The Understanding Of Consequences

“A system has order, flowing from point to point. If something dams that flow, order collapses. The untrained eye might miss that collapse until it was too late. That’s why the highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences.” Frank Herbert Dune Chronicles

The Hunters Point Community Biomonitoring Program has established cause and effect relationships between environmental toxins and expressions of disease. Science is defined as the observation, identification, description, investigation and theoretical explanation of natural…and unnatural phenomenon! The flow of scientific theory leads ultimately to scientific law:

American ecologist Paul B. Sears once stated, “the highest function of science is to give us an understanding of consequences. Author Frank Herbert restated this in his science fiction masterpiece, Dune Chronicles - “the highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences.”

This is my favorite scientific quote. Herbert describes the order and flow of ecological systems and the consequences of their collapse. “A system has order, flowing from point to point. If something dams that flow, order collapses…the untrained eye might miss that collapse.”

Environmental Justice restores disordered ecological systems in low income coastal communities of color facing an undue burden of disease from the deleterious effects of pollution and social inequities compounded by extreme heat and rising sea levels.

Hunters Point is a Fence Line Community