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Rachel's Democracy & Health News #1000

Farewell for now

This is the final issue of Rachel's News. What next, you ask?

What We Must Do -- Final Part

In this final issue of Rachel's News, editor Peter Montague concludes our popular 17-part series, "What We Must Do."

The Jigsaw Puzzle of Environmental Health: A New Picture Emerges

A stunning new report offers a comprehensive view of "environment and health," revealing some of the common mechanisms by which human health is shaped by the natural environment, the built environment, and the social environment -- a perspective that seems likely to recast the whole field of "environmental health" in the next decade or so.

How to survive the coming century

Alligators basking off the English coast; a vast Brazilian desert; the mythical lost cities of Saigon, New Orleans, Venice and Mumbai; and 90 per cent of humanity vanished. Welcome to the world warmed by 4 degrees Celsius [7.2 degrees Fahrenheit].

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Rachel's Precaution Reporter #183

The Precaution Reporter Will Continue Under New Management

Rachel's Precaution Reporter lives! In future it will be published by the Science and Environmental Health Network -- thanks to enthusiastic and passionate expressions of support from readers.

Cumulative Impacts: Death Knell for Cost-Benefit Analysis

The impacts of our various economic activities are now adding up to a damaged world -- a world in which Earth's natural capacity for self- renewal has been exceeded and permanent degradation is evident. Our legal and regulatory systems were never intended to limit the accumulation of small impacts. Instead, U.S. law relies on cost- benefit analysis to justify individual impacts -- a practice that is now obsolete because it is destroying the planet as a place suitable for human habitation.

Buffalo plane crash highlights precaution vs. cost-benefit analysis

The safety board, which investigates plane crashes, "appears to favor the precautionary principle" while the FAA, which regulates aviation, "appears to favor cost-benefit analysis," said Candace K. Kolander. "This tragic accident gives the aviation industry an opportunity to revisit these differing approaches to regulating safety, and hopefully helps bring us back toward the precautionary principle and away from cost-benefit."

Cancer questions grow around Fermi nuclear plant in Michigan

"Those who create a poison are responsible for demonstrating that it is safe (this is the Precautionary Principle in public health)," Mangano told Michigan Messenger in an e-mail exchange. "But instead of utilities and the NRC [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] conducting studies, they set an arbitrary limit of radiation emissions and exposure, and declare any levels below this to be 'safe.'

Chemicals industry wants 'free trade, not subsidies'

European Environmental Bureau President Mikael Karlsson warned that new industrial policies must not jeopardise broader societal objectives, stressing the importance of applying the precautionary principle to new products. "The precautionary principle does not mean banning products or curbing innovation. It can encourage innovation."

Precautionary policies help Europe prosper as U.S. falls behind

The European Union's precautionary approach to the natural environment is driving innovation -- and gaining economic leadership -- the world over. Lack of environmental regulation is causing the U.S. to fall behind economically.

Let's talk about the highly radioactive waste

"Fortunately, we can use some tools to help with this impasse. One, the 'First Rule of Holes,' instructs that if one finds oneself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging. Another tool is the much- underrated Precautionary Principle, which basically says that if a technology poses dire risks to the health and safety of people or the environment, it should not be implemented."

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