“STRONG” AND “WEAK” GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CONCEPTS

• Main Authors: Nikolay Dronin, John Francis
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lomonosov Moscow State University 2010-03-01
• Series: Geography, Environment, Sustainability
• Subjects: global environmental issues; precautionary principle; demarcation; scientific credibility; epistemology; environmental policy
• Online Access: https://ges.rgo.ru/jour/article/view/265

Many global environmental issues being subject of ambitious international environmental politics could look very different in terms of scientific justification. This was revealed during interviews made by the author with some leading American environmental scientists. All interviewed American scientists granted minor confidence to three environmental issues—deforestation, desertification and biodiversity loss, while two issues—the ozone depletion and climate change—were deserved high degree of confidence. The striking difference in evaluation of the global concepts of environmental issues is discussed in the context of the classical epistemological problem of coexistence of “strong” and “weak” theories in modern science. The normative character of epistemology suggests that some ways of raising scientific credibility of the backward environmental concepts can be proposed. Better justification of these global environmental issues can help to move forward the environmental politics which have shown mere stagnation during the last years.