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The US National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program was established in 1980 to serve as both a research program and an assessment body. It is generally thought to have been successful in the former aim but not the latter; the fact that the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments were made prior to the publication of NAPAP’s final assessment is often taken as evidence that it failed to influence policy. We find that factors contributing to this perceived failure included significantly compartmentalized research (particularly between environmental scientists focused on ecosystem effects and atmospheric scientists focused on atmospheric processes), and insufficient emphasis placed on the policy-relevant assessment dimension as a consequence of institutional ties of participating scientists. However, the boundary between assessment and policy is semi-permeable: knowledge, and information needs can move in both directions, with science assessment and policy influencing each other through both formal and informal channels. NAPAP scientists and program directors contributed informally to policy-relevant discussions preceding the 1990 amendments, and may therefore have influenced the outcome. NAPAP’s Regional Atmospheric Deposition Model, seen in the policy domain as needed for regulatory purposes, was not finalized in time to influence policy, but it did advance atmospheric modelling.

In contrast to the acquiescence of the British government, the United States continued to staunchly oppose reductions in fossil fuel emissions through President Reagan's second term. The administration's manipulation of acid rain science also continued, including alterations to reports from the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program (NAPAP). However, a combination of two developments eventually led to a change in US policy during the Presidency of George H.W. Bush. First, the Reagan administration's environmental policies led to a significant public backlash, prompting Bush to made a decisive break with President Reagan on acid rain. Second, the specter of an even more severe planetary threat from fossil fuels - climate change - made acid rain appear to be a warning signal of direr environmental consequences on the horizon. This chapter examines how the U.S. eventually sought to reduce the emissions causing acid rain, as well as the ultimate impact of the problem on scientific advising domestically and internationally. It concludes by evaluating the environmental legacy of acid rain, which is complicated by our continued dependence on fossil fuels and the effects of climate change.

This chapter examines the impact of the so-called “nuisance beavers” on the landscape. It argues that “nuisance beaver” is a misnomer, since damage to crops, tree plantations, roads, water supplies, and recreational facilities such as golf courses and campgrounds results from human encroachment on the beaver's habitat, not the other way around. It also considers how the beaver's recent spectacular expansion of its range southward from wilderness to developed land has intensified the conflict between humans and animals. It shows that the beaver causes economic losses by flooding and softening roads as well as flooding often tens of acres of farmland and golf courses. Finally, it asks whether the beaver can help in the fight against acid precipitation or contributes more to the acidification of many bodies of water.