strength and weaknesses of human environmental problem?
Answers
This chapter assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the current federally supported environmental research effort and evaluates its success in responding to some of the needs identified in Chapter 2. This assessment is illustrative but not comprehensive, given the large number of fields of science and engineering–such as chemistry, mathematics, water resources, and marine biology–that are important to the understanding and solution of environmental problems but that cannot be encompassed in this brief report. Appendix A describes the environmental research programs of federal agencies.
On the basis of the assessment presented here, Chapter 4 describes the desirable characteristics of a federal environmental program. Chapter 5 then proposes cultural and organizational changes to deal with the deficiencies identified here.
Creating The Knowledge Necessary To Characterize Environmental Problems And Challenges
A body of knowledge about environmental issues must be generated to enable us to interact with the environment so that it continues to provide resources and amenities for humans and retains its functional characteristics for the benefit of future generations. This is a difficult task because the sun, atmosphere, oceans, earth, and ecological systems are all individually complex, and their interactions are even more complex.
Global Atmospheric, Oceanic, And Earth System
The atmospheric, oceanic, and terrestrial systems interact with one another and with organisms in complex ways to produce the richly varied environment that supports all life, including our own. Until recently, scientific studies have concentrated primarily on processes in each of these sectors separately because of the need to understand simpler pieces before tackling the larger system.