David Ehrenfeld is a proffessor at Rutgers University and a leading conservation biologist. He was the founding editor of the journal Conservation Biology, was a longtime columnist for Orion, and is the author of several books, including Becoming Good Ancestors: How We Balance Nature, Community, and Technology and The Arrogance of Humanism.
When Risk Assessment is Risky: Predicting the Effects of Technology
Each new technology, regardless of benefits,brings its own risks. In many complex situations where there are multiple questions with poorly constrained answers, it is folly to expect that we can use formal risk assessments to guide current actions.
June 13, 2013