SBCC
Center for Sustainability Hosts:
The
Precautionary Principle
the Golden Rule for Future Generations
with Carolyn Raffensperger
and special guest David Eisenberg
Monday, January 16,
7pm-9:30pm, 2012
Santa Barbara City College,
West Campus, Fe Bland Auditorium
$10 general/$5 SBCC Students
What does the present owe the future?
From
medicine to agriculture, energy, communication, and transportation, we
have technologies our grandparents could not have imagined. Some of
these technologies have dark sides and unknown consequences. Who
will be the guardians for future generations insuring that our present
technologies don't negatively impact our descendants?
The Precautionary Principle suggests that we err on the side of caution
when designing for our future. It is a tool for making better
health and environmental decisions, and aims to prevent harm from the
outset rather than manage it after the fact.
Although America's founding father's intended a government that would
allow its citizens life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, they could
not have anticipated the industrial age with its extremely toxic
substances that now pollute the soil, air, and water, our country's
commons.
What role does both government and the individual play in protecting
these commons, our common heritage? What compelling vision can we
have for ourselves and our children that allows us to be prosperous,
healthy, and ecologically whole? Come learn about the Precautionary
Principle and its tool kit for communities, organizations, and
government.
Carolyn Raffensperger has helped define, shape, and lead the
precautionary movement. She and her team at the Science and
Environmental Health Network, have purposefully sown the seeds of the
precautionary principle across the United States.
Carolyn Raffensperger is
an environmental lawyer and the Executive Director of the Science and
Environmental Health Network. She is the co-editor of Precautionary
Tools for Reshaping Environmental Policy published by M.I.T. Press
(2006) and Protecting Public Health and the Environment: Implementing
the Precautionary Principle, published by Island Press (1999).
Together, these volumes are the most comprehensive exploration to date of
the history, theory, and implementation of the precautionary
principle. Carolyn coined the term “ecological medicine” to
encompass the broad notions that both health and healing are entwined
with the natural world.
Carolyn will be joined by her friend and colleague David Eisenberg of the
Development Center for Appropriate Technology (DCAT), who since 1995, has
led the effort to create a sustainable context for building
regulations. A panel discussion including community members from
backgrounds of health, agriculture, social justice, and education
will follow the talk.
The event takes place on Monday, January 16, 7pm - 9:30pm, at
the Fe Bland Auditorium, Santa Barbara City College West Campus, 721
Cliff Dr, SB 93109. Admission $10 general/$5 SBCC students, no
reservations required. More info; (805)965-0581,ext 2177,
sbpcnet@silcom.com
Event Sponsors: Oasis Design,
Santa Barbara Permaculture Network & the SBCC Center for
Sustainability
SBCC Center for
Sustainability
http://sustainability.sbcc.edu
More Info:
Carolyn Raffensperger
Science and Environmental Health Network:
www.sehn.org
Articles:
Carolyn Raffensperger Interview:
The Precautionary Principle asks whether harm can be prevented
instead of assessing degrees of "acceptable " risk:
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/technology-who-chooses/461
How Do You Love All the Children, Interview
with Architect, Designer William McDonough:
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/power-of-one/how-do-you-love-all-the-children
- "If design is a signal of intent, and we look at what we've
done with the first industrial revolution, we would have to ask, did we
intend to do this? If we articulated the retroactive design assignment of
the First Industrial Revolution, it would be something like this:
"Could you design a system that pollutes the soil, air, and water;
that measures productivity by how few people are working; that measures
prosperity by how much natural capital you can dig up, bury, burn, or
otherwise destroy; that measures progress by the number of smokestacks
and requires thousands of complex regulations to keep you from killing
each other too quickly; that destroys bio-diversity and cultural
diversity; that produces things that are so highly toxic they require
thousands of generations to maintain constant vigil while living in
terror?" William McDonough, the Next Industrial
Revolution
-end-
Margie Bushman
Coordinator, SBCC Center for Sustainability
http://sustainability.sbcc.edu/
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