next
previous
items

Late lessons from early warnings: science, precaution, innovation

Change language
Publication Created 23 Feb 2012 Published 22 Jan 2013
3 min read
Cover Image
The 2013 Late lessons from early warnings report is the second of its type produced by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in collaboration with a broad range of external authors and peer reviewers. The case studies across both volumes of Late lessons from early warnings cover a diverse range of chemical and technological innovations, and highlight a number of systemic problems. The 'Late Lessons Project' illustrates how damaging and costly the misuse or neglect of the precautionary principle can be, using case studies and a synthesis of the lessons to be learned and applied to maximising innovations whilst minimising harms.
Downloading: PDF document icon Late lessons from early warnings II - Summary.pdf — PDF document, 3.86 MB (4046244 bytes)
Change language
Publication Created 23 Feb 2012 Published 22 Jan 2013
3 min read
EEA Report No 1/2013
The 2013 Late lessons from early warnings report is the second of its type produced by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in collaboration with a broad range of external authors and peer reviewers. The case studies across both volumes of Late lessons from early warnings cover a diverse range of chemical and technological innovations, and highlight a number of systemic problems. The 'Late Lessons Project' illustrates how damaging and costly the misuse or neglect of the precautionary principle can be, using case studies and a synthesis of the lessons to be learned and applied to maximising innovations whilst minimising harms.

Download

See additional files

Order information

Order a printed copy on the EU Publications website

: 978-92-9213-349-8
: TH-AL-13-001-EN-C

Additional Files

Related content

News and articles

Living healthily in a chemical world We can categorise pollution by where we find it — in soil, water or air — or we can look at different pollution types, such as chemicals. Synthetic chemicals are all around us. Some of them, however, can also be very harmful to our health and the environment. How can we limit the negative effects of chemicals that have become a part of our current way of life?
The cost of ignoring the warning signs - EEA publishes ‘Late Lessons from Early Warnings, volume II’ New technologies have sometimes had very harmful effects, but in many cases the early warning signs have been suppressed or ignored. The second volume of Late Lessons from Early Warnings investigates specific cases where danger signals have gone unheeded, in some cases leading to deaths, illness and environmental destruction.

Related briefings

COVID-19: lessons for sustainability? This briefing belongs to the ‘Narratives for Change’ series, which explores the diversity of ideas needed to move our society towards sustainability and fulfil the ambitions of the European Green Deal. The briefing reflects on the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. It asks how these lessons can be applied to our quest for sustainability and how we can govern our societies in a way that respects planetary health as a precondition for human and economic health.
With people and for people: Innovating for sustainability Innovation is both a primary source of systemic environmental and sustainability challenges and an essential element in society’s response to such challenges. Technological innovation, which is a policy priority across Europe, has historically been a major ‘driver of change’ for society and the ecosphere. Although technological innovations deliver a multitude of benefits, they are also associated with significant collateral hazards and new challenges.
Health and environment
Draft
Rethinking agriculture While global food chains, market competition, industrial processes and increasing productivity have turned agriculture into a profitable economic sector, it is also one of the biggest contributors to environmental and sustainability challenges in Europe and worldwide. In tandem, the COVID-19 pandemic, recent geopolitical developments in Europe and socio-economic trends have driven attention towards agriculture and food systems. Considering these new challenges, it is even more urgent to rethink agriculture and food systems to make them resilient and sustainable. This briefing reflects on what makes agriculture unsustainable today — and the types of agriculture we may want to preserve and support.

Related publications

The European environment — state and outlook 2020 Knowledge for transition to a sustainable Europe
Late lessons from early warnings: science, precaution, innovation (flyer) Science and the precautionary principle - lessons for preventing harm
Late lessons from early warnings: the precautionary principle 1896-2000 Late lessons from early warnings is about the gathering of information on the hazards of human economic activities and its use in taking action to better protect both the environment and the health of the species and ecosystems that are dependent on it, and then living with the consequences. The report is based on case studies. The authors of the case studies, all experts in their particular field of environmental, occupational and consumer hazards, were asked to identify the dates of early warnings, to analyse how this information was used, or not used, in reducing hazards, and to describe the resulting costs, benefits and lessons for the future.

See also

Part A - Lessons from health hazards Part A commences with an analysis of 'false positives' showing that these are few and far between as compared to false negatives and that carefully designed precautionary actions can stimulate innovation, even if the risk turns out not to be real or as serious as initially feared.
Part E - Implications for science and governance Part E considers the governance implications for science, public policy and public engagement, and how current practices could be improved to enable society to maximise the benefits of innovations while minimising harms on the basis of the cases in Parts A-D.
Part D - Costs, justice and innovation The chapters in part D analyse the reasons behind prevailing practice and then go on to offer insights, for example, on how cost calculation methods can be improved; on how insurance schemes could be used to compensate future victims of harm; and on the reasons why businesses frequently ignore early warnings.
Part C - Emerging issues Part C analyses some newly emerging and large‑scale products, technologies and trends, which potentially offer many benefits but also potentially much harm to people and ecosystems and thereby ultimately economic development.
Part B - Emerging lessons from ecosystems Part B focuses on emerging lessons from the degradation of natural systems and their wider implications for society - booster biocides, the pill and the feminisation of fish, climate change, floods, insecticides and honeybees as well as ecosystem resilience more broadly.

Permalinks

Geographic coverage

For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/late-lessons-2 or scan the QR code.

PDF generated on 27 Sep 2022, 11:32 PM

EEA Page URL QR
Document Actions
The EEA is an agency of the European Union

Engineered by: EEA Web Team

Software updated on 12 August 2022 12:14 from version 22.5.18

Software version: EEA Plone KGS 22.8.10

Code for developers

Systems Status

Legal notice

Creative commons license

CMS login