ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the theoretical framework of environmental risk policy to see if the justification and evaluation structure of economic thought is morally adequate to the task of finding the "socially better" policy alternative in this area of concern. The human capacity for agency and the natural capacity of systems of natural selection to persist over time are concerns that ought to be put into terms that reflect their intrinsic value. The baseline of goods, opportunities and environmental quality necessary to essential persistence of any person's integrity as a human being and the functional integrity of the environment combine to offer the essential foundation for environmental policy. Overall, the environmental values will define the intensity of an active government and the particulars of individual and state responsibility based on the degree of cooperative compliance necessary for the persistence of human and natural integrity.
