Values and Ecological Risk Assessment: Two Policy Paradigms

这一研究项目由一个经验丰富的团队承担：一位专门研究环境风险评估和科学研究伦理的哲学家，一位专门研究栖息地评估和生态恢复的生物学家。该项目有四个目标：审查和澄清生态风险评估的两个主要范例的伦理问题；发现这些范例所包含的重大伦理假设，以便澄清这些程序的准则问题；评估关于这些范例的准则基础问题的不同立场对生态研究和环境管理的伦理后果；以及评价这些评估重要应用的伦理适当性。研究计划涉及仔细阅读和分析生态风险评估，其中包括动物毒性和生态健康方法，以确定和澄清其价值假设和伦理影响。调查人员将考虑这样的问题，如生态风险评估是否应包括伦理目标或宣传、福利的经济措施、公众偏好或伦理合理性标准。相关的问题包括，举证责任应该由生态学家还是风险引导者承担，以及哪种评估范式可能会带来更大的好处。通过演讲和出版物，项目组希望参与正在进行的关于生态研究及其环境应用的伦理方面的辩论，以及生态学家可以对环境问题的伦理辩论做出的贡献。该项目将产生文章和演示文稿，以及一本书长的专著。

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.