Abstract
During the 1970s research had advanced the frontiers of understanding for a broad array of environmental problems: climate, stratospheric ozone, air quality, the carbon cycle, water resources, biological diversity, soil properties, and still others. For the most part each was studied independently of the others using more or less unique observation systems and by separate groups of scientists. However, it was evident that environmental problems were becoming more and more interdisciplinary and that observations were needed that could specify the whole phenomenon of interest, often on a sub-global or global scale, phenomena identified under “global environmental change.”61
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The U.S. has had a less important role in research programs addressing global environmental change than in the earlier research leading to recognition of this interdisciplinary focus. This reflects in part the global scale of these problems, but it also reflects changes in U.S. national policy instituted by the Reagan administration and the resultant failure of the U.S. to undertake a leadership role in addressing international environmental problems.
The SCOPE studies of the carbon cycle can be traced to Carl Rossby’s decision in the mid-1950s to develop at the University of Stockholm a graduate program focusing on global scale atmospheric chemistry. Bert Bolin was an early product of this unique program. He combined interest and understanding of the dynamics and the chemistry of the atmosphere; in later years, as Rossby’s successor, he demonstrated unusual ability to inspire and lead his colleagues and provided essential leadership to a series of international programs.
The story of the Montreal Protocol and its consequences has been told by Benedick (1991).
Some journals have chosen to publish articles of this kind, evidently believing that it is best to get new data and interpretations out for assessment and criticism. I am not convinced that this is efficient and prefer the policy of interdisciplinary review normally followed by Science and by AMS and AGU journals.
The review was led by Robert Sievers of the University of Colorado.
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© 2001 American Meteorological Society
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Fleagle, R.G. (2001). Global Environmental Change. In: Eyewitness: Evolution of the Atmospheric Sciences. American Meteorological Society, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-935704-08-9_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-935704-08-9_14
Publisher Name: American Meteorological Society, Boston, MA
Online ISBN: 978-1-935704-08-9
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