The Sierra Club has long fought for clean air, water, and waste practices. One of the ways the Club has done this is by support for implementation of the “precautionary principle” (PP). Historically the PP parallels statements like “an ounce of prevent is worth a pound of cure”, “better safe than sorry”, “look before you leap”, and “first do no harm”, to address environmental hazards. The PP suggests that we have a collective “social responsibility” to protect the public from exposure to harm.
In the 1970s and 1980s, when toxic substances, hazardous wastes, landfills, dumps, and superfund sites became flashpoints for environmental justice fights, the PP was often used to address out-of-control production and waste processes that defiled and degraded air, water, land, and neighborhoods. The first time the PP was endorsed internationally was in 1982, in the World Charter for Nature. Later it was also incorporated into the Montreal Protocol, Rio Declaration, and Kyoto Protocol.
A 1998 statement about the PP was prepared during a conference on January 23-25th. The “Wingspread Statement” said, in part, “Where an activity raises threats of harm to the environment or human health, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically.”
On February 17, 2001, the Sierra Club Board of Directors adopted a policy about the PP which said: “Precautionary Principle – We support the precautionary principle – When an activity potentially threatens human health or the environment, the proponent of the activity, rather than the public, should bear the burden of proof as to the harmlessness of the activity. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing measures to prevent environmental degradation.”
The Sierra Club’s support of the PP ensures that it is proactive in implementation of pollution reduction practices when threats arise that are real but are not clearly delineated due to a lack of information and research. Sierra Club activists should use the PP whenever situations arise which could cause human health and environment hazards due to circumstances that are not fully known.
References
1) “Precautionary principle”, Wikipedia, January 14, 2019.
2) “Wingspread Statement on the Precautionary Principle”, governnance@gdrc.org, January 11, 2019.
3) “Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution”, Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner, University of California Press, page 287, 2002.
4) “Precautionary Principle”, Sierra Club, February 17, 2001.
By Brandt Mannchen, January 14, 2019