Marjorie Clarke

Marjorie J. ("Maggie") Clarke, Ph.D., is an environmental scientist who specializes in recycling participation, waste prevention methods, waste-to-energy/incinerator emissions controls, environmental impacts of the World Trade Center fires and collapse, and community botanical gardening; her experience also encompasses bicycle route design and citizen participation in government decision-making. Since the terrorist attacks on New York in 2001, she has been spending most of her efforts innovating methods of increasing participation in New York City's waste prevention and recycling programs, as well as understanding and publicizing the environmental consequences at the site of the World Trade Center.

Education

Born in 1953 and raised in Florida, a 1975 graduate of Smith College, she has degrees in geology- Smith B.A., environmental sciences - Johns Hopkins University M.A., energy technology - New York University, M.S., and a Ph.D. in earth & environmental sciences—City University of New York.

Professional

Clarke was the Department of Sanitation's specialist on emissions from incinerators from 1984 to 1988, the author of a book ^[1] and a number of publications on the subject of minimizing emissions. She also served on a National Academy of Sciences committee on Health Effects of Waste Incineration, co-authoring the NRC publication by that name. She also served on the New Jersey Standard-Setting Task Force on Mercury emissions from incinerators in the early 1990s.

From 2002-2004, she was a Scientist-in-Residence and adjunct assistant professor at Lehman College, and an adjunct professor at Hunter College, City University of New York from 1996 - 2005.

Her professional endeavors and a number of her papers and testimony are available through her website: www.maggieclarkeenvironmental.com. Her photography website is: www.maggieclarke.com.

Notable contributions

Dr. Clarke has been an effective documenter and articulator of technical issues relating to environmental toxicity and waste management and prevention ([1]). She is a consultant in the fields of zero waste, emissions reduction technology and related topics, and has taught professional courses inside and outside academia. (Maggie Clarke Environmental)

Best known as a persistent questioner of United States Environmental Protection Agency's claims about the safety of the World Trade Center site,^[2] Dr. Clarke has underscored the importance of understanding toxicity, synergy of chemicals acting together, and the precautionary principle, and has provided testimony to many government committees and panels, including the U.S. Senate down to the New York City Council, and has been a guest speaker in academic settings, conferences, down to local eldercare centers. Dr. Clarke laid the groundwork for the later work of such area politicians as Congressman Jerrold Nadler and Senator Hillary Clinton.

She also conceived and garnered support for a New York City local law to eliminate 2200 apartment building incinerators which was signed into law in 1989.

Committee memberships (public bodies)

A longtime leader of both Manhattan's Citizens' Solid Waste Advisory Board and New York's City Recycling Advisory Board, Dr. Clarke serves on a large number of panels and committees, some connected to efforts to clean up lower Manhattan from the effects of 9/11 and others to solid waste prevention and recycling. These are listed on her full c.v. at www.maggieclarkeenvironmental.com.

NGO participation

Clarke has been chair or vice chair of the Manhattan Citizens' Solid Waste Advisory Board for 8 of the years since its inception in 1990, a steering committee member of the New York City Recycling Advisory Board since its inception in 1990, and was a founding member of the NYC Waste Prevention Coalition. Information on these, some of her testimony and writings can be found at her advisory boards website [2]. She has chaired and currently vice chairs the Municipal and Medical Waste Division of the Air & Waste Management Association [3] and is vice chair of the Manhattan Citizens' Solid Waste Advisory Board. She co-founded and has been president of the Riverside-Inwood Neighborhood Garden (RING) [4], a volunteer botanical garden in Upper Manhattan, since 1984.

See also

• Health effects arising from the September 11, 2001 attacks

References

1. ^ Burning Garbage in the US—Practice vs. State-of-the-art, INFORM, New York, NY 1991
2. ^ Public Lives: Keeping a Wary Eye on the E.P.A. at Ground Zero, Robin Finn, for New York Times, June 14, 2002.

External links

• A New York Times profile (June 12th, 2002)"Keeping a wary eye on the EPA"

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Name	Clarke, Marjorie J.
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Date of birth	1953
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