| WORLD INSTITUTE OF RISK EVALUATION |
| The Lancet magazine (January 15, 2005) has proposed a World Institute of Risk Evaluation- WIRE as an institute of independent research based agency, mandated to assess and adjudicate global risks. Here evidence would be systematically gathered and peer-reviewed, risks would be quantified and prioritised, and issues would be targeted prospectively rather than responded to retrospectively. WIRE's work would take place in open forums. Its advisers would repreent a wide range of disciplines. |
| WIRE would not make judgements about th economic benefits, political feasibility, or public acceptability of risk reduction strategies. WIRE would be a risk monitor rather than a regulator. Regulation would remain a matter for elected governments.But WIRE would provide a view on what is known about a given risk, the likely size of that risk, the precision of such an estimate, areas of uncertainity that required resolution, and data supporting interventions to limit the effects of that risk. WIRE would set the global agenda on threats to human survival. It would aggregate the evidence and make its conclusions available to all. |
| Corollary of any response mechanism is a mean to identify risks that need preventive or curtive actions. Taking these risks seriously is about nothing less than species survival. As the famous author, Jared Diamond, writes: "When people are desparate, undernourished, and without hope, they blame their governments which they see as responsible for or unable to solve their problems. They try to emigrate at any cost. They fight each other over land. They kill each other. They start civil wars. They figure that they have nothing to lose, so they become terrorists, or they support or tolerate terrorism....... We need to realise that thre is no other planet to which we can turn for help, or to which we can export our problems." |
| The Lancet London NW1 7BY, UK |
Available Volumes
| EDITOR IN CHIEF |
| Dr.
Rajeev Gupta (MD PhD FACC) |
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| HON. EDITOR |
| Dr.
Soneil Guptha (MD FACC FESC) |
USEFUL LINKS |
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