The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) is an interagency program, established by the Global Change Research Act (GCRA) of 1990, mandated by Congress to "assist the Nation and the world to understand, assess, predict, and respond to human-induced and natural processes of global change". Since the USGCRP began, scientific understanding of global change has increased and the information needs of the nation have changed dramatically. A better understanding of what is changing and why can help decision makers in the public and private sectors cope with ongoing change. Accomplishments of the U.S. Global Change Research Program highlights the growth of global change science in the quarter century that the USGCRP has been in existence, and documents some of its contributions to that growth through its primary functions of interagency planning and coordination, and of synthesis of research and practice to inform decision making.
The US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) is a collection of 13 Federal entities charged by law to assist the United States and the world to understand, assess, predict, and respond to human-induced and natural processes of global change. As the understanding of global change has evolved over the past decades and as demand for scientific information on global change has increased, the USGCRP has increasingly focused on research that can inform decisions to cope with current climate variability and change, to reduce the magnitude of future changes, and to prepare for changes projected over coming decades. Overall, the current breadth and depth of research in these agencies is insufficient to meet the country's needs, particularly to support decision makers. This report provides a rationale for evaluating current program membership and capabilities and identifying potential new agencies and departments in the hopes that these changes will enable the program to more effectively inform the public and prepare for the future. It also offers actionable recommendations for adjustments to the methods and procedures that will allow the program to better meet its stated goals.
To hide its dramatic findings, the government quietly released its mandated Climate Assessment Report on Black Friday 2018. Now, this full color reproduction is the definitive edition of ”the most comprehensive assessment of the effects of climate change on the United States” (The New York Times), which every citizen should own. The US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) is mandated by law "at least every four years ... to submit to the president and the Congress an assessment regarding the findings of ... the effects of global change, and current and major long-term trends in global change." The report was released by the Trump administration without fanfare in the wake of a series of some of the most devastating hurricanes in American history, as well as the horrific California wildfires. As the report says, "The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid." Detailing not only the destructive toll of global warming on the environment, but also the related health issues leading to tens of thousands of deaths per year, and economic losses of tens of billions of dollars, the report concludes that "The evidence of human-caused climate change is overwhelming and continues to strengthen, that the impacts of climate change are intensifying across the country, and that climate-related threats ... are rising.
The Update to the Strategic Plan (USP) is a supplement to the Ten-Year Strategic Plan of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) completed in 2012. The Strategic Plan sets out a research program guiding thirteen federal agencies in accord with the Global Change Research Act of 1990. This report reviews whether USGCRP's efforts to achieve its goals and objectives, as documented in the USP, are adequate and responsive to the Nation's needs, whether the priorities for continued or increased emphasis are appropriate, and if the written document communicates effectively, all within a context of the history and trajectory of the Program.
As global climate change proliferates, so too do the health risks associated with the changing world around us. Called for in the President’s Climate Action Plan and put together by experts from eight different Federal agencies, The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health: A Scientific Assessment is a comprehensive report on these evolving health risks, including: Temperature-related death and illness Air quality deterioration Impacts of extreme events on human health Vector-borne diseases Climate impacts on water-related Illness Food safety, nutrition, and distribution Mental health and well-being This report summarizes scientific data in a concise and accessible fashion for the general public, providing executive summaries, key takeaways, and full-color diagrams and charts. Learn what health risks face you and your family as a result of global climate change and start preparing now with The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health.
To hide its dramatic findings, the government quietly released its mandated Climate Assessment Report on Black Friday 2018. Now, this full color reproduction is the definitive edition of ”the most comprehensive assessment of the effects of climate change on the United States” (The New York Times), which every citizen should own. The US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) is mandated by law "at least every four years ... to submit to the president and the Congress an assessment regarding the findings of ... the effects of global change, and current and major long-term trends in global change." The report was released by the Trump administration without fanfare in the wake of a series of some of the most devastating hurricanes in American history, as well as the horrific California wildfires. As the report says, "The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid." Detailing not only the destructive toll of global warming on the environment, but also the related health issues leading to tens of thousands of deaths per year, and economic losses of tens of billions of dollars, the report concludes that "The evidence of human-caused climate change is overwhelming and continues to strengthen, that the impacts of climate change are intensifying across the country, and that climate-related threats ... are rising.
