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

(Hardback)

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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.

Reviews

It reviews some of the implications of global change for public policy, and describes the chief features of the policy landscape.-Abstracts of Public Adminstration, Development, and Enviroment 1995-1996
Publication of this splendid little book is timely. The compact between science and society drawn up 50 years ago in the immediate post-World War II years by Vannevar Bush's seminal Science-The Endless Frontier is up for renewal. By describing the interaction between the environmental sciences and public policy, Fleagle has presented a case study that should help to illuminate the lively discussions now under way on the need for a new compact. His account has important implications for the terms of that compact. It should be required reading for scholars and practitioners in science and public policy.- Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
Robert Fleagle's book is written from the standpoint of an atmospheric scientist who has dedicated his life to the rationalist paradign of problem solving. It offers a comprehensive description of the science of global environmental change and a reasoned call for better policies and more public spending to guide research in this field. It is also profoundly contrary to the slash-and-burn spirit that currently pervades both government and science policy. One hopes for a future when Fleagle's message will find a more receptive audience.-International Environmental Affair
This topic is treated from a historical perspective and brought to a present-day status. This work includes a helpful key to the numerous listings of acronyms and abbreviations. Recommended to libraries having science and technology collections as well as material emphasizing public policy. Upper-division undergraduate through professional.-Choice
"It reviews some of the implications of global change for public policy, and describes the chief features of the policy landscape."-Abstracts of Public Adminstration, Development, and Enviroment 1995-1996
"Robert Fleagle's book is written from the standpoint of an atmospheric scientist who has dedicated his life to the rationalist paradign of problem solving. It offers a comprehensive description of the science of global environmental change and a reasoned call for better policies and more public spending to guide research in this field. It is also profoundly contrary to the slash-and-burn spirit that currently pervades both government and science policy. One hopes for a future when Fleagle's message will find a more receptive audience."-International Environmental Affair
"This topic is treated from a historical perspective and brought to a present-day status. This work includes a helpful key to the numerous listings of acronyms and abbreviations. Recommended to libraries having science and technology collections as well as material emphasizing public policy. Upper-division undergraduate through professional."-Choice
"Publication of this splendid little book is timely. The compact between science and society drawn up 50 years ago in the immediate post-World War II years by Vannevar Bush's seminal Science-The Endless Frontier is up for renewal. By describing the interaction between the environmental sciences and public policy, Fleagle has presented a case study that should help to illuminate the lively discussions now under way on the need for a new compact. His account has important implications for the terms of that compact. It should be required reading for scholars and practitioners in science and public policy."- Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

Author Bio

ROBERT G. FLEAGLE is Professor Emeritus of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington and a Senior Fellow in the Joint Institute for the Study of Atmosphere and Ocean. He has served as a member of the staff and as a consultant to the Office of Science and Technology of the Executive Office of the President and as a consultant to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Professor Fleagle is past President of the American Meteorological Society. He is the author, with J.A. Businger, of An Introduction to Atmospheric Physics (1980) and the editor of two books on weather modification policy.