M1 PM State of the Science: Visions for the Future
Monday, 14 November 2005: 1:50 PM - 5:30 PM in Ballroom 1

(CHA-1117-750508) Environmental science in 2030: environmentally relevant or don't bother.

Chapman, Peter¹, ¹ Golder Associates, North Vancouver, BC, Canada

ABSTRACT- Biologists often accuse chemists of measuring substances to such low levels that they are no longer environmentally relevant. However, ecotoxicologists are no less guilty with regards to endpoints (e.g., biomarkers versus bioindicators). Environmentally relevant science will achieve increasing importance in the coming years, with increased manifestation of the much larger (than toxic chemicals) effects of global climate change, habitat change (related to increases in population), introduction of exotic species, and eutrophication. Environmental relevance will also assume increased importance related to needed increases in the efficiency of human food production, both on land and in aquatic environments, specifically expanded use of enhancing substances (e.g., fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, hormones, antibiotics) and displacement of other species. The advent of agriculture was the single human activity that most reduced global biodiversity, and the trend continues. Human needs will have priority, and can only be balanced against, first, human health and, second, environmentally relevant consequences (probabilities not possibilities); other possibilities will be considered irrelevant and ignored. This is not to say that there will be no role for "pure" research, but rather that there will be a much higher requirement for environmental relevance ("fix what is broken, not what is not"). Enhancing such relevance will require strong partnerships between environmental chemists and ecotoxicologists and with ecologists (the eco in ecotoxicology) related to the structure and function of ecosystems, and also with geotoxicologists related to biogeochemical cycling. Studies will include assessments of both new technologies (e.g., nanovectors) and the cumulative effects of different stressors (e.g., global climate change and pollutants). This provocative presentation will include examples of relevant versus irrelevant science (e.g., selenium, toxicity of soluble metal salts, PAH from coal, PBT, bioavailability and bioaccessibility), will emphasize the importance of reality checks for all environmental research, and should provide the basis for lively discussions.

Key words: environmental relevance, ecotoxicology, ecology, geotoxicology