Risk management for global environmental change

Abstract

Global environmental change is both a concept and a process that changes in meaning with scientific discovery, public concern, and political responsiveness. The relationship between the problems, as perceived, and the various institutions that help shape and adapt to such problems, defines global environmental change. Holistic risk analysis, because of its capacity to recognize this relationship in many spheres of problem identification, can contribute to the political debate. Such analysis will suggest institutional redesign of the relationship between scientific research, public entry, and experimental readjustments to consensus formation and international action. The authors examine the changing nature of the global change issue; look at how the disciplines of risk analysis and management are trying to respond to the new challenges offered by global environmental change; suggest ways in which global risks can be classified; and recommend different approaches to science and policy evaluation.