Thought for the Morrow Cumulative Threats to the Environment

摘要

In assessing the environmental consequences of their activities, individuals and institutions tend to focus on discrete actions rather than the combined effect of those actions. Taking such a narrow view is not only easier; it is also encouraged by environmental regulations that are aimed at individual actions. Nonetheless, some of these actions are repeated many times and their cumulative effects may become significant even when those of any individual perturbation are trivial. Cumulative threats may emerge over time (as when toxic metals build up in groundwater) or across space (as when a region's wetlands are lost by drainage for one shopping center or residential development at a time).