Research Author: THOMAS F. MALONE, pp.13 Date: May 16,1994 For hundreds of millions of years, the changes in global environment that nourish human life have had their natural roots in the interaction of physical, chemical, and biological systems driven by solar energy. Within the last century, however, socioeconomic forces--manifestations of the expanding power of human activity on planet Earth--have emerged as a perturbing influe

Research Author: THOMAS F. MALONE, pp.13 Date: May 16,1994 For hundreds of millions of years, the changes in global environment that nourish human life have had their natural roots in the interaction of physical, chemical, and biological systems driven by solar energy. Within the last century, however, socioeconomic forces--manifestations of the expanding power of human activity on planet Earth--have emerged as a perturbing influe

Bruce Fellman's article "Nuclear Winter Comes In From The Cold" (The Scientist, May 1, 1989, page 1) was well done but failed to point out that the scientific issue of "nuclear winter" was actually resolved in 1985 with the publication of Environmental Consequences of Nuclear War (Physical and Atmosphere Effects, Vol. I and Ecological and Agricultural Effects, Vol. II). These books, published by John Wiley & Sons, were the culmination of a three-year study by 300 scientists from more than 30 cou