ABSTRACT
Environmental protection calls for a strategy of unprecedented proportions. Not only is our knowledge of the numerous interactions between the natural environment, society, and the economy incomplete, but our understanding has to reach far beyond the usual limits of our time horizon. Confronted by so much uncertainty, we may consequently be tempted to apply well-known remedies that recall an old antagonism in policy making: market incentives as opposed to direct control. This opposition reflects a frame of mind in which economic constraints remain in the forefront.
