Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
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Introduction
The stated
mission of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is
to protect human health and the environment. EPA seeks to fulfill its mission by
using the best available science to inform the decisions that it makes. It also
seeks to ensure that federal laws related to human health and the environment
are enforced fairly and effectively. The agency plays a major role in providing
environmental and human health information to all members of society and
works with other nations to facilitate the protection of the global environment
(EPA 2011a).
EPA is carrying out its mission at a time when science is increasingly in
the public eye and controversial, science budgets are decreasing, and job crea-
tion and innovation have high political priority. Science has always been an in-
tegral part of EPA's activities, and scientific assessments of factors that affect
human health and the environment are as important as ever. In addition, the ef-
fects that humans continue to have on the environment are profound and wide-
spread. An increased use of new scientific knowledge and technical information
is necessary to understand increasingly complex environmental problems; to
understand rapidly evolving advances in such fields as microbiology, informa-
tion technology, and medicine; to set priorities for research and regulation; to
identify emerging and future environmental and health concerns (NRC 2000);
and to support policy, management, and technical innovations that prevent unde-
sirable effects in the first place.
Some of the challenges and opportunities that EPA faces include new and
persistent environmental problems, changes in human activities and interactions,
changes in public expectations, new models for decision-making, new scientific
information, and the development of new agency mission requirements that re-
quire doing more with less. EPA can meet those challenges only by using high-
quality science. The present report discusses current environmental challenges
and recent scientific and technologic developments, and it provides guidance to
the agency as it prepares to meet the challenges of the future.
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