ABSTRACT
It is traditional to end a book of this sort with predictions of where the field is going. Since I lack the gift of prophesy, I will extrapolate current trends into the future. I can only hope that 50 years of watching trends in environmental science come and go gives me some basis for extrapolation. I will also throw in some wishful thinking—things that I hope will happen. There are three aspects of the field’s future: environmental assessment problems to be solved, methods and tools for solving the problems, and the professionalization of environmental assessment.
