A source of life and beauty, our environment—the air we breathe, the water and food we consume, the forests, quiet lakes, and the breaking waves of the oceans—is under siege and we, ourselves, are the assailants. But we could also become its saviours. Human existence has always benefited from nature’s bounty. We have used resources and extracted great wealth while causing considerable damage to the environment. We can take heart from the work science has accomplished undoing much of the harm.
While our knowledge increases, so does the amount of misinformation available, and we are faced with a confusing number of choices. As responsible citizens, how do we decide? We need science to identify the best ways to preserve life, to determine when and what we need to remediate or improve, and where to begin. And where science does not yet know, we need to return to the lab and run experiments to test theories.