Paying to Pollute
Consumers can divide science into two broad categories. The first is production science. This science gives us stuff like cell phones, cars, refrigerators, and a trip to outer space if you have the money. The other broad category is environmental science. This study allows us to survive by protecting the natural systems. Humans have been intrigued by nature. The early scientists were referred to as Philosophers of Nature. Early Philosophers of Nature were primarily interested in discovery by digging up, capturing, shooting, embalming, and stuffing whatever they found. Environmental science is much more than this. Except for a few brilliant individuals like Alexander von Humboldt, people did not connect the dots to understand how nature’s systems keep us alive. Man’s appreciation of nature started to change in the 1970s. The prolific songwriter Joni Mitchel sang, “Don’t it always seem to go, you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. They paved paradise and put up...