SUSTAINABILITY: YES, BUT HOW? NORWEGIAN MINKE WHALING AS A CASE
✍ Scribed by Brinkmann, Johannes
- Book ID
- 102658324
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1996
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 818 KB
- Volume
- 6
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0961-0405
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
If we look at it critically, sustainability should be judged as a controversial rather than as a consensual issue. As an example of this, arguments are presented for and against Norwegian minke whaling, mainly in the words of the four main actors: the whalers' association, Greenpeace, the Norwegian government and the scientific community. The main issue raised is who should be allowed to define sustainability, who should have the benefit of doubt and how we should handle such doubt. The author opts for an ideology-critical reconstruction of positions starting from their core arguments and for a critical scientific discourse. In the end, sustainability should be defined by interdisciplinary science including culture-relativist moral philosophy. Another important aspect is that critical and socially responsible science seems to be the only way of counterbalancing the media coverage of such issues, which is often biased, random and not based on proper knowledge.