Issue 86: Highlights 1986

This twenty-third "Highlights" issue of Resources contains, as have its predecessors, accounts of some issues and events that were of special moment during the past year and that are likely to be of continuing urgency in the months ahead. All grow from fresh and ongoing research in progress at Resources for the Future. All convey current knowledge about some of the most pressing issues of our time.

At first glance, there may appear to be few links between the subjects surveyed—between climate change and nuclear accidents, between space economics and fish. Yet the apparent discontinuity reflects well the variety of RFF research, the breadth of its programs, and the growth of its interests. The surface disparity also reflects the great freedom enjoyed by RFF researchers in pursuit of knowledge on subjects of their choosing, consistent only with the organization's collective evaluation of the best means to use the experience and skills of those who compose its staff.

Seen from another perspective, however—that of fundamental principles and consistent vision—the disparity among subjects disappears. Throughout its history, RFF has sought to define and establish the terms of research and debate on issues whose outlines and contents are inchoate and ill-formed. It has tried to anticipate the emergence of public issues upon which basic and preparatory analysis can be undertaken. And perhaps above all, it has been determined to maintain a continuity of research over time, not to be swayed by the fashions of policy or the unpredictability of events.

In the context of this long view of things, then, the articles in this issue of Resources seek to impart not just a sense of the work going on at RFF, but—more significantly—a sense of those issues that RFF sees in need of fresh research and balanced analysis, and of those policy debates to which RFF can make a substantial contribution. Some of the articles—such as those on the conservation reserve and below-cost timber sales—concern immediate policy issues and current law. Some—those on environmental legislation and the nuclear accident at Chernobyl—review events and anticipate proposed courses of action to deal with them. Others—those about climate change and space economics—set forth the contents of just-emerging problems of international and global import. Together, they highlight the continuing salience of resource and environmental problems in this era and the bearing that applied social science knowledge can bring to their solution.