The water rich will likely get richer, and the water poor will get poorer. This is the conclusion of an article that I just read about how rising greenhouse gases crank up the water cycle. By measuring ocean salinities, Durack, Wijffels, and Matear (2012) were able to show that the global water cycle has intensified from 1950 to 2000. In brief, their evidence suggests that a strengthening greenhouse will increase precipitation where it is already high and decrease it where it is already low. A change in freshwater availability in response to climate change is a much greater problem than warming of the temperature. This has obvious implications for the western United States and those transition zones such as the Great Plains, which are mostly too dry already.

The spring issue for Environmental Practice has been focused traditionally on the National Association of Environmental Professionals (NAEP) conference in April. The NAEP/AEP joint conference “Walk the Talk” was held in Los Angeles, where the principles behind economic development and environmental conservation were put into practice by professionals across a broad spectrum of environmental professions. The articles in this issue of Environmental Practice reflect that same spirit of practical application of those ideals. We return to our focus on international environmental research and work in the following issues after this spring issue. This issue provides some stimulating research and commentary on our profession and discipline.

One of the consequences of state utility energy efficiency and renewable energy policies has been the expansion of clean energy programs conducted by local, nonprofit community organizations. These programs seek to increase deployment of renewable energy facilities on consumers' premises and reduce the amount of energy used by consumers. The success of community programs depends on the capabilities of the organizations implementing the programs. Managers of six large community-based clean energy programs in Arizona were interviewed regarding organizational capabilities related to carrying out clean energy programs. The Arizona organizations have developed proficiencies in education, recruitment, problem solving, coordination among parties, and innovation. Clean energy programs of the community organizations interviewed for this study are centered around trust, empowerment of stakeholders, partnerships, and social networks to recruit participants and volunteers and to learn about what other organizations are doing.

Environmental Practice 15:97–107 (2013)

Exploration and extraction of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale have created considerable controversy. At the core of these debates are differing perceptions of the level and types of risks involved with the extraction activities, such as hydraulic fracturing, truck traffic, air emissions, and population growth. Risks described include the potential for human and environmental health implications, as well as community change and economic gain. This article explores the nature of perceived risks associated with Marcellus Shale development by using data from a household survey (N = 1,917) conducted in 2009–10 in Pennsylvania and New York counties located in the core areas of the Marcellus Shale region. The article describes a quantitative measure of risk perceptions. Statistical analyses of the data indicate that trust in institutions responsible for managing the risks associated with development and attitudes related to relationships between people and nature are associated strongly with perceptions of risk. Other associated variables include reported knowledge of environmental, social, and economic impacts, mineral rights ownership, demographic characteristics (gender, income), and state of residence. Implications of these findings are discussed, particularly as related to improving local discourse surrounding Marcellus Shale development.

Environmental Practice 15:108–122 (2013)

Annual average environmental impact statement (EIS)-preparation times for all EIS-preparing entities combined were highly variable after 2006 and peaked in 2008 at 1,522 days (4.2 years). The annual average EIS-preparation time for all entities increased from 2007 through 2010 at an average rate of +19.9 days/year. The trend of increasing preparation times measured from 1998 was maintained through 2010, but the average rate of increase, +26.7 days/year, was slightly less than that measured from 1998 through 2006. Annual average EIS-preparation times for the three most prolific EIS producers—US Forest Service, Federal Highway Administration, and US Army Corps of Engineers—generally decreased after 2006. In contrast, the annual average EIS-preparation time for all other EIS-preparing entities combined increased after 2006 at an average rate of +76.2 days/year, and these entities produced 55% of all final EISs after 2006. Preparation times for EISs on general resource management plans required of the US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management had significant effects on various annual averages.

