Robert W. Kates is an independent scholar in Trenton, Maine, and University Professor (Emeritus) at Brown University. Having failed retirement, he is Co-Convenor of the international Initiative for Science and Technology for Sustainability, an Executive Editor of Environment magazine, Distinguished Scientist, George Perkins Marsh Institute, Clark University, Faculty Associate, College of the Atlantic, Visiting Scholar of the Center for International Development, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and a Board member of the Acadia Disposal District and Maine Global Climate Change, Inc. He is a recipient of the 1991 National Medal of Science, the MacArthur Prize Fellowship (1981-85), the Laureat d’Honneur, International Geographical Union (2004), and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Academia Europaea. Author, editor, and co-editor of 22 books and monographs, his most recent books include the Great Transition: The Promise and Lure of the Times Ahead (2002), and with the AAG Global Change and Local Places Research Group.. Global Change in Local Places: Estimating, Understanding, and Reducing Greenhouse Gases (2003).