The Environmental Forum

LEAD FEATURE ❧ The constellation of computer services is a huge consumer of energy, but its climate impact has been stable even as total use multiplies. At the same time, the collection and processing of information will yield huge environmental improvements in other sectors.

CENTERPIECE ❧ It all depends on political leadership, as Florida girds for sea-level rise, a threat that is already underway and set to inundate whole neighborhoods. Billions of dollars of homes, businesses, infrastructure, and habitat will be wiped out without emissions cuts.

COVER STORY ❧ A review of how the U.S. government deals with unlikely scenarios that nonetheless could cause significant disruption to American society — and an argument that climate change effects deserve the same kind of emphasis and appropriate policy response.

PROFILE ❧ Dan Guttman has spent decades using discovery and dogged research to peer into government and industry secrets. He has found out how the U.S. environmental operating system really works, and achieved real improvements. Now he is helping students in China and the United States learn how to translate between — and improve — their respective OSs.

HEADNOTE ❧ When the modern environmental movement emerged in the West fifty years ago, global overpopulation was a central international concern. Yet, a variety of forces slowly but surely distanced population issues from the mainstream environmental agenda. Sustainable development became an international goal. The specter of forced sterilization in India and the excesses of China’s one-child policy were alarming. And others argued that a demographic transition would automatically follow in countries who move from low- to middle- income dynamics. What laws and policies are needed to address a growing population’s growing environmental impact?