Lessons Learned

摘要

To those of us who work on environmental issues, political inaction in response to urgent problems is often a source of puzzlement and frustration. Recent political failures - most notably the failed COP15 negotiations and the continuing inability of the U.S. Congress to pass climate legislation -have left many observers in a state of despair. Despite all of the scientific data we have amassed, all of the moral, economic, and political rationales for action, and all of the time and effort that has gone into forging national and international agreements, we are poised to make none of the institutional changes necessary to mitigate climate change in any significant way. How to understand such failures and what to do in the face of them has been a recurring theme in the pages of this journal. The papers in this issue suggest a variety of ways in which we need to improve our understanding and approach environmental problems differently and - one hopes - more successfully.