Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Box 1.2: Conceptual framework for environmental horizon
scanning
Substantive orientation
• Risk - a prediction or expectation that includes the perspectives of those
affected about what is important to them, concerning a potential hazard or
danger in which there is uncertainty over occurrence but which may involve
adverse consequences as the possible outcome within a certain time period
• Harm - an actual danger or adverse effect, stemming from direct and indirect
social processes, that negatively impinges upon the health and wellbeing and
ecological integrity of humans, specific biospheres and nonhuman animals
• Cause - analysis of causal chains that may involve many interrelated variables
but which ultimately are linked to specific practices and human responsibility
for environmental harm
Justice orientation
• Environment justice - in which environmental rights are seen as an extension
of human or social rights so as to enhance the quality of human life, now
and into the future
• Ecological justice - in which it is acknowledged that human beings are merely
one component of complex ecosystems that should be preserved for their
own sake via the notion of the rights of the environment
• Species justice - in which harm is constructed in relation to the place of
nonhuman animals within environments and their intrinsic right to not
suffer abuse, whether this be one-on-one harm, institutionalised harm or
harm arising from human actions that affect climates and environments on
a global scale
Futures orientation
• Intergenerational equity - refers to the principle of ensuring that the
generations to follow have at least the same or preferably better
environments in which to live than those of the present generation
• Precautionary principle - when an activity raises threats of harm to human
health, nonhuman animals or the environment, precautionary measures
should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully
established scientifically
• Transference over time - refers in this context to the transfer of harm involving
both cumulative impacts and compounding effects
Source: White 2011
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