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short-term gain.
18
Decision-making based on the aggregation of
peoples
inchoate wants is also seen as inappropriate where judgments
would affect public goods including the environment.
19
Barry argues
that, to the contrary, the character of environmental issues
'
requires a
decision-making procedure in which individuals make judgements
about the public good in question and not just private calculations
'
.
20
Jacobs also suggests that, where choices may impact on public goods,
personal preferences necessarily become other peoples
'
'
business and
ed in a public context.
21
The transformation sought is a metamorphosis of consumer preferences
and the sel
should be justi
that
encapsulate what is of importance for the well-being not only of the
individual, but also of broader communities with which he or she is
connected.
22
Barry describes the altered attitude that it is hoped will result
from preference transformation as
sh materialism they embody into
'
public good values
'
'
a willingness to accommodate the
interests of others within an expanded conception of the ecological com-
mon good, a common good within which one
.
23
'
s own good is located
'
6.2.2 Internalising environmental considerations
The key to developing a
outlook both in public and private
decision-making lies in the internalisation by individuals of others
'
public good
'
'
interests and values, and re
ection, in light of this, on personal prefer-
ences and the underlying values that inform them.
24
It is important if
this outlook is to be ecological that the broadening of perspectives
should engender consciousness of shared interests in the healthy
functioning of natural systems. Analysis of how people review their
preferences and modify them in light of new information and changing
situations indicates that values are malleable.
25
However, alternative
viewpoints must be accepted as credible and legitimate by receiving
18
de Geus,
'
The Environment versus Individual Freedom
'
,p.93;Barry,
'
Sustainability
'
,
pp. 124
-
5.
19
Barry,
'
Rethinking Green Politics
'
,pp.121
-
2; Jacobs,
'
Environmental Valuation
'
,
pp. 211
-
12.
20
Barry,
'
Rethinking Green Politics
'
,p.121.
21
22
Jacobs,
'
Environmental Valuation
'
,p.212.
Ibid
., pp. 212, 217
-
21.
23
Barry,
'
Rethinking Green Politics
'
,p.231
-
2.
24
Lundqvist,
'
Ecological Governance
'
,p.17;Smith,
'
Deliberative Democracy
'
,p.64;Barry,
'
Rethinking Green Politics
'
, pp. 226
-
9.
25
Woolley,
'
Trouble on the Horizon?
'
,233
-
4.
