| Since its European origin
(Sweden and Germany) in 1970 and expansion at the 1992 United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development, the Precautionary Principle
has exchanged knowledge, freedom, service to mankind, and science with
ignorance, fear, agendas and lawyers. The promulgators of these agendas
are experts in creating fear of possibilities (damage from genetically
optimized crops, harm from species dying out, climate change) in place
of sound logic and probabilities. These fears have seduced liberals and
government agencies into their service. It’s hard to resist joining
“earth friendly” causes to “save our planet” via “sustainable
development” and “organic crops.” The Precautionary Principal has turned logic and fairness on their heads. Instead of innocent until proven guilty we have ethics used to find individuals or firms culpable if they don’t prove beyond reasonable doubt their products are safe, and lawyers get to define “reasonable.” We should instead rely on the logic that no firm would stay in business if it didn’t do its level best to assure their products serve mankind and cause no harm, but it is impossible to prove it. The net result is that lawyers tell us what products and services are good for humanity, not scientist who are vastly more capable of doing so. We’ve got to resist this steady decline into a world of ignorance and fear and cast out laws that keep us from doing what is best for humanity and the world we live in. We can start by stamping out any law that promotes the illogical and unfair Precautionary Principle, and offshoots like the Endangered Species Act and the campaign against genetically optimized crops, which are just another way to stifle human priorities and have little to do with safety of food or the welfare of species. |