I want to convey to you the extreme importance I associate to the role of science in the making of environmental policy. As Minister of the Environment, my mission is to ensure we leave an environmental legacy to our grandchildren that is as strong or even stronger than the legacy left to us. But as a policy maker, I am impotent without strong, credible science.
Science provides the weathervane and the compass.
Science alerts us to environmental problems and points us toward solutions. They are essential to products that we all use and to agriculture. Most do not appear to present an apparent environmental or health threat in normal use. However, most is not all . Too many substances have proven to have significant and negative effects on the health of people and other living creatures.