With EPA grants ranging from $200,000 to $300,000 awarded to "study ways to
grow the economy without harming the environment," its easy to see why some
scientists are reluctant to mention the fundamental trade-off between economic
growth and environmental protection. The implicit assumption that economic
growth is necessary or certain keeps other approaches off the table, including
a cautious ramping down from growth. But politically, EPA doesn't have much
choice, especially without more support from the scientific community to
clarify the trade-off.
Hopefully in the context of supply shocks such as Peak Oil and environmental
threats such as global warming, such programs will be re-framed to be
consistent with principles of ecology. For example, EPA grants could be framed
in terms of "studying ways to protect the environment while maintaining a
substantial economy," or "studying ways to establish an equilibrium between the
economy and the environment."
Brian Czech, Visiting Assistant Professor
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences
National Capital Region, Northern Virginia Center
7054 Haycock Road, Room 411
Falls Church, VA 22043
---------- Forwarded Message ----------
(Waste News magazine website):
EPA awards $3 million in economy grants
Nov. 9, 2007 -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $3
million in grants to cities, universities and other groups to study ways to
grow the economy without harming the environment.
The grants fall under the agencyâs Collaborative Science and Technology
Network for Sustainability program. The program enables local governments,
nonprofit groups and universities to collaborate on
projects to maximize economic and environmental benefits of growing the
economy while staying green.
The EPA is funding projects in two areas: Communities and the
Built Environment and Industrial Ecology and Organization Behavior.
Studying human behavior is important because sustainable development
requires a change in thinking, said George Gray, assistant administrator for
the EPA Office of Research and Development.
The groups receiving grants, ranging from $200,000 to $300,000,
were: Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H.; the Maine Department of Inland
Fisheries and Wildlife; the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, N.J.;
The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio; the
University of Maine in Orono, Maine; the University of Massachusetts in
Amherst, Mass.; the University of Maryland in College Park, Md., the
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich.; and the University of
Tennessee in Knoxville, Tenn.
