The European Union, for instance, has banned atrazine as part of a precautionary policy that prohibits pesticides that easily contaminate groundwater.
For example, most definitions use a double negative to define the precautionary principle; that is, they identify reasons that cannot be used to justify not acting.
First, unlike previous attempts to legislate on fish farming at the national level, the bill would ensure that U.S. aquaculture adopts a science-based, precautionary approach that establishes a priority for the protection of wild fish and functional ecosystems.
Soon after Suskind's book came out, the legal scholar Cass Sunstein, who then was at the University of Chicago, pointed out that Mr. Cheney seemed to be endorsing the same "precautionary principle" that also animated environmentalists.
It is available as a precautionary facility that can be tapped without meeting any conditions.
Walley said: "You have to have scientific evidence, but you also have to have the precautionary principle – that's the heart of this debate".
Intransigent opposition by anti-science, anti-technology activists - primarily Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and a few other groups – has spurred already risk-averse regulators to adopt an overly precautionary approach that has stalled approvals.
Once again Mr. Cheney and the White House are portraying the event as a relatively minor, precautionary step that will not interfere with his performance of duties, and in an immediate sense they are probably right.
They ensure credible, continuing and complete monitoring, accountability for past mistakes and true adherence to a precautionary principle that does not allow short-term gain to outweigh public and ecological safety.
Yet even these justifiable beliefs can take on a supernatural life of their own, on the precautionary principle that: "If you're not respecting something there could be bad karma".
