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,j^ • ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 



fcrcncc on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in June 1991 

 and by the conference itself. This new awareness led to an international 

 agenda for research on environment and development and various non- 

 binding agreements, but much more must be done to stem global environ- 

 mental degradation. 



S&T AS SOURCES OF INNOVATION 



Our ability to respond to the environmental and economic challenges of 

 todav and tomorrow is strongly dependent on the quality of the information 

 produced bv a well-organized and productive federal research and devel- 

 opment system. 



This rcpon addresses the research and development organizations 

 and the decision-making processes that the federal government needs to 

 enable it to work toward national and global environmental objectives. Until 

 recently, a "catch up, clean up" approach has dominated U.S. environmental 

 policies. Linle attention has been paid to developing a proaaive analytical 

 and policymaking system that can identify trends, anticipate problems, and 

 address causes instead of symptoms. Our policies are beginiung to change, 

 but leadership and innovative approaches to solving problems based on strong 

 research and development programs arc essential. 



More than twenty years ago the first images of the surface of the 

 eanh as seen from the moon helped people to visualize our planet as a 

 unit, an integrated set of systems — landmasses, atmosphere, oceans, the 

 plant and animal kingdoms — and to realize that threats to one could harm 

 them all. Since then, considerable progress has been made in solving some 

 of the problems facing the biosphere, but other threats to the environment 

 persist, and new ones have emerged: the thirming of the ozone layer, the 

 destruction of the rain forests, climate change, the contamination of ground- 

 water, and new threats to wetlands, farmland, and other renewable resources. 

 Most of our problems arc due to human actions, especially those related 

 to population growth and inaeased consumption of resources. These prob- 

 lems pose a special challenge to the world's scientific and engineering com- 

 munities, one that evokes the image of the first human steps on the moon: 

 Can scientists and engineers generate the kind of large-scale and highly fociised 

 effon that took us into space and apply it to developing the understanding 

 necessary to protect our global environment.' 



The environmental challenges that we fiicc today demand a concerted 

 international eifon. Our ability to respond to these challenges is defined 

 by what research is conduaed. how it is organized, and how well it is presented 



