Precautionary Tools for Reshaping Environmental Policy

Carolyn Raffensperger is an environmental lawyer and the founding director of the Science and Environmental Health Network.

A hands-on guide to implementing the precautionary principle and avoiding harm through foresight and wise decisions.

"A unique and comprehensive synthesis and compendium of heretofore disparate writings on and critiques of the precautionary principle, incorporating both European and American legal, political, and cultural traditions and perspectives. Theoretically sound and practically oriented, this book will be a must-read for policy analysts and policymakers, environmentalists, enlightened industrialists, citizens and activists, and students of government and regulation." Nicholas A. Ashford, Professor of Technology and Policy, MIT, and coauthor of Environmental Law, Policy, and Economics: Reclaiming the Environmental Agenda "Finally -- a book that exposes the precautionary principle for what it really is: a rational, practical, fair-minded, powerful, science-based approach for making the world a safer, more livable place. From playgrounds in Texas to courtrooms in Wisconsin, from elk farms and marine fisheries to hospitals and architectural firms, here are portraits of precaution in action. All together, they serve as a template for environmental transformation. Bravo!"--Sandra Steingraber, Ithaca College, author of *Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment*