Paradigms Lost: Learning from Environmental Mistakes, Mishaps and Misdeeds

Engineers and scientists have made great progress in advancing the understanding of the principles underlying environmental quality and public health. However, all too often, society and the scientific community do not realize the connections between environmental occurrences. In their haste to remedy a situation, they overlook lessons that could be learned to prevent future disasters. Paying attention to the past instructs us about the future.

Paradigms Lost combines the historical case perspective with credible and sound scientific explanations of key environmental disasters and problems. The author sorts through natural disasters and human mistakes from Love Canal, New York to Bhopal, India to provide larger lessons that can be applied by scientists, engineers and public safety officials. The analysis of these events includes viable alternatives for future generations.

* Includes alternative approaches to environmental issues from preventative measures to contingency plans

* Richly annotated with sidebars, discussion boxes and generous examples from Exxon Valdez and Love Canal to Agent Orange and Bhopal

* A usable tool for all professionals from lawyers to chemical engineers

Part I: New Science and New Paradigms
Lessons Learned: A Case Approach to Environmental Problems
Pollution Revisited

Part II: Key Environmental Events in Media
Something in the Air
Watershed Events
Landmark Cases
By Way of Introduction
Environmental Swords and Damocles

Part III: Other Paradigms
Dropping Acid and Heavy Metal Reactions
Spaceship Earth
Myths and Ideology: Perception versus Reality
Just Environmental Decisions, Please

Part IV: What is Next?
Bottom Lines and Top of the Head Guesses

Appendix 1: Equilibrium
Appendix 2: Government Reorganizations Creating the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Appendix 3: Reliability in Environmental Decision Making
Appendix 4: Principles of Environmental Persistence
Appendix 5: Cancer Slope Factors
Appendix 6: Equations for Calculating Lifetime Average Daily Exposure (LADD) for Various Routs of Exposure
Appendix 7: Characterizing Environmental Risk
Appendix 8: Risk-Based Contaminant Cleanup Example
Appendix 9: Shannon Weiner Index Example
Appendix 10: Useful Conversions in Atmospheric Chemistry
INDEX