Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Science That Anticipates
Continually striving to more effectively anticipate challenges and emerg-
ing environmental issues will help EPA to stay at the leading edge of science.
That involves two main sets of activities: anticipating concerns and developing
guidance to avoid problems with new or emerging technologies, and establish-
ing key indicators and tracking trends in human health and ecosystem quality to
identify and dedicate resources to emerging environmental problems. Further-
more, continuing to anticipate (and direct resources to) targeted science and
technology developments will allow EPA to enhance its ability to identify early
warnings and prevent effects before they occur. Fulfilling the anticipatory func-
tion can be difficult when the day-to-day pressures to respond to regulatory
deadlines can take most of, if not all, an EPA leader's time and attention. Hence,
anticipatory activities will need to be pursued in collaboration with other gov-
ernment agencies, the private sector, and academic engineers and scientists.
Anticipating Environmental and Health Effects of New Technologies
One example of EPA's efforts to identify emerging challenges has been
the engagement of its National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and
Technology (NACEPT). NACEPT is an external advisory board established in
1988 to provide independent advice to the agency on a variety of policy, tech-
nology, and management issues. The advisory council recently identified several
challenges that EPA will need to focus on in the future (EPA NACEPT 2009).
The most important challenges identified included climate change, biodiversity
losses, and the quality and quantity of water resources. NACEPT also identified
corresponding organizational needs for EPA to meet existing and emerging en-
vironmental challenges, including improving its ability to use technology more
effectively, to transfer technology for commercial uses, and to enhance commu-
nication in and outside the agency. The committee concurs with the advisory
council's observations that although EPA has demonstrated the ability to create
and implement solutions to new challenges in some cases, emerging challenges
need to be approached in a more integrated and multidisciplinary way. The
committee also concurs with NACEPT's recommendation that EPA include
“environmental foresight” or “futures analysis” activities as a regular component
of its operations.
Some of EPA programs, including its New Chemicals program and De-
sign for the Environment program (see Chapter 3), already demonstrate strate-
gies for anticipating and mitigating future problems (Tickner et al. 2005). In
those programs, EPA has used information on what is known about chemical
hazards to develop a series of models so that chemical manufacturers and formu-
lators can predict potential hazards and exposures in the design phase of chemi-
cals. The models are updated as new knowledge emerges. The Design for the
Environment example demonstrates that EPA will be best able to address
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