Richard Fuller (environmentalist)

Richard Fuller OAM (born 1960) is an Australian-born, US-based engineer, entrepreneur and environmentalist best known for his work in global pollution remediation. He is President of the nonprofit Pure Earth; co-chair of The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health; he established the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution, and founded the leading sustainable waste management company Great Forest, inc.

Richard Fuller
Born1960
Australia
CitizenshipU.S. and Australian
OccupationFounder, Blacksmith Institute/Pure Earth
Known forglobal pollution remediation efforts
Websitehttp://www.pureearth.org

In June 2018, Fuller was awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in recognition of his service to conservation and the environment.[1] In October 2019, Fuller received an Advance Award for Social Impact from the Australian government for his 20 years of pioneering work with Pure Earth and his leadership in tacking the issue as "a toxic pollution fighting hero[2]"

Fuller has focused on the problem of global pollution and its impact on health for nearly 20 years, having been driven by its neglect in the global agenda. In a 2010 profile, Time magazine's Power of One column described his motivation: “The low priority that the world—including the media—tends to place on toxic pollution in developing countries is one of the reasons Fuller founded the nonprofit Blacksmith Institute”[3](renamed Pure Earth in 2015[4]).

Working with Pure Earth and the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution, Fuller was part of a global team that successfully worked to broaden the scope of toxic pollution addressed in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),[5] as described in a profile in the UN Dispatch.

In 2017, Fuller ushered in the publication of the landmark report from The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health, which concluded that pollution is the largest environmental cause of death in the world, killing over 9 million people worldwide, threatening the "continuing survival of human societies."[6]

The report generated immense global interest, reaching over 2 billion people worldwide with news coverage including the Guardian,[7] PBS NewsHour[8] and Fareed Zakaria, who devoted his "What In The World" segment to the report.[9]

In an open letter to mark the release of the report from The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health,[10][11] Fuller writes: “For too long, pollution has been sidelined, overshadowed, ignored by the world, in part because it is a complicated topic with many causes, and as many outcomes. Often it kills slowly, and indirectly, hiding its tracks. With this report, we bring pollution out of the shadows.”

In a 2015 interview on The Takeaway on NPR, Fuller noted the differences in approaches to climate change and pollution: "... over the last couple of decades, climate change has taken over as the key environmental issue. So now we find that the agenda of these countries is biodiversity and climate change, and pollution has simply dropped off the map. This is an extraordinary result and one we really need to turn around."[12]

Although toxic pollution is widespread, Fuller believes it is one global problem that can be solved. “There’s a finite number of polluted sites out there, and you can fix them for relatively little.”[13] "The good news is we have known technologies and proven strategies for eliminating a lot of this pollution."[14]

Early career

Richard Fuller graduated with a degree in Engineering from Melbourne University and began work for IBM. He left Australia in 1988 to work directly on global environmental issues in the Amazon rainforests of Brazil with the United Nations Environmental Programme. He then brought his experience to New York, establishing Great Forest Inc in 1989 to work on sustainability and commercial waste and recycling solutions for buildings and corporations in the pioneering days of corporate social responsibility. Realizing that enhancing sustainability practices to corporations alone would not have enough impact on global environmental issues, Fuller used profits from Great Forest to launch the nonprofit Pure Earth (formerly known as Blacksmith Institute) to tackle the problem on a larger scale.[15] A portion of Great Forest's profits continues to support Pure Earth's work. Fuller serves as president of both Pure Earth and Great Forest.

Pure Earth/Blacksmith Institute: Building A Model For Global Pollution Cleanup

In 1999, Fuller established Blacksmith Institute (renamed Pure Earth in 2015[4]) to focus on pollution remediation. Pure Earth is dedicated to solving pollution problems in low and middle-income countries, where human health is at risk. It is the only significant nonprofit organization working in global pollution cleanup.

