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How, and when, does it become possible to conceptualize a truly planetary crisis? The Cold War nuclear arms race installed one powerful concept of planetary crisis in American culture. The science enabling the US nuclear arsenal, however, also produced unintended byproducts: notably, a radical new investment in the earth sciences. Cold War nuclear science ultimately produced not only bombs, but also a new understanding of the earth as biosphere. Thus, the image of planetary crisis in the US was increasingly doubled during the Cold War - the immediacy of nuclear threat matched by concerns about rapid environmental change and the cumulative effects of industrial civilization on a fragile biosphere. This paper examines the evolution of (and competition between) two ideas of planetary crisis since 1945: nuclear war and climate change. In doing so, the paper offers an alternative history of the nuclear age and considers the US national security implications of a shift in the definition of planetary crisis from warring states to a warming biosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), a large international research programme, served to set the research agenda of a number of environmental sciences around the issue of global warming and global change. This paper examines the impact of the interdisciplinary cooperation within the IGBP on ecology and the ecologists' response. Ecology was an integral part of the IGBP form the beginning, yet it was sometimes in uneasy cohabitation with the other sciences involved. The issues of global warming and global change posed opportunities and challenges to ecology. They posed opportunities because an important cause emerged, with promises of exciting new (space) technologies and new funds for the environmental science. They posed challenges, because by aligning itself to sciences that study the earth system as a whole, ecology was invited simplicity to bracket its focus on the specificity of local ecosystems, that is , to give up up ecology's traditional focus on fields studies of plant and animal communities. Any aim in this paper is to place th opportunities that global change research offered to ecology in the context of changes within the field that were already underway. Power relationship between disciplines did not give ecology an upper hand vis-a vis the other earth sciences, but ecologists were able nevertheless to redefine subtly the notion of the global nevertheless to redefine subtly the notion of the global [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Environment & Urbanization is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Growing interest in the social consequences of climate change has fueled speculation that global warming could lead to an increase in various forms of political violence. This article examines the effects of climate change on international conflict subsequent to the onset of European industrialization. Surprisingly, analysis at the system level suggests that global warming is associated with a reduction in interstate conflict. This naive relationship is suspect, however, as the increased consumption of carbon-based fuels is itself associated with changing patterns of politics and prosperity. In particular, economic development has been viewed as a cause of both climate change and interstate peace. Incorporating measures of development, democracy, cross-border trade, and international institutions reveals that systemic trends toward peace are actually best accounted for by the increase in average international income. The results imply that climate change, which poses a number of critical challenges for citizens and policymakers, need not be characterized as fundamentally a security issue, though climate change may have important security implications on the periphery of world politics. The analysis here also suggests that efforts to curb climate change should pay particular attention to encouraging clean development among middle-income states, as these countries are the most conflict prone. Ironically, stagnating economic development in middle-income states caused by efforts to combat climate change could actually realize fears of climate-induced warfare. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although a ‘product’ of the contemporary period, environmental history brings other disciplines, such as the natural sciences, to bear upon our understanding of contemporary history. It also expands our view of the contemporary era as one essentially linked to earlier epochs, linking twentieth-century ideas like the ‘environment’ to earlier special and cultural concepts. Environmental history complicates our view of contemporary history, challenging assumptions of modernization with narratives of decline and destruction. Environmental history, then, broadens our understanding of contemporary history, adding cultural, social, and scientific dimensions to deeply political issues. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article offers an exploratory extrapolation of the performance characteristics of an ultra-high resolution general model for atmospheric circulation. Other technological paths for the integration of the model are described. It was found that the solutions of the formulas for motion dictated the computation of ultra-high resolutions because of a superlinear scaling of calculation burden determined by the stability criterion. The design study foreshadows an alternate approach to sensible power-efficient executions of petaflop scale systems.

During the past three decades, global environmental policy has increased in salience in international politics. What role has the USA, a principal actor in global affairs, played in multilateral efforts to promote environmental protection? What factors might account for US actions regarding progress or problems related to global environmental policy? In order to answer these questions, I examine the role of three principal actors in the US political system, namely, the American president, the Congress, and domestic organized interests. This discussion is followed by three case studies (the Montreal Protocol, the Convention on Global Climate Change, and the Convention on Biodiversity) that show the role of these political actors in shaping US global environmental policy. When the USA provides leadership, it bolsters multilateral efforts to address global environmental problems. When it fails to offer leadership, it weakens that effort. Either way, domestic political factors (rather than interstate relations) play a central role in shaping US global environmental policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Political Science Review is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)