Biotechnology (BT) is a major source of numerous socio-economic and ecological changes and consequences as we are entering the 21st century. The public is almost daily confronted with conflicting stories that encompass the entire spectrum from BT being proclaimed as humankind's saviour to it being the cause of our ultimate environmental destruction. Governments have difficulties designing appropriate policies to regulate all aspects of BT from research protocols, to testing, to protection for intellectual property, to licensing for release into the environment, for food safety and for international trade.Given that there is a certain level of environmental uncertainty associated withthe products of BT in addition to the possibilities of negative impacts arising from trans-boundary movements of genetically modified organisms (GMO), the urgency for an international agreement to regulate tr...

Los factores que influyen en el proceso de descuento se reflejan en todos los aspectos de la actividad humana, ya sea lo filosófico, lo estético o lo religioso a través de las experiencias ambientales y científicas. En resumen, el descuento es un concepto controvertido, y, sin embargo, la profesión económica parece ignorar que las cuestiones relacionadas al descuento de “largo plazo” son complejas, multifacéticas, y lejos de resolverse. La comunidad ambientalista, en particular, haexpresado reservas acerca del descuento, ya que este proceso —uno inherentemente miope—incorpora un sesgo implícito contra las futuras generaciones. Se argumenta que el peligro para la sostenibilidad ecológica es de carácter específico, es decir, que se refiere a la falta de posibilidad de sustitución entre el capital hecho por el hombre y el capital natural. Si se acepta esta hipótesis, en...

Factors impacting on the discounting process are mirrored in every aspect of human activities, be it the philosophical, the aesthetic, the religious through to the environmental and scientific experiences. In short, discounting is a controversial concept, and yet, the economic profession seems to ignore that issues related to “long-term” discounting are complex, multifaceted, and far from settled. The environmental community in particular has expressed reservations about discounting, because this process —an inherently myopic one— embodies a built-in bias against the future generations.It will be argued here that the danger to ecological sustainability is of a specific nature, namely,it relates to the lack of substitutability between human-made capital and natural capital. If this assumption is accepted, then it follows that using a discount rate is an inadequate instrumentfor ac...

Biotechnology (BT) is a major source of numerous socio-economic and ecological changes and consequences as we are entering the 21st century. The public is almost daily confronted with conflicting stories that encompass the entire spectrum from BT being proclaimed as humankind's saviour to it being the cause of our ultimate environmental destruction. Governments have difficulties designing appropriate policies to regulate all aspects of BT from research protocols, to testing, to protection for intellectual property, to licensing for release into the environment, for food safety and for international trade. Given that there is a certain level of environmental uncertainty associated withthe products of BT in addition to the possibilities of negative impacts arising from trans-boundary movements of genetically modified organisms (GMO), the urgency for an international agreement to regulate t...

Factors impacting on the discounting process are mirrored in every aspect of human activities, be it the philosophical, the aesthetic, the religious through to the environmental and scientific experiences. In short, discounting is a controversial concept, and yet, the economic profession seems to ignore that issues related to “long-term” discounting are complex, multifaceted, and far from settled. The environmental community in particular has expressed reservations about discounting, because this process —an inherently myopic one— embodies a built-in bias against the future generations.It will be argued here that the danger to ecological sustainability is of a specific nature, namely,it relates to the lack of substitutability between human-made capital and natural capital. If this assumption is accepted, then it follows that using a discount rate is an inadequate instrumentfor ac...