M. Bamier: The Quest for a Healthier Environment
5
If some of these can be controlled in the medium range, others can lead to dead
ends, even more because of the many uncertainties involved. Anticipation is,
therefore, an essential function and sometimes the lack of scientific data makes it
impossible to provide an immediate answer to important questions.
The work I decided to undertake on polluted sites highlights, for example, the
difficulties involved in hierarchizing sites, in knowing the impact of polluted
materials on the medium. Still today, doubt subsists as to the risks presented by
certain substances for the Environment or for human health.
This complexity and this diversity lead to integrating many fields and actors from
ever more varying horizons: scientists, of course, such as biologists, chemists and
physicists, but also sociologists, lawyers and economists.
2.2 Environment and Ethics
We have just evoked France's ratification of the Biodiversity Convention. To justify
action in favor of nature conservation, utilitarian arguments are often resorted to,
such as: "Natural species must be protected because they can be useful one day if
such and such a molecule were to be discovered".
This approach counts, of course, but it is not the most important in my eyes. I am
among those who believe that wild species and natural habitats constitute a
patrimony in themselves. Patrimony is, by definition, what we received in heritage
and what we are to transmit to future generations. This patrimony is not only
economic; it is also cultural. It involves a moral dimension that, it seems to me,
essential not to lose sight of and that goes far beyond the scientific dimension. In
this context I am happy to note the current and continued CODATA actions to
manage a worldwide inventory of the vegetable and animal kingdoms. Many of
these projects are facilitated by their computerization on Internet.
2.3 Environment and Rights
Robert Poujade said "Environmental policy is expressed globally; it involves all
policies but it is not limited to anyone of them".
The Environment contributes to the good of all, whether by protecting nature,
preserving species, fighting pollution and harmful effects or defending the
framework of life itself.
Recognizing this has contributed, for example, to working out, over the past 20
years, a specific right to the environment, a right still young and changing rapidly
in line with the new problems pinpointed by science. This pluridisciplinary nature
of the Environment renders such a right very complex indeed; I therefore decided
to launch a broad project of renovation and modernization of environmental
legislation. This code of the Environment aims at clarifying and regrouping
certain texts currently included in legislation as diverse as the rural code, the city
planning code or the mining code. It should be completed by the end of 1994 and
presented during next Spring's parliamentary session.
5
If some of these can be controlled in the medium range, others can lead to dead
ends, even more because of the many uncertainties involved. Anticipation is,
therefore, an essential function and sometimes the lack of scientific data makes it
impossible to provide an immediate answer to important questions.
The work I decided to undertake on polluted sites highlights, for example, the
difficulties involved in hierarchizing sites, in knowing the impact of polluted
materials on the medium. Still today, doubt subsists as to the risks presented by
certain substances for the Environment or for human health.
This complexity and this diversity lead to integrating many fields and actors from
ever more varying horizons: scientists, of course, such as biologists, chemists and
physicists, but also sociologists, lawyers and economists.
2.2 Environment and Ethics
We have just evoked France's ratification of the Biodiversity Convention. To justify
action in favor of nature conservation, utilitarian arguments are often resorted to,
such as: "Natural species must be protected because they can be useful one day if
such and such a molecule were to be discovered".
This approach counts, of course, but it is not the most important in my eyes. I am
among those who believe that wild species and natural habitats constitute a
patrimony in themselves. Patrimony is, by definition, what we received in heritage
and what we are to transmit to future generations. This patrimony is not only
economic; it is also cultural. It involves a moral dimension that, it seems to me,
essential not to lose sight of and that goes far beyond the scientific dimension. In
this context I am happy to note the current and continued CODATA actions to
manage a worldwide inventory of the vegetable and animal kingdoms. Many of
these projects are facilitated by their computerization on Internet.
2.3 Environment and Rights
Robert Poujade said "Environmental policy is expressed globally; it involves all
policies but it is not limited to anyone of them".
The Environment contributes to the good of all, whether by protecting nature,
preserving species, fighting pollution and harmful effects or defending the
framework of life itself.
Recognizing this has contributed, for example, to working out, over the past 20
years, a specific right to the environment, a right still young and changing rapidly
in line with the new problems pinpointed by science. This pluridisciplinary nature
of the Environment renders such a right very complex indeed; I therefore decided
to launch a broad project of renovation and modernization of environmental
legislation. This code of the Environment aims at clarifying and regrouping
certain texts currently included in legislation as diverse as the rural code, the city
planning code or the mining code. It should be completed by the end of 1994 and
presented during next Spring's parliamentary session.