Regulating a Thousand Cuts for Researchers, Regulators and Policy Makers

Abstract

Environmental and natural resources regulators, policy makers and researchers often confront a common type of problem: finding solutions to deal with the “death by a thousand cuts” of interacting harms to environments and people caused by multiple contributors over space and time. These cumulative environmental problems are often large-scale, slow-motion environmental tragedies that engage multiple actors and agencies at multiple levels of government. Climate change, biodiversity loss, and urban air pollution are just some of these problems that laws struggle to address. Regulatory systems have traditionally failed to consider cumulative effects in an effective way. This policy brief summari..