The role of science in making sound environmental policy

The Lecture took place in Edmonton on October 16, on the occasion (as is the case each year) of the annual conference of the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS). [...] Chief among these were Eric Newell, OC, former Chancellor of the U of A and Arliss Miller, CM, a noted philanthropist and keen supporter of the U of A. Eric’s business career had been spent in the oil patch, most recently as Chair of Syncrude, largest of the players in the Alberta oil sands; in that capacity he had often met with, debated and taken advice from Dr. [...] For David’s is one of the strongest voices of alarm on the subject of the ecological damage being caused to the environment by the petroleum industry, due to its insatiable appetite for huge and growing supplies of water for use in extracting oil from the tar sands. [...] Thus we have him to thank for the reductions over the past 30 years in the algal blooms that once threatened the viability of even our largest bodies of water, such as the Great Lakes. [...] Technological feats like the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River and the huge iron-mining pits of the Mesabi Range in my home state of Minnesota were widely regarded by lay people as marvels of the modern age.