Much recent scholarship in science and technology studies has focused on understanding the local dimensions of transnational environmental problems. How do environmental issues—which typically draw their strength from intensely local issues of resource use, subsistence livelihoods, and social conflict—become the subject of global knowledge-making and politicking? How does the knowledge produced by international scientific communities and the consensus forged by global political agreements acquire legitimacy and force in local environmental and cultural contexts? Answering these difficult questions is a critical first step in creating a more sustainable future for the planet. Kenneth Wilkening contributes to our understanding of these questions in his fascinating account of the history and current status of acid rain research and policy in Japan. The story he relates explains much about why Japan has become a leader in the creation of East Asian environmental accords in recent decades, and what this phenomenon has meant for the way environmental problems in the region are approached.