The U.S. government supports a large, diverse suite of activities that can be broadly characterized as "global change research." Such research offers a wide array of benefits to the nation, in terms of protecting public health and safety, enhancing economic strength and competitiveness, and protecting the natural systems upon which life depends. The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), which coordinates the efforts of numerous agencies and departments across the federal government, was officially established in 1990 through the U.S. Global Change Research Act (GCRA). In the subsequent years, the scope, structure, and priorities of the Program have evolved, (for example, it was referred to as the Climate Change Science Program [CCSP] for the years 2002-2008), but throughout, the Program has played an important role in shaping and coordinating our nation's global change research enterprise. This research enterprise, in turn, has played a crucial role in advancing understanding of our changing global environment and the countless ways in which human society affects and is affected by such changes. In mid-2011, a new NRC Committee to Advise the USGCRP was formed and charged to provide a centralized source of ongoing whole-program advice to the USGCRP. The first major task of this committee was to provide a review of the USGCRP draft Strategic Plan 2012-2021 (referred to herein as "the Plan"), which was made available for public comment on September 30, 2011. A Review of the U.S. Global Change Research Program's Strategic Plan addresses an array of suggestions for improving the Plan, ranging from relatively small edits to large questions about the Program's scope, goals, and capacity to meet those goals. The draft Plan proposes a significant broadening of the Program's scope from the form it took as the CCSP. Outlined in this report, issues of key importance are the need to identify initial steps the Program will take to actually achieve the proposed broadening of its scope, to develop critical science capacity that is now lacking, and to link the production of knowledge to its use; and the need to establish an overall governance structure that will allow the Program to move in the planned new directions.
The report reviews a draft strategic plan from the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, a program formed in 2002 to coordinate and direct U.S. efforts in climate change and global change research. The U.S. Climate Change Science Program incorporates the decade-old Global Change Research Program and adds a new component -the Climate Change Research Initiative-whose primary goal is to "measurably improve the integration of scientific knowledge, including measures of uncertainty, into effective decision support systems and resources.
As information technology becomes an integral part of health care, it is important to collect and analyze data in a way that makes the information understandable and useful. Informatics tools--which help collect, organize, and analyze data--are essential to biomedical and health research and development. The field of cancer research is facing an overwhelming deluge of data, heightening the national urgency to find solutions to support and sustain the cancer informatics ecosystem. There is a particular need to integrate research and clinical data to facilitate personalized medicine approaches to cancer prevention and treatment--for example, tailoring treatment based on an individual patient's genetic makeup as well as that of the tumor --and to allow for more rapid learning from patient experiences. To further examine informatics needs and challenges for 21st century biomedical research, the IOM's National Cancer Policy Forum held a workshop February 27-28, 2012. The workshop was designed to raise awareness of the critical and urgent importance of the challenges, gaps and opportunities in informatics; to frame the issues surrounding the development of an integrated system of cancer informatics for acceleration of research; and to discuss solutions for transformation of the cancer informatics enterprise. Informatics Needs and Challenges in Cancer Research: Workshop Summary summarizes the workshop."--Publisher's description
This report is intended to promote a dialogue between the scientific community and the government officials who will lead our nation in the coming years on global change research. The first section of the report is a brief description of the challenges and proposed responses needed from the highest levels of the government and the second provides more detailed discussion and is directed to agency-level issues and responses. The last section is a detailed bibliography that lists many of the specific reports on which the views outlined here are ultimately based.
