O'Brien, M., Making Better Environmental Decisions: An Alternative to Risk Assessment (2002) Cambridge MA: MIT Press., Chapters 1-5.

 

O'Brien, M., Alternatives Assessment: Part of Operationalizing and Institutionalizing The Precautionary Principle (1998) Paper prepared for the Wingspread Conference on "Implementing the Precautionary Principle" 23-25 January, Racine, Wisconsin. http://www.johnsonfdn.org/conferences/precautionary/obrien.html 

Students completing this class will:

1. Be sensitive to the ways in which risk assessment can be misused and misinterpreted
2. Learn an alternative approach to risk assessment, that actually precludes the use of risk assessment in many instances.
3. Become sensitized to moral and ethical considerations associated with risk assessment.
4. Understand the essential elements associated with alternatives assessment.

Homework Assignment for Session Five

1. How does alternative assessment differ from risk assessment?
2. Identify the essential elements of alternatives assessment.
3. Please distinguish between "direct effects," "indirect effects" and "cumulative effects."
4. What is it about "risk assessment" that worries Mary O'Brien so much that she has written a book to present another approach?
5. According to O'Brien, how does risk assessment really work?
6. What is the major scientific flaw of most risk assessments?
7. Describe the four ways in which risk assessment can be deleterious to democracy.
8. What is the moral concern that O'Brien raises in regard to the use of risk assessment? Provide at least 2 case examples.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15