Environmental Practice 15:123–132 (2013)

Encouraging a more sustainable urban system requires a reexamination of urban development goals and polices to acknowledge the role that cities play in influencing global environmental change. However, sustainability remains a broadly defined concept that has been applied to mean everything from environmental protection and social cohesion to economic growth and neighborhood design. To guide sustainability initiatives and assess progress toward more sustainable development patterns, there is a need to place this concept into a more functional decision-centric context where change in development proposals can be evaluated in a manner more consistent with future as well as present societal needs. To date, sustainability is assessed within the rubric established by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design system or the Sustainable Sites Initiative. These systems, while useful, are ill-suited to the multifaceted, complex relationships that characterize sustainability. In this study, the problem of sustainability assessment was examined within an urban setting by using a method that coupled scenario analysis with spatial multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA). The integration of a spatial MCDA model for sustainable development with scenario planning resulted in an interpretation of sustainability that is more appropriate for local conditions and useful when exploring sustainability's semantic uncertainties, particularly those alternate perspectives that influence future urban patterns.

Environmental Practice 15:133–146 (2013)

For three decades, many environmental practitioners have used the information campaign as their tool of choice. Yet most simple information appeals remain ineffective and are rooted in an outdated understanding of human behavior. In this article, we report on policy lessons from the Rewire program, an innovative energy conservation campaign at the University of Toronto that has grown to reach over 12,000 community members in Canada's largest university. Drawing from the Rewire experience, which evaluated the program by using a mix of psychological, electricity, and qualitative metrics, we suggest cost-effective methods for delivering policy interventions in a complex institutional setting and explore effective methods to generate widespread changes in energy behaviors through a community-based social marketing approach. Campaign designers should move away from single-tool policy interventions to employ a coordinated set of tools and techniques that address a wide range of determinants of human behavior. By training community-based coordinators, campaign designers should also move away from hierarchical policy implementation and toward decentralized deployment of modular and locally adaptive campaigns. For behavioral change to make a meaningful contribution to energy policy, we emphasize the need for more regular dialogue between social science research and the community of energy conservation practitioners.

Environmental Practice 15:147–155 (2013)

In 2008, the US Environmental Protection Agency identified the redevelopment of the Silver Spring central business district in Montgomery County, Maryland, as successfully modeling the principles of smart growth. An important component of the project involved the use of an innovative Green Tape program that streamlined the permitting process. This article reports on a survey of stakeholders associated with this project, which was undertaken to gain insight into the challenges of smart growth. The main issues identified by stakeholders revolved around the public's role in decisions associated with the treatment of landmark structures and the creation of public space. Stakeholders also suggested that a tension existed between regional plans to increase density and the desire of some residents (such as those in areas surrounding the Silver Spring central business district) to maintain the lower-density character of their neighborhoods. In general, this a case example of the tensions that can emerge as efforts to ensure efficient and predictable decision making, which developers and planners value, clash with efforts to facilitate community participation in decision making, which is essential if projects are to be responsive to a broad range of stakeholders.

Environmental Practice 15:156–168 (2013)

The conservation footprint is the collection of acreage in national parks, national forests, wildlife refuges, national forests or other lands managed by the federal government. Their purpose is to maintain biological integrity and diversity (Monaghan, 2009). However, the United States (US) has failed to develop an effective policy for the conservation footprint. This policy failure is the result of many factors (Biber, 2009), three of which are land tenure, self-constitution, and orchestrated regionalism. As a result, the very substance of US conservation is eroding.

Despite the growing number empirical studies (and scientific consensus) pointing to the devastating impacts of global warming (Peterson, Stott, and Herring, 2012), the evolution of leading atmospheric scientists and scientific organizations (e.g., American Meteorological Society) into advocates for programs and policies that mitigate carbon-based emissions, the climate-related concerns of some business leaders, and the prominence given climate change in President Barack Obama's second inaugural address, we must recognize that fundamental climate policy change will not occur in the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, intransigence, disinterest, imaginary thinking, and inaction characterize both national and international political decision making when it comes to passing policies to reduce carbon emissions significantly.

In what was (in 1975) certainly the first course (or one of the first courses) in environmental impact analysis at State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF) and most likely the first in New York State and perhaps anywhere, we regularly spent no small amount of time discussing with students and operating professionals as important an issue in a course that focused on professional practice.