The Environmental Forum

LEAD FEATURE ❧ Drought is now a permanent feature of the American ecology. Meanwhile, demands on water supply are rising along with population increases, stressing endangered species. In response, existing statutes and litigation based on them are being stretched to their limits.

CENTERPIECE ❧ We live in a material world. The unsustainable consumption of natural resources translates into environmental degradation and increased business risk. Economic growth and raw materials need to be decoupled. Fortunately, there is a path forward.

COVER STORY ❧ The challenge now is implementation. Creating a race to the top — an approach that could incentivize greater ambition — will require all elements of civil society, including environmental professionals, to reach the accord’s ambitious but eminently realizable goals.

PROFILE ❧ Steve Ellis operates at the interface of the political and the career workforce in this Department of the Interior agency tasked with managing the nation’s public lands, a fiery pivot point in the conservation conversation.

THE DEBATE ❧ Fatal occupational injuries have fallen by 60 percent since the Occupational Safety and Health Administration was created, but how much credit it deserves is the subject of this Debate. OSHA has been out front offering advice on workplace improvements and can claim credit for successes such as brown lung disease or HIV infection among healthcare workers. However, the agency has set exposure limits for only 18 hazardous substances in its 46 years of existence. What are the agency’s most praiseworthy success stories? And if OSHA‘s achievements have been limited, who bears responsibility? What statutory, budgetary, organizational, structural, or philosophical changes could improve the agency’s record?