Reply #19: That example isn't the use of the precautionary principle

[kristopher]

It is a basic argument having nothing to do with the PP. The PP deals with the legal concept of blame or responsibility. Operating without the PP company X wants to manufacture widgets and produce by-product Z in the process. By-product Z is not known to cause harm, but it is a new organic chemical compound that has never been tested other than the most casual toxicity tests. Z happens to be in a class of chemicals that is highly reactive with another group of organic compounds Y.

Without the PP company X has no obligation to test Z with Y nor to investigate whether company X's use of it will result in downstream mixing with Y.

With the PP it does.

Marx assigned primary significance for the texture of culture and society on the nature of its infrastructure.
Malthus believed it was population pressure.
Harris has shown that it is a combination of the two - production and reproduction - and their interplay that is what actually happens.