Late Lessons From Early Warnings by David Gee

David Gee, a retired Senior Adviser, Science, Policy, Emerging Issues in the European Environment Agency (1995-2012), a past director of Friends of the Earth (UK), author and co-author of a number of environmental publications spoke to the club in June.

Throughout his career he has been involved with occupational and environmental health issues and he spoke about his research and the information he had obtained from many eminent sources. He used the book he had edited “Late Lessons from Early Warnings” to illustrate how we might prevent harm from current environmental issues by using lessons from earlier issues. He spoke about how long it had taken to take preventative action from the time a potential hazard was first muted; for instance, it had taken over a hundred years to deal with acid rain from the first warning from a scientist whose views were not taken seriously. Yet, he was proven right. In illustrating some issues which had caused problems he took the subjects of asbestos, acid rain, climate change, CFCs and antibiotics particularly when used in animals for growth production. In speaking about the issues David highlighted how we should be applying what we now know to prevent future environmental problems and disasters.

President Roger Young thanked David for his very interesting a thought provoking talk.

The publication, ”Late Lessons from Early Warnings”, and its individual chapters can be downloaded in PDF format from www.eea.europa.eu/publications/late-lessons-2