The subjective side of assessing risks (in environment protection decision making)

Unquantifiable factors, uncertainties, and 'irrational' factors in decision making on pollution abatement are discussed. Uncertainties about facts, uncertainties about what people (electorate, public influenced by media and by conspicuous pollution related events) think about the facts, and uncertainties about future consequences of present political decisions are emphasized. Damages and benefits difficult to assess quantitatively or by fixing a specific price tag are examined: 'numerically cost-benefit equations cannot be solved but politically they must be'. The 'most difficult' question is identified as the weight to be given to the interests of posteriority.