Multiple Paradoxes: Science, Uncertainty, and Risk in Environmental Policies and Management of Extractivisms

Main Article Content

Eduardo Gudynas

Abstract

The author review positions that defend and legitimate extractivisms with the use of science to nullify or reduce the acknowledgement of environmental impacts or to endorse technologies that appear to be safe and harmless. It includes the uses of science in risk understanding and assessment, and towards the handling of accidents. The essay posits that these positions imply the idea of a universal, neutral, and objective type of science; as a superior knowledge among others. This is a Cartesian reductionism which suggests that it is possible to reach a sufficient knowledge of ecosystems, their management and control. These fundaments are critically analyzed, particularly considering the high level of uncertainties and limitations in the Latin American environmental knowledge and the processes of public policies construction. The paper defends instead, a plural and diverse conception of science, highlighting the contributions made by the post-normal science perspective in the context of extractivisms. Opposite to conventional claims, extractivisms are endeavors immersed in high levels of uncertainty or ignorance, with severe risks that are often transferred to local communities, usually excluded from participation. Post-normal science solves some of those problems by opening up to other epistemologies and knowledges, as well as by its demand for the extension of communities, which in the case of South America, it could also
incorporate non-human actors.

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