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  Advocacy of Alternative World Views

Table Political Interests in Environmental Debates (source: Schneider 2003, "Mediarology", this website).

  • Entrepreneurial rights transcend commons protection
  • “One dollar one vote” — cost/benefit efficiency is the best decision rule
  • The present is more valuable than the future (high discount rate appropriate)
  • The present generation has an obligation not to borrow from the future (low discount rate appropriate for social rate of time preference)
  • Commons protection justifies curbs on individual, corporate or national actions
  • A risk aversion/precautionary principle is needed — especially for large-scale, potentially irreversible changes
  • Other species have intrinsic existence rights, even if outside of traditional cost/benefit calculations for human welfare
  • Distribution of costs and benefits are as or more important than the aggregate values (i.e., equity counts as much as efficiency)

Copyright 2011, Stephen H. Schneider, Stanford University