World in Transition - Environment and Ethics

More and more people are questioning the limits of human intervention in nature. What is ethically allowed and what should be prohibited? In a new special report, the "German Advisory Council on Global Change" (WBGU) offers some answers to these difficult questions. At the same time it has drawn up a number of principles, which should not be violated, even where there are big economical gains. In addition, in a democratic and culturally diverse society it is the task of ethics to lay down generally binding criteria for weighing up between nature-related and, for example, economic matters. With these tools of ethical and economical criteria the Federal Government of Germany could support the interests of environmental protection at the international level.