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amazonより

For the past quarter-century, government and the private sector have relied heavily on risk assessment for making decisions, allowing widespread environmental deterioration. In this book, Mary O'Brien recommends a simple yet profound shift to another decision-making technique: "alternatives assessment." Instead of asking how much of a hazardous activity is safe (which translates into how much damage the environment can tolerate), alternatives assessment asks how we can avoid or minimize damage while achieving society's goals. Alternatives assessment is a simple, commonsense alternative to risk assessment. It is based on the premise that it is not acceptable to damage human and nonhuman health or the environment if there are reasonable alternatives. The approach calls for taking precautionary measures even if some cause-and-effect relationships have not been fully established scientifically. The process must involve an examination of the full range of alternatives, including no action at all. Equally important, it must be democratic and include potentially affected parties. O'Brien not only makes a persuasive case for alternative assessment; she tells how to implement it. She also shows how this technique has profound implications for public health, for our stewardship of the environment, and for a truly democratic government. Published in association with the Environmental Research Foundation.

■しかく目次

Foreword
Peter Montague
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction

I What Is Wrong with Risk Assessment?
Goal: Replace Risk Assessment with
Alternatives Assessment
How Does Risk Assessment Actually Work?
What Are We Defending with Risk Assessment?
When Scientists Shut Their Eyes: Pretending
That the Safety of Hazardous Activities Can
Be Estimated
When Decision Makers Become Compromised:
Pronouncing Unnecessary Hazardous Activities
``Acceptable''
When a Society Isn't Serious About
Environmental Health: Assessing a Narrow
Range of Options
Who Loves, Uses, or Cooperates with Risk
Assessment?
Unnecessary Societal Triage: Comparative Risk
Assessment

II Alternatives Assessment as an Alternative to Risk Assessment
Alternatives Assessment: The Case of Bovine
Growth Hormone and Rotational Grazing
Alternatives Assessment vs. Cost-Benefit
Analysis: There Is More to Life Than Money
We Already Know How to Do Alternatives
Assessment
We Know How to Push for Alternatives
Assessments
The Essential Features of an Alternatives
Assessment
A Society That Assesses Its Alternatives
Alternatives Assessment: More Information,
Fewer Pages

III Making the Shift to Alternatives Assessment
Getting Started
Barriers to Alternative Assessment
Forces for Alternatives Assessment

Notes
References
Index

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*作成:今井 浩登