Klimaatgekte: VS richten eigen klimaatbureau op

[Dr. Marc-Alexander Fluks]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Bron:   New York Times
Datum:  9 februari 2010
Auteur: John Broder
URL:     
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/business/energy-environment/09noaa.html
Ref:    http://www.climate.gov


A federal climate service is created to provide data
----------------------------------------------------

WASHINGTON — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
will create a new climate change office to gather and provide
data to governments, industry and academia as part of a broad
federal effort to prepare for long-term changes to the planet,
officials said Monday.

The new unit, to be known as the NOAA Climate Service, will
assemble the roughly 550 scientists and analysts already working
on the issue at the agency into a cohesive group under a single
leader.

The climate service is designed to be analogous to the National
Weather Service, also part of NOAA, which celebrates its 140th
birthday this month. Officials said they hoped the reorganization
would shore up the profile of government climate science and
perhaps drive the creation of new businesses like those that
repackage and sell weather and census data.

'By providing critical planning information that our businesses
and our communities need, NOAA Climate Service will help tackle
head-on the challenges of mitigating and adapting to climate
change,' Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, whose department oversees
the atmospheric agency, said in a statement. 'In the process,
we'll discover new technologies, build new businesses and create
new jobs.'

The agency has also created a Web site, http://www.climate.gov ,
to make it easier for people to find government climate change
data and analysis.

Jane Lubchenco, administrator of NOAA, said there was a growing
demand for timely information from the government about variations
in the global climate. 'As the realities of climate change become
more obvious to more people, farmers, businesses, government
agencies and public health officials are going to be turning to
us for credible, useful and relevant information,' Dr. Lubchenco
said in an interview.

She said that planning for the new unit was not related to recent
challenges to the credibility of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change, a United Nations research unit that has been
accused of inaccurate statements on how climate change could affect
glaciers and rain forests.

Dr. Lubchenco said her agency was committed to sharing all the
information it gathered, including raw data and analytical reports,
another area in which the United Nations panel has drawn some
criticism. 'We want to help build confidence in the science of
climate change and give people an understanding of what is well
established, as well as areas where there is more work to be done,'
she said.

Because the creation of the climate service involves shuffling
money within the Commerce Department, approval will be required
from Congressional appropriations committees.

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(c) 2010 The New York Times Company

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