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An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including supply of mineral resources, economic aspects of World War II and oil price crisis of 1970s.

Perceptions of climatic challenges have changed significantly during the twentieth century. In recent decades, the question of global climate change received more attention than regional climatic challenges and the problems of arid regions. Historians have shown that persistent misconceptions and a lack of understanding of arid zones rooted in misguided colonial ideologies were propagated by United Nations (UN) initiatives such as the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Arid Zone Programme. Alarmist narratives of progressive desertification proliferated and put the blame on destructive local practices such as deforestation and overgrazing. This article investigates UNESCO's interests in natural resources (section 1) and takes a closer look at the development and scientific elements of the Arid Zone Programme (sections 2 and 3). It argues that the Arid Zone Programme offered an effective framework that helped develop and spread new interdisciplinary research approaches to improve knowledge about arid zones. The myth of progressing desertification and misguided colonial expertise characterized much of its political rhetoric, but not its scientific work, which reflected balanced and more critical appraisals of out-dated colonial expertise. In its conclusion, the article suggests that broader contexts need to be taken into account to understand a resurgence of alarmist narratives of desertification such as shifting interests in climatology from local climatic issues to the global atmospheric circulation and a neglect of the climatology of arid zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineers play an important role in communicating technology and its socioeconomic implications. In this paper, based on research into the recent history of wind power technology in Denmark and in Germany, we will investigate the communication efforts of engineers and its role in the success and failure of new wind power technology. We argue that effective communication by engineers and technicians was a crucial component for the rapid success of Danish wind power technology, while a lack of communication contributed to early failures in Germany. As part of their efforts in developing and promoting wind power technology, Danish engineers not only built informal and professional networks of communication in which knowledge and objects could be shared, but also acted as public spokespersons for wind power interests. The case of wind power technology shows that engineering communication comprised different forms, modes, and tasks of communication involving different types of actors and serving different needs and scopes. Engineering communication is not a simple tool at hand, but requires favorable social conditions and adequate institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]