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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.

This chapter describes the environmental impacts of urbanization in South America, and the difficulties that governments have had in managing them. The discussion focuses initially on the rapid urbanization of the continent and its environmental implications and then reviews the quality of the urban environment within the homes and neighbourhoods in which the urban population lives, in the workplace, and in the wider city (the ambient environment). The environmental impacts of these urban areas on their surroundings are then described and their wider and more diffuse impacts considered, including an evaluation of global climate change. Lastly, some of the new directions taken by governments in the region toward addressing these problems are noted. Table 20.1 provides a summary of the main city-related environmental problems in terms of their spatial context and the nature of the hazard or problem. The urban environment is taken to mean the physical environment in urban areas, with its complex mix of natural elements (including air, water, land, climate, flora, and fauna) and the built environment, in other words a physical environment constructed or modified for human habitation and activity encompassing buildings, infrastructure, and urban open spaces (Haughton and Hunter, 1994; OECD, 1990). Its quality is much influenced by: (1) its geographical setting; (2) the scale and nature of human activities and structures within it; (3) the wastes and emissions these activities create and their environmental impacts; and (4) the competence and accountability of the institutions elected, appointed, or delegated to manage it. In summarizing the environmental impacts of urbanization, this chapter concentrates on some of the region’s most serious urban problems. However, it should always be remembered that this is also a region with rich and varied urban cultures. South America has some of the world’s finest historic cities—for instance the historic centers of Cusco, Quito, and Salvador de Bahía. The urban cultures have evolved from a long history, including a rich pre- Colombian urban history in many places (Hardoy, 2000). The cities are widely known outside South America through the literature they have inspired—for instance, for the English-speaking world, the works of Garcia Marquez, Amado, and Vargas Llosa. Its cities are also known for the art, music, and dance that they incubated and inspired.

Paleolimnologists have developed an impressive track record documenting the history of human influence on lakes and their surroundings, and using these historical inferences to help policy makers establish lake and ecosystem management goals. Our ability to do this depends on both a comparative analysis of multiple lake records, and a firmly established chronology. The comparative approach to paleolimnology allows us to differentiate local phenomena resulting from peculiarities of study watersheds from regional phenomena. Comparison of records also allows the timing of events to be placed in a regional context, where explanations of processes that affect large areas, like lake acidification, regional patterns of air pollution, or landscape disturbance may be more broadly interpretable. Comparative paleolimnology allows the researcher to study the multiple effects of local to regional-scale phenomena and differentiate them from global phenomena. Closely coupled with our requirement for a comparative approach to paleolimnology is the need to place events in a highly resolved chronology, especially over the past 200 years, the period of greatest interest to understanding major human alternations of the environment. In many parts of the world, including the highly industrialized and relatively well-‘‘monitored’’ environments of North America and Europe, instrumental records of water quality are either spotty or unavailable. Until the 1960s, the number of lakes with regular monitoring programs for even basic limnological parameters was extremely small. And in regions with numerous water bodies, selection criteria for the investigation of lakes often has had more to do with proximity to major research facilities or peculiarities of road access than with the needs of society. Paleolimnological records integrate ecological signals at scales that are relevant to the interests of lake managers, who need to understand the timing and magnitude of human activities. Even when limnological monitoring is available, paleolimnological approaches can answer questions at temporal and spatial scales that are unattainable by the monitoring regime in place. The difficulty of understanding the history of human impacts on ecosystems is particularly acute in underdeveloped regions of the world, where access to monitoring equipment is limited. For lakes in these regions, paleolimnology may provide the only practical and relatively inexpensive means of reconstructing impact histories.