This important report from the United States Global Change Research Program outlines plans for studying climate change, global warming, and other global changes over the next decade. It includes dozens of examples of program accomplishments and topics, including carbon dioxide effects on seawater chemistry, climate oscillations, sea level rises, water resource management, adaptation and coastal flooding, climate models, and climate literacy. Contents: Executive Summary * Introduction * Illustrative Examples of Program Accomplishments and Future Directions * Framework for USGCRP * USGCRP Vision and Mission * Overview * Framework for the New USGCRP * Goals and Objectives * Goal 1: Advance Science * Earth System Understanding * Climate Change and Global Change * Integration of the Biological Sciences * Integration of the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences * Multiple Space and Time Scales, Natural Variability, and Extremes * Complexity, Thresholds, and Tipping Points * Science for Adaptation and Mitigation * Understanding Vulnerability to Global Change * Science to Support Regional and Sectoral Responses * Science to Support Global-Scale Responses * Tools and Approaches for Iterative Risk Management * Integrated Observations * Sustaining and Integrating Earth System Observational Capacity * Integrating Socioeconomic and Ecological Measurements * Integrating Observations and Modeling * Integrated Modeling * Model Complexity * Model Interpretation, Conceptual Modeling, and Hierarchies of Model Complexity * Integrated Modeling of Complex Systems Dynamics and Decision Support * Information Management and Sharing * Integrated and Centralized Data Access * Integrated Knowledge for Stakeholders and Decision Makers * Goal 2: Inform Decisions * Inform Adaptation Decisions * Inform Mitigation Decisions * Enhance Global Change Information * Goal 3: Conduct Sustained Assessments * Scientific Integration * Ongoing Capacity * Inform Responses * Evaluate Progress * Goal 4: Communicate and Educate * Strengthen Communication and Education Research * Reach Diverse Audiences * Increase Engagement * Cultivate Scientific Workforce * IV. International Cooperation * V. Implementation Strategy * Governance and Program Coordination * Program Planning and Implementation * Interagency Collaboration * Partnerships * Next Steps * Description by Agency/Department * Glossary of Terms * Acronym List The environment is changing rapidly. Increases in world population, accompanied by industrialization and other human activities, are altering the atmosphere, ocean, land, ice cover, ecosystems, and the distribution of species over the planet. Understanding these and other global changes, including climate change, is critical to our Nation's health and economic vitality. Scientific research is critical to gaining this understanding. Research, along with an array of increasingly sophisticated tools for collecting and analyzing data, can provide essential knowledge to governments, businesses, and communities as they plan for and respond to the myriad manifestations of global change, including sea-level rise and ocean acidification, heat waves and drought, and the severe storms, floods, and forest fires that pose an ever-growing risk to life, property, and agriculture. To help fill this need, President Ronald Reagan created-and Congress in 1990 codified-the United States Global Change Research Program (USGCRP or Program), charged with providing a "comprehensive and integrated United States research program to assist the Nation and the world to understand, assess, predict, and respond to human-induced and natural processes of global change." While the Program's first two decades focused largely on observations, process research, and modeling of the physical climate system, it is now poised to more fully integrate important dimensions to our understanding of the Earth system.
In February 2002, President George W. Bush announced the formation of a new management structure, the Climate Change Science Program (CCSP), to coordinate and direct the U.S. research efforts in the areas of climate and global change. These research efforts include the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) authorized by the Global Change Research Act of 1990, and the Climate Change Research Initiative (CCRI), launched by the President in June 2001 to reduce significant uncertainties in climate science, improve global observing systems, develop science-based information resources to support policymaking and resource management, and communicate findings broadly among the international scientific and user communities. This “Strategic Plan for the Climate Change Science Program” describes a strategy for developing knowledge of variability and change in climate and related environmental and human systems, and for encouraging the application of this knowledge. The strategy seeks to optimize the benefits of research that is conducted, sponsored, or applied by 13 agencies and departments of the U.S. government. These agencies coordinate their research through the Climate Change Science Program (CCSP), which incorporates the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) and the Climate Change Research Initiative (CCRI). Scientists and research program managers from the 13 participating agencies and the Climate Change Science Program Office drafted the Strategic Plan. It reflects a commitment by its authors to high-quality science, which requires openness to review and criticism by the wider scientific community. The process by which the plan was drafted proceeded with the transparency essential for scientific credibility.
