“STRONG” AND “WEAK” GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CONCEPTS
Abstract
Many global environmental issues being subject of ambitious international environmental politics could look very different in terms of scientific justification. This was revealed during interviews made by the author with some leading American environmental scientists. All interviewed American scientists granted minor confidence to three environmental issues—deforestation, desertification and biodiversity loss, while two issues—the ozone depletion and climate change—were deserved high degree of confidence. The striking difference in evaluation of the global concepts of environmental issues is discussed in the context of the classical epistemological problem of coexistence of “strong” and “weak” theories in modern science. The normative character of epistemology suggests that some ways of raising scientific credibility of the backward environmental concepts can be proposed. Better justification of these global environmental issues can help to move forward the environmental politics which have shown mere stagnation during the last years.
About the Authors
Nikolay DroninRussian Federation
Faculty of Geography, Moscow State University, Leninskie gory, 119991, Moscow
John Francis
United States
JMF Associates, Pennsylvania
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For citation:
Dronin N., Francis J. “STRONG” AND “WEAK” GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CONCEPTS. GEOGRAPHY, ENVIRONMENT, SUSTAINABILITY. 2010;3(1):56-66. https://doi.org/10.24057/2071-9388-2010-3-1-56-66
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