Over the years, Pure Earth has completed over 120 cleanup pilot projects in 24 countries, and assessed over 5000 toxic sites in 50 countries. Highlights include:

  • In 2011, Fuller received the UN-backed Green Star Award on behalf of Blacksmith Institute/Pure Earth.[16] The award recognized Blacksmith/Pure Earth's work in environmental emergencies, particularly for its response efforts during the 2010 Nigeria lead poisoning crisis, which killed hundreds of children.[17]
  • In 2014, Bloomberg Businessweek chronicled the growth of Pure Earth and Fuller's work on toxic pollution problems around the world, including a dangerous cleanup of a secret former Soviet arms site in the Ukraine.[18]
  • In 2017, Pure Earth's cleanup work in "the world's most toxic town[19]" in Kabwe, Zambia, made the front page of The Guardian newspaper. In a followup story in 2019, NPR's Goats and Soda program reported on Fuller's determination to raise support to complete the cleanup: "It has to get fixed. We have to keep pushing. We'll find a way."[20]

In his first decade with Pure Earth, Fuller created a number of initiatives that established a model for global pollution cleanup. Fuller recognized the need to measure and quantify pollution in order to set priorities and push governments for action. The set of tools he developed are still being used today to rapidly identify, assess and rank polluted sites in order to prioritize cleanup. They include:

  • The Blacksmith Index, developed with Johns Hopkins University and used around the world to rate levels of health risk from pollution;
  • The creation of the Toxic Sites Identification Program (TSIP)[21] to train local investigators to use these tools to identify and assess hotspots. To date, TSIP has trained over 400 investigators worldwide, who have mapped and documented more than 3,000 toxic sites in over 50 countries [22] and screened more than 1,800 sites, representing a potential health risk to more than 80 million poor people.[23]
  • The creation of the TSIP database[24] of polluted sites, one of the largest of its kind, containing data collected through the TSIP. This database is crucial to countries trying to address pollution. It makes available country-specific pollution data for the purpose of pollution planning, to help officials identify and prioritize the cleanup of sites that pose the most risk to residents in order to save lives.[25]
  • The development of the Health and Pollution Action Plans (HPAP).[26] The TSIP database now supports the HPAP, launched to help governments of low- and middle-income countries strategize and plan solutions to pollution-related health challenges. Madagascar was the first country to complete the Health and Pollution Action Plan process.

Forming Global Alliances To Solve Pollution

In 2012, while Pure Earth continued to clean up polluted communities, Fuller founded the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution to bring countries together to build public, political, technical and financial support to address pollution globally, and assist low- and middle-income countries to fight pollution.

These efforts led Fuller to help convene and co-chair the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health, an initiative of The Lancet, the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution, and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, with additional coordination and input from United Nations Environment, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, and the World Bank.

Following the release of the groundbreaking Commission report, Fuller was invited to present [27] the report's findings at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos in February 2018. He was also invited to provide briefings of the report at the World Bank,[28] the UN, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine,[29] the OECD,[30] and other key international development and professional meetings.

In October 2018, Fuller joined former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy; Erik Solheim, UNEP; Dr. Philip Landrigan, Boston College; and Pushpam Kumar, UNEP at the launch of the Global Observatory on Pollution and Health.[31] The new initiative will target issues raised by the Pollution Commission, and function as an international clearinghouse for all data available on pollution and health. Pure Earth will oversee the coordination and collection of input and data worldwide, and will make the crucial trove of information available on pollution.org.

Advocacy: Children and the Poisoned Poor

Fuller's focus is not just on pollution in general, but specifically on disease-causing pollution that impacts the health of people, especially those living in low and middle-income countries.

“Toxic chemicals from industry and mining affect the health of hundreds of millions of people in low- and middle-income countries,” he wrote in The Poisoned Poor in 2012.[32]

"We've already solved most of the pollution problems in the West. There aren't people dying in droves in the U.S. or in England - they're all dying overseas, in low- and middle-income countries," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.[33][34] on the publication of his 2015 book "The Brown Agenda."

