Dr. Peter Montague, an historian and journalist dedicated to environmental health and justice, discussed on this call why cumulative impacts analysis is needed whenever a new disturbance (such as a new project, process, technology, etc.) is introduced into the natural, built, or social environment. Dr. Montague provided an overview of cumulative impacts analysis, current impediments for its implementation, and ways to encourage researchers and others to reframe “one cause, one effect” thinking to include multiple impacts on health over time. He also discussed a three-part “checklist” as part of the cumulative impacts analysis that community leaders and other decision-makers can use to evaluate any proposed new disturbance in order to better protect human and ecological health.
Featured Speaker
Peter Montague, PhD, is a historian and journalist whose work has appeared in Alternet; Counterpunch; the Ecologist; Grist; Huffington Post; Multinational Monitor; The Nation; New Solutions; OpEdNews; Race, Poverty & the Environment; Rachel's Democracy & Health News (editor, 1986-2008); TomPaine.com, Truthout, and elsewhere. He has co-written two books -- Mercury (1970), and No World Without End (1972). He's now working on a short book with the working title "Rational Madness," about the destruction of the biosphere by one "rational" decision after another. He is active in the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance, a member of the National Writer's Union (UAW Local 1981, AFL-CIO), and a member of the board of directors of the Science and Environmental Health Network.
This call was moderated by Carolyn Raffensperger, MA, JD, Executive Director, Science and Environmental Health Network (SEHN).