BE SAFE Campaign for Precaution  [Printer-friendly version]
July 26, 2006

CREATING A VISION OF A DESIRABLE FUTURE -- TOWARD TOMORROW

[Rachel's introduction: The Lowell Center for Sustainable Production
at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, has a new project and web
site to help us all create a common agenda for getting to the kind of
world we want. It's called Toward Tomorrow.]

By Anne Rabe

Toward Tomorrow -- Creating A Vision Of A Sustainable Future

This is an exciting new project from Lowell Center for Sustainable
Production. For many years in the U.S., scientists, advocates, and
policymakers have largely reacted to immediate health and ecosystem
threats without a clear vision or corresponding set of future goals.
As a result, the debate about links between health and environment
have focused on which materials and substances cause which problems,
rather than a discussion about what kind of world we want to live in
and how we want to get there. This failure to articulate a vision has
contributed to perceptions that the environmental and health movements
are thoughtlessly oppositional, and impede technological and economic
development.

The overall purpose of Toward Tomorrow is to provide inspiration and
tools that enable a wide range of organizations to envision a
sustainable future and take effective steps towards it.

The initiative seeks to develop an agenda for action on health and the
environment by bringing together leaders and scholars from diverse
fields. We aim to identify goals that will guide the next generation
as they address the complex linkages between human and ecosystem
health: linkages critical for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention
of global health threats. Toward Tomorrow is predicated on the belief
that scientists, government officials, and community, health,
environment and business leaders can find common cause in recognizing
human consumption and production as sources of both problems and
solutions. For more information, visit www.towardtomorrow.org.