National governments and research scientists may be equally concerned with issues of global environmental change, but their interests-and their timelines-are not the same. Governments are often focused on short-term effects and local impacts of global phenomena. Scientists, on the other hand, are loath to engage in speculation about the specific consequences of large-scale environmental trends.

How then can we translate scientific understanding of these trends into public policy?

Communicating Global Change Science to Society examines the growing number of instances in which...