Iterative Change he process of assembling these Managing Editor’s Comments (MECs) involves identifying papers that have just been accepted and tie into the topic of a given issue. Sometimes production schedules mean that these papers do not appear in the destined issue, although every effort is made to avoid that. However, on occasion a paper I cite herein may only exist as an ASAP when this issue goes to press. One such example was the November 15, 2009 MEC which mentioned Environ. Sci. Technol. 2009, DOI 10.1021/es9019518, but the manuscript did not appear in print until the following issue (December 1). For this reason I indicate the DOI so that interested readers can find the paper online, or navigate to it via the hyperlink provided in the online MEC itself. I encourage everyone to discover more stemming from the topics and issues in these highlighted articles throughout ES&T and our ACS sister journals using our award-winning Web site at http://pubs.acs.org/search/advanced. This issue’s release date is coincident with the much anticipated Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. While this author is of course unaware, at this time of writing, how the conference is going, it is likely that the noted Featured content and research articles below will be of interest to the attendees. The cover image is one of the Amazonian transformation that is changing tropical rainforest to farmland. Such alteration greatly changes surface albedo, removes net CO2 sinks, and alters evapotranspiration budgets. Therefore land use change is an important variable in climate change models. Indeed, Brian Stone argues in Environ. Sci. Technol. 2009, DOI 10.1021/ es902150g that shifting the focus of climate change regulation from mitigating CO2 and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to controlling land use change will see greater short- and long-term benefits while also achieving emissions reductions. The challenge is to create a sociopolitical will that is robustly backed by an effective structure of local, regional, national, and international governance. Wilson and Stephens give clues as to how the disparate array of regional governance can result in a mosaic of accomplishments in the face of a national policy, specifically where wind power is concerned (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2009, DOI 10.1021/ es900802s). While national governance can be complicated but relatively coherent, international regulation is ever trickier. Looking to the oceans, Fuglestvedt et al. comment on how international shipping, which has no
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10.1021/es903416f
2009 American Chemical Society
Published on Web 12/11/2009
emissions regulation within the Kyoto Protocol, presently affords a cooling effect (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2009, DOI 10.1021/es901944r). This seeming nicety comes at the expense of health risk via fuel exhaust pollution, which Logue et al. establish still needs to be carefully addressed (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2009, DOI 10.1021/es901683j). However, as immediate health effects are improved by the cleaning up of shipping fuels, the change in the chemical mix presented to the atmosphere (and the shipping industry’s rapid growth) will have a net warming effect added to the mix. In a further demonstration of how close analysis unveils the challenges facing negotiators in Copenhagen, consider three more articles: Chen et al. (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2009, DOI 10.1021/es9021766) evaluate how much black and organic carbon is actually emitted from Chinese household stoves to best approach that GHG source’s mitigation; considering the technology of stoves, Wood et al. (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2009, DOI 10.1021/es902367x) present a burner that would hope to curb methane emissions at a widespread source; and Papasavva et al. (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2009, DOI 10.1021/es902124u) confront the Montreal Protocol’s impact on the Kyoto Protocol whereby newer and more ozone-friendly HFCs in vehicular air conditioners could increase yet another GHG source, especially if local temperatures increase. The resounding theme of these papers, echoed by Persson and Azar’s to be published soon (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2009, DOI 10.1021/es902629x), is that in trying to save tropical carbon sinks with clever economics, in a world ever hungry for resources, the devil is ever in the details. How to confront these swings in contribution, before considering the mode of regulation, indicates the nuances in play behind the smiles and handshakes everyone anticipates in Copenhagen. Regardless of the outcome by the close of 2009, policies will surely continue to be tweaked and honed, as findings and opinions presented within ES&T indicate fruitful directions and how to avoid ill-fated paths despite good intentions.
Darcy J. Gentleman Managing Editor
[email protected] December 15, 2009 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 9 9045
