Environmental Values Environmental Values
Environmental Values 9(2000): 153-171. doi: 10.3197/096327100129342010
'Contingent Valuation' is a method often used to make decisions about environmental issues. It is used to elicit citizens' preferences at the location of a specific facility, new road and the like. I argue that even if we could elicit a truly informed and 'free' choice, the method would remain flawed, as 1) all 'local' activity also has far-reaching environmental consequences; 2) majority decisions may support chices that adversely affect minorities; 3) even with full information, consenting to harms like significant alterations of our normal functioning or health, or genetic mutations, may not be morally acceptable.
KEYWORDS: risk assessment methods, citizens' choices, global impacts, minority rights
REFERENCES to other articles in Environmental Values:
Environmental Valuation: Some Problems of Wrong Questions and Misleading Answers. Jack L. Knetsch
Economists' Preferences and the Preferences of Economists. Bryan G. Norton
Economic Valuation and Environmental Values. Michael Prior
Four Dogmas of Environmental Economics. Mark Sagoff
CITATIONS in other Environmental Values articles:
Teleological Presuppositions, and the 'Expectation Gap': A Response to Laura Westra Peter Lucas
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