Fuller believes that pollution is one of the most serious problems facing the earth.[35] "The health of roughly 100 million people is at risk from pollution in developing countries."[36]

"A particular concern...is the accumulating and long-lasting burden (of pollution) building up in the environment and in the bodies of the people most directly affected."[37]

In 2014, Bloomberg Businessweek chronicled Blacksmith/Pure Earth's growth. The article offered a behind-the-scenes look at how Fuller came upon a secret abandoned chemical weapons factory site in the Ukraine that was sitting on top of a forgotten "bomb", and worked to make the site safe before the onset of hostilities in the area.[18] The article also explained: "Fuller’s mission is to help kids play safely on the beach or bathe in a river, not save spotted owls and polar bears. He also knew he wanted to serve the poor, because “the U.S. has the resources to clean up its own Superfund sites.” Mostly, he didn't want to be another nongovernmental organization dedicated merely to raising awareness."[18]

In 2017 The UNEP acknowledged Fuller’s message publishing “The Impact of Pollution on Planetary Health: Emergence of an Underappreciated Risk Factor.[38]” 

A paper he co-authored, Pollution and Children's Health,[39] points out that “Pollution was responsible in 2016 for 940,000 deaths in children, two-thirds under age 5,” and that “92% of pollution-related deaths in children occur in low- and middle-income countries.” His conclusion was that “pollution prevention presents a major, largely unexploited opportunity to improve children’s health especially in low and middle-income countries."

Calling Attention to the Global Pollution Crisis

" … toxic pollution is the largest cause of death in the world. Yet it is one of the most underreported and underfunded global problems," Fuller told the World Bank.[40]

Fuller's efforts to call attention to the crisis took many forms, including:

  • His 2015 book "The Brown Agenda: My Mission To Clean Up The World's Most Life-Threatening Pollution", Fuller recounts his research into global issues, and his first-hand accounts of seeing pollution's impact around the world, from the woman in Senegal who lost five children under two years of age because she was recycling used lead acid batteries in her yard, to the town in the Ukraine, where the life expectancy was under 50. He also recounted one of the most dangerous cleanups he'd ever faced—an abandoned Soviet weapons factory filled with highly toxic chemicals and TNT sat in the middle of the town, turning it into a ticking time bomb. A lightning strike or an accident “would wipe out every living thing in a radius of many miles.”
  • Fuller is also responsible for the creation and launch of the annual World's Worst Polluted Places Reports.[41] He saw the same tale in every community he visited and he decided that he needed to start ringing the alarm bells, most notably with the World's Worst Pollution Problems reports, which he launched in 2006. The popular series of annual reports tracked the world's worst polluted problems and places and resulted in news coverage year after year for over a decade, raising global awareness of the issue.
  • In order to encourage more research focused on low and middle-income countries, Fuller launched the Journal of Health and Pollution,[42] which promotes and brings together academic research on the health effects of life-threatening toxic pollution.
  • In 2015, working with Pure Earth and the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution, Fuller was part of a global team that successfully worked to broaden the scope of toxic pollution addressed in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).[43] Including pollution in the SDGs was a major feat that aims to ensure some of the world's resources will be directed to fight pollution and save lives.
  • Following his success with the SDGs, Fuller turned to focus on his work as co-chair of the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health. After years of work gathering data and making alliances across disciplines, Fuller was instrumental in bringing together over 50 researchers worldwide in an effort to quantify the health and economic costs of pollution.

The Brown Agenda

In 2015, Santa Monica Press published "The Brown Agenda: My Mission To Clean Up The World's Most Life-Threatening Pollution",[44] written by Fuller and Damon DiMarco. The book documents his adventures at some of the world's most toxic locations, and introduces readers to the plight of the poisoned poor, suggesting specific ways in which anyone can help combat brown sites all over the world.[45]

