Verdant Models ne could argue that our ability to model climate stems from the ancient need to best budget for the growing season by knowing weather trends. As farming enabled civilization, it has truly seeded the development of science and innovation. In this age of thinking about sustainability and the human impact on the environment, a growing number of articles in ES&T address agricultural modeling. Coupling in the need to feed a growing population and the fervent pursuit of biofuels, such studies are ever more vital. In this issue’s cover Feature article, Gidon Eshel discusses a “geophysical” model aimed at better quantifying the parameters that play into agricultural policy such as the U.S. Farm Bill (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es9032748). Taking a cue from climate modeling, researchers have taken into account material and energy fluxes that play out on cropland and in animal husbandry, which serves to feed life cycle assessment (LCA) studies and better inform policy decisions. Eshel’s Feature is an illustration for non-specialists that echoes similar and ongoing ES&T research content. For example, Gelfand et al. (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es903385g) contend that non-food crops such as grasses are better candidates for biofuels (see also the news coverage by Pala [Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es1011302]). Miller’s consideration of nitrogen use and land impact determines that sugar cane is the best biofuel candidate (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es902405a). Turning to another type of “agriculture”, Heath et al. address forestry to best manage carbon footprints (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es902723x). While research takes the typical random walk to consensus, the accrued insight and method developments
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10.1021/es101205k
2010 American Chemical Society
Published on Web 05/13/2010
are making sustainable planning more robust, if not yet fully actualized. The hope, of course, is that greening up our practices to increase the environment’s health will synergistically improve human health. To buoy up this hope, Barton and Pretty show that exercise in nature has a greater mental health benefit than the same activity in urban environs (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es903183r). As noted in the news article by Mejia (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es101129n), Barton and Pretty seek to define a “dosage” of envirofitness, making its beneficial potential akin to nutritive supplements. So after all this modeling, it appears that children do know best: everyone should go outside and play. (Noting that, as reported by Pelley [Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es101119b], Lew et al. [Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es100128n] found that the risk of children absorbing arsenic from treated lumberconstructed playground equipment appears no worse than the natural background.) We at ES&T hope that once you have sated yourself with green cavorting and return to the business of investigating the environment, we will all benefit from your operating and modeling with a clearer head.
Darcy J. Gentleman Managing Editor
[email protected] May 15, 2010 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 9 3647
