The Obama Administration has announced the creation of a new national service to study and report on climate change. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, already deeply involved in climate science and reporting, will be the parent agency. In this article, CBS News quotes NOAA’s head, Dr. Jane Lubchenco: “More and more people are asking for more and more information about climate and how it’s going to affect them.” In NOAA’s press release, Dr. Lubchenco further notes “Working closely with federal, regional, academic and other state and local government and private sector partners, the new NOAA Climate Service will build on our success transforming science into useable climate services.” Jim Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy, and a driving force in the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) and in corporate America’s push for climate legislation, had this to say: “The new NOAA Climate Service is a welcome addition. It will help bring people together so we can also bring about an economic recovery by more rapidly modernizing our nation’s energy infrastructure.” For more on the new service, a long time in the making, and other key information on climate science, go to this NOAA link.
Another important development is the introduction of NOAA’s new climate portal at www.climate.gov. “Known as the NOAA Climate Service Portal, the site is designed to address the needs of five broadly-defined user groups: decision makers and policy leaders, scientists and applications-oriented data users, educators, business users, and the public,” notes the release. There’s some great and useful information here.