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‘…science carries us toward an understanding
of how the world is, rather than how
we would wish it to be, its findings may not in all cases be immediately
comprehensible or satisfying’ (Sagan, 1997:31).
The environmental manager needs to understand the structure and function
of the environment to be able to assess the effect of human activities. Such
knowledge is incomplete and/or data collection has been
inadequate so forecasting
and decision making are often far from perfect. Nevertheless, compared with the
situation before the International Geophysical Year (1957–8), there is much more
knowledge on the structure and function of the environment,
but reliable and
comparable data on physical and human conditions are still often hard to come by.
Science has contributed enormously to western civilization: both material well-
being and knowledge about the world and cosmos have been won through ordered,
objective scientific study. With pressures for holistic approaches and popular interest
in pseudo-science which is presented as objective truth, care
is needed to ensure that
support for science is not eroded. Another pressure is the growing demand, and
funding, for applied research rather than pure science with no obvious practical
outcome. Ironically, many of the benefits that have come from science were generated
through pure,
not applied, research.
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