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Uncertainty
Uncertainty can be described as a state of knowledge—or lack thereof—in which the probability of any adverse effect or the effects themselves cannot be reliably assessed. Because of the complex and ambiguous nature of humanity's interaction with the environment, uncertainty is inherent in any analysis of this relationship. The notion of uncertainty is often contrary to the positivist perspective on science, which observes cause-and-effect relationships between phenomena with the aim of resolving, avoiding, or negating adverse effects of environmental problems. With this in mind, it is often the linear relationship in the absence of uncertainty that policymakers adhere to when deciding on appropriate courses of action.
It is increasingly recognized, however, that the cause-and-effect relationship in the absence of uncertainty is overly reductionist. This applies to ...
- Politics and Ecology
- Politics and People
- Politics Challenges
- Acid Rain
- Afforestation
- Anti-Toxics Movement
- Appropriate Technology
- Biodiversity
- Decentralization
- Deforestation
- Domination of Nature
- Endocrine Disrupters
- Environmental Justice
- Environmental Management
- Equity
- Future Generations
- Global Climate Change
- Globalization
- Groundwater
- Industrial Revolution
- Innovation, Environmental
- Kuznets Curve
- Limits to Growth
- Malthusianism
- Megacities
- Millennium Development Goals
- Nonviolence
- North–South Issues
- Nuclear Politics
- PCBs
- Precautionary Principle
- Regulatory Approaches
- Resource Curse
- Revolving Door
- Risk Assessment
- Risk Society
- Silent Spring
- Structural Adjustment
- Suburban Sprawl
- Sustainable Development
- Technology
- Toxics Release Inventory
- Tragedy of the Commons
- Transportation
- Uncertainty
- Urban Planning
- Wetlands
- Wilderness
- Agenda 21
- Bhopal
- Brundtland Commission
- Bureau of Land Management, U.S.
- Clean Air Act
- Clean Water Act
- Club of Rome
- Copenhagen Summit
- Corporate Responsibility
- Department of Energy, U.S.
- Endangered Species Act
- Environmental Nongovernmental Organizations
- Environmental Protection Agency, U.S.
- Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S.
- Forest Service, U.S.
- Institutions
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
- Kyoto Protocol
- Land Ethic
- Marine Mammal Protection Act
- Montreal Protocol
- NIMBY
- North American Free Trade Agreement Organizations
- Sagebrush Rebellion
- Stockholm Convention
- Transnational Advocacy Organizations
- Wise Use Movement
- World Trade Organization
- Politics Parties, Systems, and Economics
- Anarchism
- Basel Convention
- Biophilia
- Capitalism
- Citizen Juries
- Commodification
- Common Property Theory
- Conservation Enclosures
- Conservation Movement
- Consumer Politics
- Convention on Biodiversity
- Cost-Benefit Analysis
- Death of Environmentalism
- Democratic Party
- Ecocapitalism
- Ecofascism
- Ecosocialism
- Environmental Movement
- Federalism
- Gaia Hypothesis
- Gender
- Governmentality
- Green Discourse
- Green Neoliberalism
- Green Parties
- Green Washing
- International Whaling Commission
- Intrinsic Value
- Iron Triangle
- Participatory Democracy
- Petro-Capitalism
- Policy Process
- Political Ideology
- Politics of Scale
- Postmaterialism
- Power
- Pragmatism
- Skeptical Environmentalism
- Steady State Economy
- Transnational Capitalist Class
- UN Conference on Environment and Development
- UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
- Utilitarianism
- Water Politics
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