Science based policy for addressing energy and environmental problems

The scientific understanding of air pollution, global warming, and fuel resource issues forms the basis for the development of important public policy and regulation. These issues intersect with each other. The resulting public policy and regulations influence our quality of life and the health of our economy. They have a strong influence on combustion research and technology. Improvements in combustion technologies over the past 40 years have resulted in substantial improvement in air quality in industrialized countries. Responding to the evolving problems of global warming and fuel resources will require similar contributions from combustion. (C) 2009 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.