Climate change is one of the most important global environmental problems facing the world today. Policy decisions are already being made to limit or adapt to climate change and its impacts, but there is a need for greater integration between science and decision making. This book proposes six priorities for restructuring the United States' climate change research program to develop a more robust knowledge base and support informed responses: Reorganize the Program Around Integrated Scientific-Societal Issues Establish a U.S. Climate Observing System Support a New Generation of Coupled Earth System Models Strengthen Research on Adaptation, Mitigation, and Vulnerability Initiate a National Assessment of the Risks and Costs of Climate Change Impacts and Options to Respond Coordinate Federal Efforts to Provide Climate Information, Tools, and Forecasts Routinely to Decision Makers
This report reviews the U.S. Climate Change Science Program's new draft assessment product on characterizing and communicating uncertainty information for climate change decision making, one of 21 climate change assessment products that the program is developing to meet the requirements of the 1990 Global Change Research Act. Although the draft assessment is effective in discussing methods of characterizing uncertainty, it falls short in several ways. It is written for researchers involved in assessment efforts and will likely be of use to them, but does not address other key audiences, particularly policymakers, decision-makers, and members of the media and general public. In addition, it does not assess the full range of "best practice approaches" for characterizing, incorporating, and communicating uncertainty. These weaknesses were due in part to a change in the prospectus after the process had begun to include new target audiences and a different scope of work. It will take a substantial revision of the current draft or production of a companion document, both requiring additional authors, to address these issues.
The U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) coordinates the efforts of 13 federal agencies to understand why climate is changing, to improve predictions about how it will change in the future, and to use that information to assess impacts on human systems and ecosystems and to better support decision making. Evaluating Progress of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program is the first review of the CCSP's progress since the program was established in 2002. It lays out a method for evaluating the CCSP, and uses that method to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the entire program and to identify areas where progress has not met expectations. The committee found that the program has made good progress in documenting and understanding temperature trends and related environmental changes on a global scale, as well as in understanding the influence of human activities on these observed changes. The ability to predict future climate changes also has improved, but efforts to understand the impacts of such changes on society and analyze mitigation and adaptation strategies are still relatively immature. The program also has not met expectations in supporting decision making, studying regional impacts, and communicating with a wider group of stakeholders.
Formed in 2002 to coordinate and direct U.S. efforts in climate change and global change research, the Program incorporates and builds upon the Global Change Research Program, U.S. Department of Energy) and adds a new component - the Climate Change Research Initiative. A draft strategic plan for the Climate Change Science Program was released to the scientific community and public in November 2002. At the request of the CCSP, the National Academies formed a Committee to review the draft strategy plan and the results are reported here.
U.S. global change research over the past several decades has contributed substantially to an improved understanding of the interactions of natural and human-induced changes in the global environment and their effects on society. To continue assisting the government and society as a whole with understanding, projecting, and responding to global change, the agencies of the Federal government deploy a wide range of powerful science and technology resources. Since 1990, the United States Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) has developed and submitted an annual report, Our Changing Planet, to Congress describing the current state of the USGCRP and ongoing Federal research activities focused on global change. This Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 edition summarizes the Programs achievements, progress made, future priorities, and budgetary information. It thereby responds to the requirements of the U.S. Global Change Research Act of 1990 (GCRA; Section 102, P.L. 101-606) for an annual report on Federal global change research priorities, policies, and programs.
The first regional and strategic guidance workshops to contribute to the 2013 NCA were held in Chicago in February 2010. Volumes 1 and 2 of the NCA Report Series summarize the discussions and outcomes of these workshops. A list of planned and completed reports in the NCA Report Series can be found online at http: //globalchange.gov/what-we-do/assessment
This Revised Research Plan is an update to the 2003 Strategic Plan of the US Climate Change Science Program (CCSP), a document that was developed via a thorough, open and transparent multi-year process involving a wide range of scientists and managers. The Strategic Plan has long-term value to CCSP, but like any strategic plan, it must be supplemented by shorter-term revisions that take into account both advances in the science and changes in societal needs, and CCSP has an ongoing long-range strategic planning process to ensure that these needs are met. The Revised Research Plan (hereinafter referred to as the Research Plan) draws on CCSP's long-range planning process and provides this update, in compliance with the terms of the Global Change Research Act (GCRA) of 1990. In the Research Plan, the reader will find several things: 1) an updated statement of vision, goals and capabilities consistent with CCSP's current Strategic Plan but reflecting both scientific progress and the evolution of the Program based on accomplishments and evolving societal and environmental needs; 2) a description of the relationship of the Research Plan to the current Scientific Assessment; 3) highlights of ways in which the program is evolving in the context of the progress made over the years 2003-2007 since the Strategic Plan was put in place, and a description of the priorities that have emerged as a result; 4) a description of research plans for the coming years, in order to build upon the work envisioned in the Strategic Plan and begun over the past four years.
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