1. Why would anyone think that evaluating environmental regulatory policy options with a careful weighing of costs and benefits ought to be replaced or supplemented with a precautionary principle?
2. Two parts: (1) What's the basic idea of a precautionary principle? (2) Characterize the difference between what Sunstein calls "weak" and "stronger" precautionary principles.
3. Suppose someone says, "precautionary principles are bad approaches to decision-making because they completely ignore benefits and only focus on dangers." According to lecture, is this true? Why or why not?
4. Two parts. (1) What is "monkeywrenching," and in what ways is it both similar and different from more accepted practices like "civil disobedience?" (2) Is monkeywrenching necessarily immoral just because it is both illegal and secretive?
5. Why would government agencies, together with corporations, re-brand anti-fracking protestors and environmental advocates as "extremists?"
6. Describe the fundamental disagreement between what LaDuke describes as a common Native American view of natural things like fish, trees and rocks, and the capitalist view of things like fish, trees and rocks. How does this difference in understanding affect the possibility of capitalists and Natives coexisting peacefully?
Article 1- Strategic Monkeywrenching by Dave Foreman
Article 2- All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life by Winona Laduke