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Global environmental change since 1993
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Global Environmental Change 14 (2004) 195 www.elsevier.com/locate/gloenvcha
Foreword
Global environmental change since 1993$ This special issue on the Benefits of Climate Policy, edited by Jan Corfee-Morlot and Shardul Agrawala, is the last issue of Global Environmental Change to be published under my editorial supervision; and it is an appropriate subject upon which to focus because it brings together a wide range of assessments of the human and policy dimensions of climate change. Since assuming the editorship of GEC in 1993 (initially with Andrew Goudie and Michael Williams until 1996) it has always been my aim to maintain strongly the human and policy dimension of the journal; and frequently it has been necessary to recommend to authors of papers more focussed on physical processes that they seek an alternative publishing outlet. Looking back at our first editorial in September 1993 I recall that we analysed the source and content of papers in issues of GEC since its first issue in 1990. About a half the papers over1990–1993 was on global warming and, although we have tried to reduce this proportion, the amount has actually increased. While this probably reflects increasing research on climate change, it also means that many topics are not getting the exposure that they deserve. We noted for example, that species extinction, land use change, land degradation, water supply and quality, and new technology hazards were not being addressed in GEC, and it is still the case that these are underrepresented. Where we have made a difference in the past decade is to encourage papers that published new research results. Previously, about a quarter of papers were ‘think-pieces’ by known names in the field, often re-working existing material in an original way. We have made a conscious
$ The author, Editor of Global Environmental Change from 1993–2004, is in the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, UK Meteorological Office, Fitzroy Road, Exeter EX1 3PB, UK.
0959-3780/$ - see front matter r 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2004.07.001
effort to attract publications of results from new surveys that contribute to the body of empirical knowledge about environmental change. A further change has been to widen the national spread of authors. It is now truly global, whereas in its early years more than a half of the authors were from the USA. These changes have, rightly I believe, earned Global Environmental Change the role of ‘flagship journal’ for the subject. It strives to provide an outlet for publication of research that cuts across boundaries between fields of study. There is currently a lot of vacuous talk about the value of interdisciplinary research, much of it more in hope than in achievement, but if you look through past issues of this journal you will find many genuine and revealing interdisciplinary studies. It is a testimony to the authors of this kind of research, more difficult though it often is than single-discipline research, that interdisciplinary science is now regarded by policy-makers as an essential ingredient of science to support policy. There is no better example of this interdisciplinary research, in this case funded by a major policy institution (OECD), than the papers collected in this issue.
Martin Parry School of Environmental Sciences, Jackson Environment Institute, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK E-mail address: [email protected].
Global Environmental Change 14 (2004) 195 www.elsevier.com/locate/gloenvcha
Foreword
Global environmental change since 1993$ This special issue on the Benefits of Climate Policy, edited by Jan Corfee-Morlot and Shardul Agrawala, is the last issue of Global Environmental Change to be published under my editorial supervision; and it is an appropriate subject upon which to focus because it brings together a wide range of assessments of the human and policy dimensions of climate change. Since assuming the editorship of GEC in 1993 (initially with Andrew Goudie and Michael Williams until 1996) it has always been my aim to maintain strongly the human and policy dimension of the journal; and frequently it has been necessary to recommend to authors of papers more focussed on physical processes that they seek an alternative publishing outlet. Looking back at our first editorial in September 1993 I recall that we analysed the source and content of papers in issues of GEC since its first issue in 1990. About a half the papers over1990–1993 was on global warming and, although we have tried to reduce this proportion, the amount has actually increased. While this probably reflects increasing research on climate change, it also means that many topics are not getting the exposure that they deserve. We noted for example, that species extinction, land use change, land degradation, water supply and quality, and new technology hazards were not being addressed in GEC, and it is still the case that these are underrepresented. Where we have made a difference in the past decade is to encourage papers that published new research results. Previously, about a quarter of papers were ‘think-pieces’ by known names in the field, often re-working existing material in an original way. We have made a conscious
$ The author, Editor of Global Environmental Change from 1993–2004, is in the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, UK Meteorological Office, Fitzroy Road, Exeter EX1 3PB, UK.
0959-3780/$ - see front matter r 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2004.07.001
effort to attract publications of results from new surveys that contribute to the body of empirical knowledge about environmental change. A further change has been to widen the national spread of authors. It is now truly global, whereas in its early years more than a half of the authors were from the USA. These changes have, rightly I believe, earned Global Environmental Change the role of ‘flagship journal’ for the subject. It strives to provide an outlet for publication of research that cuts across boundaries between fields of study. There is currently a lot of vacuous talk about the value of interdisciplinary research, much of it more in hope than in achievement, but if you look through past issues of this journal you will find many genuine and revealing interdisciplinary studies. It is a testimony to the authors of this kind of research, more difficult though it often is than single-discipline research, that interdisciplinary science is now regarded by policy-makers as an essential ingredient of science to support policy. There is no better example of this interdisciplinary research, in this case funded by a major policy institution (OECD), than the papers collected in this issue.
Martin Parry School of Environmental Sciences, Jackson Environment Institute, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK E-mail address: [email protected].