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WHAT IS 'SOCIETY'S THRESHOLD'?

The H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment is putting together a report on the state of the nation's ecosystems. At this site, you will find their preliminary data on the first three ecosystems they studied under links: "Croplands," "Forests," and "Coasts and Oceans." All contain interesting facts; however, the most fascinating aspect is the chart that follows each report, which measures data availability, data quality and "societal threshold." Note that for virtually all categories of data, there are NO SPECIFIC REFERENCE POINTS to measure society's threshold with regard to human alteration of ecosystems. In other words, according to the Heinz study, we have few measures in place to protect ourselves FROM OURSELVES! The data is provided with a view to receiving comments, and will eventually be published, along with comments, in a final report to appear in 2001. The comment I posted is, "please advise government to put in place more standards for measuring 'society's threshold'." Click on "Comments" to post your own.

Wed, 18 Oct 2000 05:32:13 -0700

Submitted by: Libbett Watson