publications
Climate Chance Science Program (CCSP) Produces Strategic Plan
The Bush Administration recently announced unprecedented federal initiatives designed to organize the federal government's climate change science research system along with funding for global climate observation. The new, historic initiative brings together the resources and expertise of 13 federal agencies. The Climate Change Science Program (CCSP), a joint federal program of the President's Committee on Climate Change Science and Technology Integration, has issued its strategic plan to address some of the most complex questions and problems dealing with long-term global climate variability and change. It reflects an unprecedented outreach to interested parties, including some 1,200 scientists and stakeholders and representatives of over 35 countries. The document 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.

publications
Searchable Database of Citations Available
A new searchable database of publication citations is now available on the globalchange.gov website. Derived from global change-related reports and publications, the database contains citations organized by the following disciplines: agriculture, atmosphere, biosphere, carbon, cryosphere, human dimensions, hydrosphere, oceans, and historical climate or paleoclimate. The citations in the initial database come from various reports from the U.S. National Assessment and the IPCC report Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis. This database complements the searchable database of new agency datasets also available on the globalchange.gov website.

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State Dept. Releases Third Climate Action Report
In June 1992, the United States signed, and later ratified in October, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Pursuant to the national communication reporting requirements under Articles 4.2 and 12 of the Convention and to guidelines later adopted by the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP), the United States submitted the first U.S. Climate Action Report (CAR) to the UNFCCC Secretariat in 1994 and the second in 1997. The U.S. Government has prepared the third national communication which recently completed public review. The third CAR provides an update on key activities conducted by the U.S. since the second CAR, an inventory of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and sinks, an estimate of the effects of mitigation measures and policies on future emissions levels, and a description of U.S. involvement in international programs, including associated contributions and funding efforts. In addition, the text discusses U.S. national circumstances that affect U.S. vulnerability and responses to climate change. Finally, the CAR presents information on the U.S. Global Change Research Program, Global Climate Observing Systems (GCOS), and adaptation programs.

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EPA Clean Air Markets Division Publishes Brochure on Capping and Trading Emissions
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Air Markets Division has just published a new brochure, Clearing The Air: The Facts about Capping and Trading Emissions. The brochure describes the Acid Rain Program and efforts to cap emissions. Here is an excerpt:

In 1980, rising public concern about the extensive health and environmental impacts of acid rain prompted Congress to commission a ten-year study on its causes and effects. After years of debate and extensive research under the study, Congress established the Acid Rain Program under Title IV of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. The program called for major reductions in electric-generating facilities' emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) - the key components of acid rain - while establishing a new approach to environmental protection through the use of market incentives.

Most climate-change research has focused on gradual changes, such as the processes by which emissions of greenhouse gases lead to warming of the planet. But new evidence shows that periods of gradual change in Earth's past were punctuated by episodes of abrupt change, including temperature changes of about 10 degrees Celsius, or 18 degrees Fahrenheit, in only a decade in some places. Severe floods and droughts also marked periods of abrupt change.

A new report from the National Academies' National Research Council says greenhouse warming and other human alterations of the climate system may increase the possibility of large, abrupt, and unwelcome regional or global climatic events. Researchers do not know enough about such events to accurately predict them, so surprises are inevitable.

publications
Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) National Report Available
The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has published a new report as a part of the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Program entitled The United States Detailed National Report on Systematic Observations for Climate which was submitted to the Conference of the Parties to the United National Framework convention on Climate Change. The report describes the objectives and goals of the GCOS program and encourages international participation and cooperation in the collection and sharing of climate data and information.

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National Environmental Change Information System (NECIS)
Case Study Final Report Published
The Global Hydrology and Climate Center and NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama conducted a fact-finding case study for the Data Management Working Group (DMWG), now referred to as the Data and Information Working Group (DIWG), of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) to determine the feasibility of an interagency National Environmental Change Information System (NECIS). The key objectives of the case study were to identify specific data and information needs of key stakeholders in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) river basins of Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, determine what capabilities are needed to provide the most practical response to these user requests, and to identify any limitations in the use of federal data and information.

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Citations Supporting U.S. National Assessment Report Published
A new publication titled Published Information that Formed the Basis for the U.S. Global Change Research Program's Major Report Climate Change Impacts on the United States: Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change has been published by the Data and Information Working Group (DIWG) and is available on web. Because of the National Assessment's importance, scope, and wide participation, these citations together represent a relatively concise source for finding the literature sources that the study's several hundred participants from all over the US felt were the most important. As such, it is expected that they will form the basis not only for similar follow-on studies but for a wide range of other uses by the broad spectrum of educators, policymakers, researchers, and general public users concerned with our relationship to the always changing environment in which we live. This publication makes these important literature citations available in a single, concise form.

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"Foundations Report" from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Assessment Released
Report examines potential impacts of climate change for the Mid-Atlantic U.S.
In March 2000, The Pennsylvania State University released the "Overview" report for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Assessment. This Regional Assessment is one component of the U.S. Global Change Research Program's (USGCRP) First National Assessment, "Climate Change Impacts on the United States: The Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change." The "Overview" report provided a summary of the findings of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Assessment, sponsored by the U.S. EPA's Global Change Research Program within the Office of Research and Development.

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publications
Final Report of the National Assessment Synthesis Team Releaed
The U.S. National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change has released the final report of the National Assessment Synthesis Team titled Climate Change Impacts on the United States: The Potentail Consequences of Climate Variability and Change. The draft version of the report was made available for public comment from 12 June until 11 August. The final report, released Friday afternoon (10 November), was revised based on public comments and will be forwarded to the federal agencies, the President and the Congress in accordance with the 1990 Act that established the U.S. Global Change Research Program. The intention of the report is to help inform the American public about the potential consequences of climate varaibility and change and the possibilities for adapting to the evolving conditions.

U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Plan now available
The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) has established the Carbon Cycle Science Program (CCSP) to better coordinate and integrate carbon cycle research in the U.S. Science planning was initiated in the spring of 1998 with the establishment of a multidisciplinary science planning working group, chaired by Jorge Sarmiento and Steven Wofsy. The Carbon and Climate Working Group held planning meetings in March and May 1998. A workshop was held in August 1998, in Westminster, Colorado, to solicit input from the scientific community, and from interested Federal agencies. The Carbon and Climate Working Group's report, an integrated carbon cycle research plan addressing oceanic, atmospheric and terrestrial components titled A U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Plan, is now available.

Our Changing Planet (FY2003)
This yearly report on the U.S. Global Change Research Program written by the Subcommittee on Global Change Research, Committee on Environment and Natural Resources Research of the National Science and Technology Council, generally accompanies the President's Year Budget.

For additional global change documents, see the On-line Documents and Publications provided by the U.S. Global Change Research Information Office.

To find more global change-related documents published by U.S. federal agencies, organizations, and the scientific community, try searching the list of Bibliographic Databases provided by the U.S. Global Change Research Information Office.