Ecological Monitoring

The information from programs of environmental monitoring and research must be reported to government administrators, politicians, corporations, and individuals. This information can influence the attitudes of these groups, and thereby affect environmental quality. Decision makers in government and industry need to understand the causes and consequences of environmental damage, and the costs and benefits of alternative ways of dealing with those changes. Their decisions are based on the balance of the perceived costs associated with the environmental damage, and the shorter-term, usually economic benefits of the activity that is causing the degradation.

Information from environmental monitoring and research is interpreted and reported to the public by the media, educational institutions, state-of-the-environment reporting by governments, and by non-governmental organizations. All of these sources of information help to achieve environmental literacy, which eventually influences public attitudes. Informed opinions about the environment will then influence individual choices of lifestyle, which has important, mostly indirect effects on environmental quality. Public opinion also influences politicians and government administrators to more effectively manage and protect the environment and ecosystems.