Public controversy and awareness

C. Leland Rodgers & Rex E. Kerstetter

In recent years, ecological catastrophes of varying degrees of seriousness have served as warning signals to the alert citizenry and to members of the scientific community. Efforts have been made first to collect sufficient data relevant to the particular environmental problem and then to determine the relationship between ‘cause’ and ‘effect’. In certain cases it is also a matter of establishing priorities, often between practices involving short-term convenience and long-term consequences. Because of the complexity of the environment, the relationship between cause and effect is often very difficult to establish.

In the past the public has looked to the universities and to various state and national agencies for advice and guidance concerning the use and consequences of insecticides, herbicides, wastes, etc., and are frequently dismayed by the degree of divergence in professional opinions. This is not surprising, because the nature of environmental problems is often very complex and intersects normal disciplinary lines of professional training.

Fonte: Rodgers, C. L. & Kerstetter, R. E. 1974. The ecosphere. NY, Harper.