Environmental lawyer and executive director of the Science & Environmental Health Network Carolyn Raffensperger lays out the history of the Precautionary Principle and portrays how it can be used as an effective tool in policymaking to protect the public health, environment and future generations. She maintains that it is “the beginning of an essential transformation in the way we relate both to the Earth and to the things we invent.”

This speech was given at the 2001 Bioneers National Conference and is featured on the Ecological Medicine, Vol. 1 and Environmental Justice, Vol. 1 Collections.