Global Environmental Change: Interactions of Science, Policy, and Politics in the United States

Global Environmental Change reviews the facts and the uncertainties relating to some of the major environmental issues facing us today--greenhouse warming, loss of stratospheric ozone, and acid precipitation--and shows how these facts and uncertainties are dealt with by both governmental and nongovernmental agencies. Anticipated environmental changes in future decades are described and explained, and the consequences of those projected changes are described for rise of sea level, water resources, agriculture, ecological systems, and other topics. Three chapters of the study are devoted to the roles of academic institutions, government agencies, and nongovernmental agencies in developing and implementing policies. Another chapter discusses the relationship of U.S. research and environmental policy to international research and environmental policy, emphasizing how new concepts relating to global change have emerged from earlier research and out of the growing recognition of the seriousness of environmental problems. Finally, the work addresses the need for more effective interactions of science and policy.