After decades in government and academia, Paul Anastas has come to see the reductionism of the scientific method, and the fragmented nature of our communication about environmental and health issues, as barriers to effective change. Typically both research and regulation fragment the public discussion, focusing on identified pollutants or the mitigation of specific risks. If society is to be certain that our cures aren’t worse than our diseases, he says, we must reorient the environmental discussion toward transforming systems. “Reinventing the material and energy that are the basis or our society and our economy,” says Anastas, “will be essential in moving us away from the unsustainable trajectory that we are on.” He’ll offer a blueprint for doing just that.

Attendees who register at the CASW website can download background material and the presentation at http://casw.org/environment-and-health/new-horizons-science-2012/briefs/....