Editor's introduction.

• Author: Prugh, Thomas

With this issue, World Watch marks the end of its 20th volume and year of publication. The magazine was launched with the January/February issue in 1988, when the Worldwatch Institute was already 14 years old, and has published six issues every year since then (and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future). That amounts to 120 issues, several hundred articles, and, by a back-of-the-envelope calculation, over 3 million words--and counting.

Have the sacrifice of trees and the expenditure of hundreds of thousands of dollars on materials, supplies, research, editing, art, design, printing, and mailing been worth it? Have we made any difference?

Tough questions. As the following essays attest, many of the issues that were important 20 years ago are still (or again) prominent on the radar. We're still trying to persuade the world to act on climate change, pick renewables rather than nuclear power, stop clearcutting tropical forests and wiping out species, and so on.

While I doubt that we could point to a specific, world-changing policy triumph traceable to the appearance of an article in these pages, only in our fantasies can most of us claim such unequivocal success. Progress in social and environmental change is generally measured in smaller increments. Society is more like an ocean current than a vehicle; it's massive, highly inertial, vaguely delimited, and slow-moving, and shifting it peacefully in a new direction usually requires years of sustained effort. We've played a role in fueling that effort by helping to supply the information and analysis that should be prerequisites to thoughtful action. And by that measure, I think World Watch can hold up its head.

Over the years we've covered the environmental waterfront, showcased the work of some of the best writers, activists, and scientists of the day, broken some key stories, and won some awards. Among the...