Preventing risks and protecting resources

The Precautionary Principle prompts us to question our intuitions about the right decisions. The principle was first applied to regulations in Germany for preventing air pollution. It consists of two core components in German environmental law:

• Preventing risks: Legislators shouldn't take action if knowledge of the potential environmental damage is incomplete or uncertain.
• Protecting resources: The burden of proof rests on proving lack of harm, not on proving harm. Some countries use the principle to justify bans on genetically modified food.