A Letter From the Publisher

By Robert L. Miller

Russ Hoyle likes a good detective story. Not the kind that features hard- boiled private eyes and murderous miscreants, but the sort that unlocks the secrets of the natural world. As senior editor of a group of TIME sections that include Space, Medicine and Environment, Hoyle has lately been indulging his taste for the mysteries of the sky above and the earth below. This week's report on the possible damage that civilization is inflicting on the global weather system is the third cover story he has edited in three weeks. The others were on the Soviet space effort and the hotly debated new report by Researcher Shere Hite that indicates women are deeply dissatisfied with men.

Hoyle, 40, a Southern-born Midwesterner educated at Harvard, became acquainted with science-related journalism in the mid-1970s as a stringer for the magazine's Boston bureau. "I reported on everything from the abortion issue to medical school cheating," he recalls. After a stint as managing editor of the New Republic, Hoyle rejoined TIME in 1981 as an associate editor specializing in foreign affairs. Scientific matters, though, were seldom far away. His first cover article, written for TIME's international editions in 1982, detailed the global hazards of acid rain.

Soon after assuming his current duties last June, Hoyle -- along with Staff Writer Michael D. Lemonick, who wrote this week's report -- became intrigued by plans of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and other agencies to investigate a disturbing hole in the ozone layer high above Antarctica. At the same time, scientists were growing increasingly alarmed about the ominous evidence of the warming of the earth's climate, caused by the so-called greenhouse effect. Says Hoyle: "When we heard about the NASA Antarctica expedition, we knew we had an awfully good peg for a look at changing weather patterns."

An avid yachtsman, Hoyle has had a close view of environmental damage at sea. "The problem becomes vivid when you sail into an oil slick and have to spend several days cleaning up the boat." The impact of man-made substances on weather shifts is much harder to detect. "You can't see it, touch it or smell it," says Hoyle. "That is precisely what makes the scientific discovery process so important." And precisely what makes this week's cover story such a good detective yarn.