Securing Sustainability for the Future he theme of the ACS 2009 National Meeting (August 16-20) is “Chemistry and Global Security”. While the mention of science in this context unsettles some of ussdubbing World War I as the “chemists’ war” and World War II as the “physicists’ war” because of mustard gas and atom bombssI find it heartening that we are acknowledging the potential threat. Locking away undesirable topics only to have them turn into monsters with no one the wiser is not prudent. Risk cannot be mitigated without confrontationsideally before problems arise. Thus, a novel event at the Fall meeting will encourage attendees to voluntarily participate in a scenario-based game designed by the Institute for the Future, endorsed by the National Academies, and funded by the Department of Defense. Harnessing the innovation that accompanies widespread conflict by strategizing within virtual confrontations to solve issues such as climate change or global security is a great idea. Using the progeny of that Cold War innovation called ARPANET to have a diverse group of players brainstorm on the societal impacts of new technologies is a tantalizing ideasperhaps “World of Policycraft” will be the next Web 2.0 craze? ES&T of course publishes papers with security implications, especially those about threats already actualized. Violent destruction often has very dirty results and thus also fits well within the environmental theme of our journal. In a 2006 Feature, Lioy et al. wrote about the human health impacts of the September 11, 2001 devastation in New York City, and in a 2008 Feature, Brewer and Nakayama commented on the lack of information available about the offshore dumping of chemical weapons. Now, our August 1, 2009 issue continues the trend: Kettleson et al. describe an electrostatic particle collector that can capture and inactivate airborne viruses (best to avoid a “biologists’ war” in the future). We welcome more articles (and Features!) on these themes to keep the monsters at bay. In assembling this issue however, I also wanted to highlight a topic that has been regarded as tangential to security but is now increasingly tied to stopping aggression: sustainable development. Students of history (or players of games, such as Civilization) know that a lack of resources is a ready cause of violent conflict. Organized societies arise when a resource delivery infrastructure is built that enables periods of relative peace. As the human population’s footprint grows, it is increasingly clear that development needs to be sustainable to maintain, if not improve, resource availability to keep the peace. Loss and conflict spring from environmental abuse. We cannot technologically advance while poisoning our suppliess decreasing quality decreases quantity. Global warming, which will cause coastlines to invade imperiled inland territory, makes it foreseeable that simmering temperaments may be stoked into heated debates that may boil over into combat over land and resources. Our dirty living could become a non-point-source casus belli.
T
10.1021/es9018892
2009 American Chemical Society
Published on Web 07/09/2009
To ensure sustainable development, society must marshal all of its resources and train future scientists to continue to develop ideas that will improve livelihoods. ES&T thus proudly publishes articles such as this issue’s Feature by Murphy et al. on the state of sustainability engineering programs in the U.S. Many “green engineering” students are joining their colleagues in efforts such as Engineers Without Borders (EWB) to create and improve resource infrastructures in underdeveloped areas. The August 15 issue features two manuscripts on how to develop sustainable water infrastructuressfor example, by using conventional chemistry to actualize the space-age concept of recycling wastewater. These ideas in sustainable development reflect other ongoing research content of ES&T, with examples in this issue: portable wastewater recyclers in rural Africa, sand-based filters for improved water cleaning, analyzing the impact of e-waste in Peru, providing improved fuel and stoves in Chinese households, characterizing the selenium content of rice for global nutrition models, improving life cycle assessment models by incorporating regionality, and in the August 15 issue, accounting the carbon footprint of nations. This is but a small sampling of frequent topics in ES&T highlighting how ideas undertaken by seasoned researchers and green (pun intended) students alike are eking out ways to improve our world. How a seemingly minor technological advancement can exact such global change is amazing. I once taught with a physical chemist who made a photovoltaic cell out of raspberry juice, indium tin oxide, pencil lead, and white paint to introduce electrochemistry in a general chemistry lecture. He remarked that the impact of a single electrical outlet in a household in an underdeveloped region could be revolutionary: cleaning water, cooking food, cooling the air, or reading at night. Suddenly, one could have hobbies that dissuade illicit pursuits that, if allowed to fester, require governments to shore up security by diverting an immense amount of funds from domestic investments such as education, healthcare, and research. Sustainable engineering courses with design challenges, real-world projects such as those of EWB, and even a multiplayer game at a chemistry conference are tools that we could use to, as our Editor-in-Chief often says, “tread lighter on the environment” and globally improve lives.
Darcy J. Gentleman
[email protected] August 1, 2009 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 9 5551
