History of Transboundary Air Pollution
Illustration: © Laurent Taudin 2013.
My current research and new book project is a historical study of the science, modeling and politics of transboundary air pollution in Europe and North America from the 1950s to the 1990s. While the early history of urban air pollution is well documented, less attention had been paid to air pollution research after 1950 and the rise of a new international environmental problem, transboundary air pollution. With the invention of tall smokestacks in the mid-20th century, sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels were dispersed over broad areas, crossed national boundaries, and affected areas far away from urban regions. I am investigating how long-range transported air pollution was framed and approached within different disciplines (agriculture, meteorology, and atmospheric chemistry) and how the different political and institutional contexts in North America and Europe influenced the development of research related to transboundary air pollution. I am also interested in the shift in framing air pollution as a problem affecting human health to framing air pollution as a problem affecting the environment.
Related Publications
How to (not) quantify an environmental problem: Measuring the extent of lake acidification in Canada, Norway and the U.S. in the 1980s
(under review, available on request).
Linearity: The emergence and decline of a controversial issue in 1980s air pollution research
(under review, available on request).
U.S. acid rain assessments in the 1980s
In: D. Jamieson, N. Oreskes, M. Oppenheimer (eds.): Assessing Assessments: A Historical and Philosophical Study of Scientific Assessments for Environmental Policy in the 20th Century (forthcoming, available on request).
(under review, available on request).
Linearity: The emergence and decline of a controversial issue in 1980s air pollution research
(under review, available on request).
U.S. acid rain assessments in the 1980s
In: D. Jamieson, N. Oreskes, M. Oppenheimer (eds.): Assessing Assessments: A Historical and Philosophical Study of Scientific Assessments for Environmental Policy in the 20th Century (forthcoming, available on request).
Work In Progress
Traveling pollutants:
Disputes about the reliability of air pollution models in the 1980s in North America and Europe
(invited book chapter).
Up in the air: tall smokestacks and the emergence of transboundary air pollution
(research paper).
Acid Controversies
With Dale Jamieson (research paper).
Gone with the Wind? The Science, Modeling and Politics of Transboundary Air Pollution, 1950-1990
(book project).
(invited book chapter).
Up in the air: tall smokestacks and the emergence of transboundary air pollution
(research paper).
Acid Controversies
With Dale Jamieson (research paper).
Gone with the Wind? The Science, Modeling and Politics of Transboundary Air Pollution, 1950-1990
(book project).