In the past decades, environmental scientists, economists and physicists
have been juggling critical issues within environmental strategies and
environmental management styles in order to find a feasible medium
between limited resources, long term demands and objectives, and
interest groups. In the search for best management alternatives,
practice has undergone a pendulum swing between stages that can be
characterised as frontier economics, radical environmentalism, resource
management/allocation, selective environmentalism and sustainable
environmental management. The next stage of management must answer such
questions as: `Can there be a global - uniform environmental
strategy?', or `Based on their characteristics, can different issues,
different regions and different applications have unique environmental
strategies?' Based on this premise, the next stage of management may be
identified as risk based sustainable environmental management. The goal
of this style will be the risk based, long term, harmonious management
of economic resources and environmental preservation for health, safety
and prosperity of sustainable populations. When evaluation of risk or
risk based ranking of management alternatives enter the picture as part
of the overall puzzle, then social policy, ethics and health issues
assume a very important role in the management strategy. Economic
incentives and environmental constraints have to be considered
harmoniously, the main emphasis being placed on protection and
preservation of human health and the long term sustaining of
populations.