The unifying focus of the conference was on setting a well conceived agenda for science for environmental decisionmaking in the 21st Century that is built on a new interdisciplinary “science of sustainability.”* The organizing principle used by the Council in developing the conference mission was that stakeholder informed science is the most powerful means to building consensus for solving the serious environmental problems facing the United States and the world community.

The highlight of the conference—which included formal presentations by some of the nation’s most eminent specialists on environmental research and policymaking (Appendix 1)— was the inauguration of the John H. Chafee Memorial Lecture on Science and the Environment. During his 23 years of service in the United States Senate, the late Senator John H. Chafee demonstrated how much a passionate commitment to environmental protection and a civil bipartisan approach to science-based policymaking could contribute to achieving a sustainable future.

Nobel Laureates F. Sherwood Rowland and Mario J. Molina delivered the first lecture jointly. They were the leading scientists in what has often been referred to as “the world’s biggest success story to date of using science to resolve an environmental problem.” In the lecture, the two scientists described their discovery that chlorofluorocarbons cause stratospheric ozone depletion and their subsequent efforts to use this scientific understanding to encourage policies that would reverse the problem. (The lecture will be published and made available through the Council.)

The logic of the organizers in devoting a major portion of the conference program to breakout sessions on 14 specific topics was that by doing so participants could provide the most immediate and effective assistance to decisionmakers in the new Administration and the Congress.They accomplished this in the working groups by identifying: (1) critical knowledge gaps where more and better science is needed, and (2) critical communication gaps that seriously impede decisionmaking efforts by policymakers.

Each breakout session was charged with generating a brief set of recommendations for improving the scientific basis for decisionmaking within their given topic area. Participants were told that the recommendations could be addressed to the government as a whole and/or to its specific agencies and that they were not expected to be consensus views.

The Council also suggested that the recommendations focus specifically on science needs and not on what the environmental policy of the United States should be. It was further requested that the recommendations identify either: (1) scientific information needed for environmental decision making, or (2) methods to connect science with environmental decisionmakers.

The recommendations submitted by each breakout session represent the general (but not necessarily consensus) views of participants attending that session. A list of each session’s chairperson, facilitator, and invited speakers is included as Appendix 2. Numbers used are for organizational purposes, not prioritization.

A list of conference participants appears in Appendix 4. The listing of a name does not imply agreement with all of the recommendations contained in the report. Affiliations are listed for identification purposes only.

The National Council for Science and the Environment expresses its most sincere gratitude to all of the participants in the conference and to all of those who will consider these recommendations and work toward their adoption and effective implementation. In particular, the Council wants to thank those 100 or so individuals who prepared background material and papers, who presented formal remarks to the conference, and who chaired, facilitated, and prepared the recommendations for each of the breakout sessions. Their names appear in Appendix 2.

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