Should the precautionary principle be implemented in regards to global warming?
The problem with the precautionary principle is that it advocates preventing hypothetical problems at the expense of solving real ones. Applied to medicine, it means prohibiting new treatments that save lives out of concern that the treatments *might* harm some people. The most tragic example of the damage caused by the precautionary principle is the campaign against pesticides. By the late 1950s, malaria had been virtually eradicated worldwide by the use of DDT. Thanks to the campaign to ban DDT, malaria made a comback in the late 1960s and has caused 96 million deaths, primarily in Africa, since 1971. The precautionary principle kills many people today so that a few people *might* not suffer next year.
