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Turbulence both promotes and inhibits star formation. It compresses gas
and can so trigger collapse, but at the same time it provides global
support against collapse. Turbulent density enhancements also accelerate the formation of molecular hydrogen, and help to determine the importance of competitive accretion. Some form of driving is probably necessary to avoid the Goldreich-Kwan paradox that far too much molecular gas is observed in our Galaxy for it all to be forming stars at the free-fall rate. The driving mechanism remains an open question, though, with proposals including background supernovae, internal H II regions, or even just assembly of the cloud.
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