Whatever the precise processes involved, the bottom line is that environmental issues can't be shrugged off as low priorities which can be put on the back burner (a rather disquieting image in this context), but have to be given centre stage.

And the onus of proof has to be shifted - once any activity has been identified as suspected of causing serious environmental damage, it needs to be treated as guily until proved innocent, rather than the other way round. An analogy: we've lost God knows how many people to terrible deaths over the years because of a culture in which it was possible to claim that smoking should be treated as harmless until there as firmm proof that it wasn't.