References
  1. "2018 Recipients Medal of Order of Australia, Queen's Birthday Honours". The Australian. June 11, 2018.
  2. "Richard is a toxic pollution fighting hero". Australia Science TV. October 28, 2019.
  3. Bryan, Walsh (October 18, 2010). "Power of One". Time magazine.
  4. "Press Release: Blacksmith Institute Announces Name Change". Pure Earth. March 10, 2015. Retrieved 2018-01-02.
  5. "Meet a 2015-er: Richard Fuller - UN Dispatch". 8 April 2015.
  6. "The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health". The Lancet. 391: Introduction. October 19, 2017. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(17)32345-0.
  7. "Global pollution kills 9m a year and threatens 'survival of human societies'". The Guardian. October 20, 2017.
  8. "Pollution causes one in six deaths worldwide". PBS NewsHour. October 21, 2017.
  9. Fereed, Zakaria (November 8, 2017). "What In The World: A Deadly Pollution Problem". CNN, Fareed Zakaria GPS.
  10. http://gahp.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/GAHP_OPEN-LETTER.pdf
  11. "The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health". The Lancet. 391. October 19, 2017.
  12. "The Takeaway" (Pollution: The Deadliest Killer in the Developing World). Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  13. walsh, Bryan (October 18, 2010). "Power of One". Time magazine. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
  14. Herbauch, Tracee (October 18, 2006). "10 Million People At Risk From Pollution". Washington Post/AP. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
  15. Bumgarner, Alice (January 27, 2009). "Breakthrough Solutions For One Of Earth's Biggest Challenges". Idea Connection. Retrieved September 7, 2011.
  16. "Green Star Award". Archived from the original on |archive-url= requires |archive-date= (help).
  17. "The Green Star Awards Recognize Planet's Heroes". Treehugger. May 25, 2011. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
  18. "The Chemical Weapons Ukrainian Separatists Didn't Get". 15 September 2014 – via www.bloomberg.com.
  19. Carrington, Damian (May 28, 2017). "The world's most toxic town: the terrible legacy of Zambia's lead mines". The Guardian.
  20. Susan, Brink (August 29, 2019). "Whatever Happened To ... The Kids Whose Lead Levels Were Off The Charts?". Goats and Soda.
  21. "Toxic Sites Identification Program (TSIP)".
  22. Gardner, Timothy (February 19, 2009). "Hunt Begins for World's Most Polluted Places". Reuters. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
  23. "Fact Sheet". Archived from the original on 2010-10-30. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
  24. http://www.contaminatedsites.org/TSIP/
  25. "Investigating and Mapping Toxic Sites In Brazil and Worldwide". YouTube. May 2018.
  26. "Health and Pollution Action Plans".
  27. "The Big Picture on Pollution | Richard Fuller & Jeffrey Drazen". YouTube. April 2018.
  28. "World Bank: Fixing Pollution - A Winning Formula For Health and Wealth". World Bank. 2017-12-15.
  29. "Empowering International Efforts to Address the Global Burden of Disease". YouTube.
  30. "The Air We Breathe". OECD. August 1, 2019.
  31. "Global Observatory on Pollution and Health Launches". Global Alliance on Health and Pollution. November 18, 2018.
  32. "The Poisoned Poor" (PDF). www.GAHP.net. 2012.
  33. http://www.trust.org/item/20150903130138-1unij/
  34. Foundation, Thomson Reuters. "Tackle pollution to stop biggest killer of poor - author".
  35. "Board of Directors". Archived from the original on 2012-07-29. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
  36. Beth, Buczynski. "Top Six Toxic Threats Revealed in New Report". EcoSpheric. Archived from the original on 2011-11-17. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
  37. "World's Pollution Hotspots Mapped". BBC News. October 18, 2006. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
  38. Fuller, Richard (December 2017). "THE IMPACT OF POLLUTION ON PLANETARY HEALTH: Emergence of an Underappreciated Risk Factor" (PDF). UN Perspectives. 29.
  39. Fuller, Richard (10 February 2019). "Pollution and Children's Health". Science of the Total Environment. 650, Part 2 (Pt 2): 2389–2394. Bibcode:2019ScTEn.650.2389L. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.09.375. PMID 30292994.
  40. "Fixing Pollution: A Winning Formula For Health and Wealth". YouTube (WorldBank Livestream Archive Video). January 11, 2018.
  41. ":: WorstPolluted.org : Reports". www.worstpolluted.org.
  42. "Journal of Health and Pollution". Archived from the original on 2011-08-27.
  43. "Meet a 2015-er: Richard Fuller - UN Dispatch". 8 April 2015. Cite web requires |website= (help)
  44. "Just published! The Brown Agenda: My Mission to Clean up the World's Most Life-Threatening Pollution".
  45. Fuller, Richard (2015-08-09). "The poisoned poor: In poor countries man-made toxic pollutants spread like cancer. Here's why you should care". Salon.
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