The Environmental Protection Agency Why focus on Environmental Protection? Almost any policy issue could serve to illustrate the significant themes, but environmental protection places them in particularly bold relief. It involves an extremely broad range of scientific information, including most of the physical, biological, and social sciences. The questions of risk and uncertainty that it presents are especially subtle. Furthermore, the environment provides an excellent example of what happens when these problems merge with other profound philosophical and political dilemmas. Our relationship with the environment raises fundamental