Our nation's approach to environmental protection has been largely reactive. Environmental laws, institutions and regulations have been created in response to existing environmental and public health threats. Policymakers rarely have the opportunity to contemplate long-term or emerging environmental challenges. Futures analysis, the art and science of anticipating nascent environmental issues, encourages proactive planning to prevent potential problems, rather than responding after the fact. The National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology (NACEPT) was asked by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator to play a more strategic and visionary advisory role in March of 2000. In response, NACEPT agreed to review and recommend environmental foresight methods, and to identify emerging trends and issues relevant to EPA in the next five to ten years. Understanding the environmental consequences of future social, economic and technological changes can help EPA make better-informed and more strategic decisions. This report recommends a comprehensive, continuous and institutional futures scanning process to identify emerging trends and issues.
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