whether ecological risk assessment should include ethical goals or advocacy, economic measures of welfare, public preferences, or standards of ethical rationality. Related questions include, whether the burden of proof should lie on ecologists or risk imposers and which assessment paradigm is likely to lead to greater good. Through presentations and publications, the project teams expects to participate in on-going debates about the ethical aspects of ecological research and its environmental applications and about the contributions that ecologists can make to ethical debates about environmental issues. The project will result in articles and presentations, and a book length monograph.