As the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment Synthesis begins:
Everyone in the world depends completely on Earth's ecosystems and the services they provide, such as food, water, disease management, climate regulation, spiritual fulfillment, and aesthetic enjoyment.
But if we want to preserve the ecologically functioning biosphere that we depend upon for so much, we are going to have to define within the law what it is we want to preserve or we will lose it for-ever to the mounting tsunami of cumulative impacts.
The growing human ecological footprint has made untenable the assumptions on which our current environmental decision-making structure is based. The central goal of property and environmental law must shift from promoting endless growth in net benefits to maintaining the ecological systems we need to survive and prosper.
SEHN was founded in 1994 by a consortium of North American environmental organizations concerned about the misuse of science in ways that failed to protect the environment and human health. Since 1998, SEHN has been the leading proponent in the United States of the Precautionary Principle as a new basis for environmental and public health policy. The Science and Environmental Health Network engages communities and governments in the effective application of science to protect and restore public and ecosystem health.
The Science and Environmental Health Network:
Encourages the practice of science in the public interest and the accurate interpretation of scientific information;
Identifies information, ethical concepts, and logic that have the potential to provoke essential change; and
Helps communities, organizations, and governments develop and implement sound environmental policies.