Resolution Urging Support of Legislation to have the National Academy of Sciences Assess the Feasibility of Creating a National Institute for the Environment (NIE)

WHEREAS, the environment of the earth is deteriorating under the stress of the growing human population and its increasing demand for resources; and

WHEREAS, this degradation of the environment threatens the health and quality of life of all human beings; and

WHEREAS, human activities are reducing the diversity of plant and animal species and potentially changing the climate of the planet; and

WHEREAS, solutions to many of these environmental problems will require a great deal of additional basic and applied research in the physical, biological, and social sciences; and

WHEREAS, improved education at all levels will be required to train the environmental scientists who must do this research and also to educate citizens about environmental problems; and

WHEREAS, a single government agency could most efficiently coordinate the research and educational programs that will be needed to solve these problems; and

WHEREAS, there is legislation currently pending before the U.S. Congress requesting the National Academy of Sciences to study the feasibility and possible organization of a new government agency, the National Institute for the Environment (NIE), that would provide much-needed coordination and funding for basic research, applied research, and education in the environmental sciences; now

BE IT RESOLVED that the American Society of Mammalogists, meeting at Frostburg State University, Frostburg, Maryland, 9-13 June 1990, supports the concept of a National Institute for the Environment; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Society urges all members of Congress to support the pending legislation requesting the National Academy of Sciences to study the feasibility of establishing a National Institute for the Environment.