With the political and environmental controversy surrounding the Keystone pipelines, I realized that the role of environmentalists often seem to be separated from general society. I heard a CBC radio host exclaim, "I don't know what the environmentalists would think of that" referring to a statement by Keystone. As if their view would be somehow distinct from the rest of society.
What would happen if society viewed environmental scientists as health care practitioners? There is plenty of evidence to demonstrate this to be true - our health is directly influenced by our environment. In fact, even determining the exact role of our genome becomes very difficult because gene expression is changed depending on the environment.
I believe that when society begins to realize that environmental scientists are indeed health care practitioners, and very important ones, there will be major leaps forward in preventive medicine.
