Our Future Survival
… I don’t know why it is not informing public debate – it is: that we can’t always know. When we know of an impending disaster (and how to solve it at a cost less than the cost of the disaster itself) then there’s not going to be much argument, really – but no precautions and no precautionary principle – can avoid problems that we do not yet foresee, hence, we need a stance of problem fixing, not just problem fixing – not just problem avoidance.
It’s true that an ounce of prevention, but that’s only if we know what to prevent. If you’ve been punched on the nose, then the science of medicine does not consist of teaching you how to avoid punches: if medical science stopped seeking cures and concentrated on prevention only then it wouldn’t achieve either.
If you are not familiar with the work of David Deutsch, this is as good a time-slice as any to find out.
Not quantum physics-savvy? I recommend The Fabric of Reality as a surprisingly-comprehensive introduction for the layperson.