Categorie: English

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Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

US Government | December 1970

This organisation was founded as an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. Beginning in the late 1950s and through the 1960s, US Congress reacted to increasing public concern about the impact that human activity could have on the environment.

Logo by Chermayeff & Geismar Associates

In 1959 congress passed the Resources and Conservation Act to establish a Council on Environmental Quality in the Executive Office of the President and declared a national environmental policy, which required the preparation of an annual environmental report. The groundwork for the Environment Protection Agency was laid.

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Silent Spring

Rachel Carson | 1962

This sensational book, Silent Spring (1962) by Rachel Carson, warned of the dangers to all natural systems from the misuse of chemical pesticides such as DDT, and questioned the scope and direction of modern science, initiating the contemporary environmental movement.

Silent Spring began with a “fable for tomorrow” – a true story using a composite of examples drawn from many real communities where the use of DDT had caused damage to wildlife, birds, bees, agricultural animals, domestic pets, and even humans. Carson used it as an introduction to a very scientifically complicated and already controversial subject. This “fable” made an indelible impression on readers and was used by critics to accuse Carson of being a fiction writer rather than a scientist.

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Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)

Marvin Gaye | 1971

Woah, ah, mercy, mercy me
Ah, things ain’t what they used to be (ain’t what they used to be)
Where did all the blue skies go?
Poison is the wind that blows
From the north and south and east

(Listen to song on Apple Music or Spotify)

Woah, ah, mercy, mercy me
Ah, things ain’t what they used to be (ain’t what they used to be)
Where did all the blue skies go?
Poison is the wind that blows
From the north and south and east

Woah, mercy, mercy me, yeah
Ah, things ain’t what they used to be (ain’t what they used to be)
Oil wasted on the ocean and upon our seas
Fish full of mercury

Oh Jesus, yeah, mercy, mercy me, ah
Ah, things ain’t what they used to be (ain’t what they used to be)
Radiation underground and in the sky
Animals and birds who live nearby are dying

Hey, mercy, mercy me, oh
Hey, things ain’t what they used to be
What about this overcrowded land?
How much more abuse from man can she stand?

Oh, na, na, na
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Hey, ooh, woo

Bibliography

Gaye, M. (1971) Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology). Album: What’s Goin on. Detroit: Motown.

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Creating Public Value

Strategic management in government

Mark H. Moore | 1995

Public Value is a theory for public management advanced by Professor Mark Moore of the Harvard Kennedy School. Over the previous two decades, staff and students at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where Moore taught, engaged in conversations about producing excellence in public management.

“Public value refers to the value created by the government through laws, regulations, services and any other action. In a democratic society, this value is defined by the public themselves. Value is determined by citizens preferences expressed in a variety of ways and thus it provides a rough yard stick against which to gauge the public institutions and government policies.”

A seminal figure in the field of public management, Mark Moore presents his summation of 15 years of research, observation, and teaching on what public-sector executives should do to improve the performance of public enterprises.

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Uncertain safety

WRR Scientific Council for Government Policy | 2008

In view of the vulnerability of humans, society and the natural environment, a proactive approach to uncertainties is required. A precautionary approach will create new responsibilities for the government, the private sector and consumers, as well as new activities. In its report Uncertain safety (Report no. 82, 2008), the WRR recommends inserting the new precautionary principle in the Constitution.

Not so much risks as uncertainties

The classical risk approach has limitations as a result of social developments (food safety, new technologies and climate change, for example) and progressive scientific insights. Society is not so much confronted with risks as with uncertainties. These uncertainties have to be addressed in an organised manner.

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Risk Governance: towards and integrative approach

A framework by International Risk Governance Council

Ortwin Renn, with annexes by Peter Graham | 2005

In this comprehensive white paper Risk Governance: Towards an integrative approach – coordinated and edited by Professor Ortwin Renn – the International Risk Governance Council (IRGC) brought together: “an integrated analytic framework for risk governance which provides guidance for the development of comprehensive assessment and management strategies to cope with risks, in particular at the global level. The framework integrates scientific, economic, social and cultural aspects and includes the effective engagement of stakeholders.” 

In this article the headlines are summarized. In the light of history this framework is noteworthy and marks the next phase in thinking of the risk concepts. It focuses on “the improvement of risk governance strategies for risks with international implications and which have the potential to harm human health and safety, the economy, the environment, and/or the fabric of society at large.”

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Is the end of risk management near?

A collective reconsideration

Marinus de Pooter | 2015

For those who listen in various sectors, the picture quickly emerges that risk management is not successful in practice. And that despite all the investments made and the energy that has been put into it in recent years. If risk management does indeed bring so much good (as is usually claimed), how is it possible that line managers do not flock to training and conferences? Why don’t they queue up to learn more about all those wonderful concepts and tools (including the many impressive software applications)? As a management system, has it sold so badly or can it simply not deliver what is promised? Perhaps it is a combination of both. It’s time for something better. As far as I am concerned, the end of conventional risk management is near. I refer to the instrumental approach from a separate staff function. The limited enthusiasm for this usual setup is due to several factors. I will mention a number of observations from the consultancy practice.

Marinus de Pooter

Usually, risk management is invested in a separate function or in different specialised functions such as Security, Quality and Safety, et cetera. This easily leads to responses from line managers along the lines of: “We hired you to take care of those (information security) risks!” Regulators have devised the creation of a separate Risk Management department (or even a separate CRO function) as a counterbalance to the overthrown ambitions of line managers. However, just because of the differences in personalities, its effectiveness can only be limited. If you do something about risk management, because your supervisor requires it or because the head office requires it from you, it will not easily be embedded in your day-to-day operations. If you use it as an accountability tool, it will at most help to give supervisors a sense of (false) security.

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