permaculture

[Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network <lakinroe@silcom.com>]

*/

<mailto:sbpcnet@silcom.com>/*
/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


<http://sustainability.sbcc.edu/>
_More Info:

_View on Facebook:
Center for Sustainability:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/SBCC-Center-for-Sustainability/195585370466944?v=wall

Carolyn Raffensperger
Science and Environmental Health Network:
www.sehn.org

<http://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
(805) 965-0581, ext 2177, sbpcnet@silcom.com
http://sustainability.sbcc.edu/
P Please consider the environment before printing this email.