APPENDIX 



every 14 years.* Correspondingly, the number and severity of 

 environmental problems will increase, while the adequacy of 

 ad hoc piecemeal expedients will decrease, (c) As population 

 grows, and with it the artifacts of civilization, the human and 

 economic losses due to sporadic natural disasters, already great, 

 will increase in scale, (d) At the same time, the intensification 

 of man's needs for both renewable and non-renewable re- 

 sources requires even greater manipulation and mastery of the 

 natural and man-made systems that constitute the environment. 

 It is, therefore, recommended that this urgency 

 be recognized through the early development of 

 a comprehensive national program to expedite the 

 progress of environmental science. 



The problems with which environmental science must 

 deal, however, do not respect local, State, or even national 

 boundaries. It is thus further recommended that this national 

 program explicitly provide for the essential Federal role in 

 encouraging and supporting the work of environmental sci- 

 ence, quite apart from the role the Federal Government is al- 

 ready exercising with respect to improving and protecting the 

 environment (e.g., programs of soil conservation, sewage treat- 

 ment, air and water pollution control, etc.). Both nationally 

 and in matters of international cooperation the Federal Gov- 

 ernment must assume leadership in fostering scientific advance. 

 This national program should be based on three 



efforts: 



(1) Emphasis should be given to projects, 

 manned by coordinate teams, directed to inter- 

 mediate scale or "mesoscale" problems, that is, 

 problems on the scale of lakes and estuaries, 

 urban areas, regional weather systems, and oce- 

 anic fisheries. Advances on this scale will provide 

 immediate benefits to man. 



(2) At the same time, the program must ensure 

 continued effort on global problems, even though 

 their solution may require the resolution of smaller 

 scale issues. In the long run it is the global con- 

 straints that will shape and delimit the future 

 development of civilization. 



(3) Finally, the program should ensure the con- 

 tinued vigor of those aspects of disciplinary re- 

 search and graduate education needed to provide 

 the specialists and new knowledge required for 

 environmental science. 



The remaining recommendations form an important part 

 of the total recommendation of a national program. The entire 

 program should be established at the earliest practicable date, 

 if progress during this decade and its culmination during the 

 following decades are to be commensurate with the urgency 

 now faced. 



2. PRIORITIES 



One of the inescapable conclusions of this report is that 

 the number and complexity of scientific problems, both theo- 



'Both activities have shown 5% average annual growth rates for the last 20 

 years, as reported in Man's Impact on the Global Environment: Assessment and 

 Recommendations tor Action, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1970. The total 

 consumption of fossil fuel in the United States also grows about 5% per year; 

 the conversion of an increasing fraction of fossil energy to electrical energy 

 leads to a higher annual growth rate in the utilities. 



retical and experimental, that confront environmental science 

 far exceed the capability of available manpower to attack all 

 of them effectively at the same time. If these resources remain 

 distributed as they are, scattered and fragmented, and if prob- 

 lems to be solved are selected largely on the basis of the per- 

 ceptions of individuals or small isolated groups, progress in 

 environmental science cannot meet the needs of expressed 

 national goals and purposes. 



Accordingly, it is recommended that early con- 

 sideration be given to strengthening arrangements 

 whereby priorities for environmental science can 

 be set, matched to existing and required scientific 

 and engineering manpower, and changed as cir- 

 cumstances warrant. In setting such priorities ap- 

 propriate weight must be given to the feasibility of 

 achieving scientific solutions in a reasonable time 

 and to the social and economic costs and benefits 

 that could accrue if solutions were attained. 



3. ORGANIZATION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE 



The scope encompassed by the national program, proposed 

 above, the Federal role inherent in this broad effort, and the 

 patent need for establishing priorities raise serious questions 

 of the adequacy of present arrangements within the Federal 

 Government for planning, coordinating, managing, and re- 

 viewing programs of environmental science. As for all science, 

 environmental science today is the responsibility of many 

 agencies, often with conflicting interest under differing agency 

 missions and responsive to many Congressional committees. 

 At the same time the problems to be solved are broader, more 

 difficult, and more dependent upon the coordinated use of 

 scientific resources than those faced in the earlier development 

 of nuclear energy, radar, and space exploration. 



For these reasons, it is strongly urged that the 

 Federal responsibility for environmental science, 

 and for its promotion, organization, and support, 

 be considered as important as the corresponding 

 but separate responsibility for environmental qual- 

 ity. In particular, arrangements for Federal deci- 

 sionmaking must be especially effective for the 

 following activities: 



(1) The setting of priorities affecting all research 

 and development in environmental science sup- 

 ported by the Federal Government. 



(2) The determination of appropriate and feasi- 

 ble time schedules for the projects of the national 

 program and ensuring that projects are managed 

 in accordance with such schedules. 



(3) The provision of full coordination of the 

 efforts of all Federal agencies engaged in the 

 support or performance of research in environ- 

 mental science, quite apart from efforts in appli- 

 cation or regulation. 



(4) The establishment of organizational and 

 employment incentives suitable for the types of 

 projects that are characteristic of environmental 

 science through the support of national centers 

 and specialized institutes. 



392 



