Steven F. Hayward, who joined AEI in 2002 as the F. K. Weyerhaeuser Fellow, researches conservation and environmental issues and writes AEI's monthly Environmental Policy Outlook. The sixth edition of his book, The Index of Leading Environmental Indicators: A Citizen's Guide on How to Think about Environmental Quality in the U.S., appeared in the spring.

The Environmental Policy Outlook is a monthly essay on trends and controversies in environmental regulation. Authored by Mr. Hayward, and occasionally by others, it explores the paradox of apocalyptic, ideologically charged political rhetoric surrounding an issue that is a matter of strong popular consensus, massive public investment, and conspicuous practical progress. The publication addresses whether the environmental movement can come to grips with its successes and provide leadership rather than resistance to the evolution of better environmental policy.

Reconstructing Climate Policy: What the United States Should Do Now (2002), by Richard B. Stewart and Jonathan B. Wiener, examines fully the Kyoto Protocol and the current impasse in climate policy. The authors summarize the current state of information regarding the extent of global warming that would be caused by increasing uncontrolled greenhouse-gas emissions, the impacts of warming, and the costs of limiting greenhouse-gas emissions. Mr. Stewart and Mr. Wiener explain why participation by all major greenhouse-gas-emitting countries is essential to curb future emissions, but they also note the significant obstacles to obtaining such participation.

Resident Fellow James K. Glassman traveled to Johannesburg in August to observe and write about the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development. He noted that--unlike other large-scale environmental meetings--the summit became "suffused with the theme that wealth makes health"; in other words, that it is economic growth that leads to a cleaner, safer environment.

A conference sponsored by the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies considered a Senate proposal to mandate sharp cuts in emissions of air pollutants from power plants. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Christine Todd Whitman addressed the environmental and legal ramifications of the proposal.