And, in the case of acid rain, it s told us that any victory celebrations have been premature. The Countdown Acid Rain program targets were met. But we haven t beaten acid rain. Monitoring tells us our actions have helped, but that a lot of work remains. We have to be realistic.
Environmental improvement is incremental.
It s a long journey. To embark on this journey, we need a good road map to tell us how to get to our destination. High-quality data serves as the signs along the way, telling us where we are, if we re still on the right road and how far we have to go. Another advantage of good data is that it helps us reduce costs in the long-run. Preventive action is usually much cheaper than full-scale cleanup.