ABSTRACT
The health, safety, environmental degradation, and environmental sustainability problems of our society, including global warming, continue to grow, while we have less money than ever to resolve them. Eight major factors are interacting in our society today that require we make substantial changes in how we design practical programs, which prevent disease and injury, promote good health, protect the environment, and enhance environmental sustainability. These factors are: financial stress; regulatory reform; environmental justice; our changing planet; a multitude of environmental pollutants and their interactions; emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, primarily of a zoonotic nature; where we live, work, play, and are educated; and the potential increase in acute and chronic disease in our mobile, growing, and aging population. The United States established a national policy for environmental sustainability in 1969 when it passed the National Environmental Policy Act. The President's Council on Sustainable Development was established in 1994 by Executive Order.
