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CSRC Environmental Policy ActivitiesThe New England Regional Assessment - Based on the findings of the New England Regional Assessment (NERA) of the potential regional impacts of climate change, this program is focused on educating the general public about climate change issues, with a specific focus on past, present, and future climate impacts to the New England region. The NERA study was conducted as part of the larger U.S. Global Change Research Program's National Assessment - Overview of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change. The program presents background on the science behind our current understanding of global climate change, and a summary of NERA findings. These findings include the following: 1) Using historic climate data, the New England region (including upstate New York and the six New England states) has warmed by 0.7oF since 1895; 2) This historic warming has not been uniform across the region or across the seasons; 3) The current warming has already had significant impacts on regional air quality, affecting both human and forest health; 4) The two global climate models used in the study, the Hadley model and the Canadian model, both project significant warming over the next century (6.0 oF and 10.0 oF respectively); and 5) If either of these projected climate scenarios were to occur, the impacts on the New England Region would be profound. Suggestions on how best to respond to these impending changes are also included. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) - is an international work program designed to meet the needs of decision makers and the public for scientific information concerning the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being and options for responding to those changes. The MA was launched by U.N. Secretary- General Kofi Annan in June 2001 and was completed in March 2005. It will help to meet assessment needs of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Convention to Combat Desertification, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, and the Convention on Migratory Species, as well as needs of other users in the private sector and civil society. If the MA proves to be useful to its stakeholders, it is anticipated that such integrated assessments will be repeated every 5– 10 years and that ecosystem assessments will be regularly conducted at national or sub-national scales. The MA focuses on ecosystem services (the benefits people obtain from ecosystems), how changes in ecosystem services have affected human wellbeing, how ecosystem changes may affect people in future decades, and response options that might be adopted at local, national, or global scales to improve ecosystem management and thereby contribute to human well-being and poverty alleviation. The specific issues being addressed by the assessment have been defined through consultation with the MA users. The MA synthesizes information from the scientific literature, datasets, and scientific models, and includes knowledge held by the private sector, practitioners, local communities and indigenous peoples. All of the MA findings undergo rigorous peer review. More than 1,300 authors from 95 countries have been involved in four expert working groups preparing the global assessment, and hundreds more continue to undertake more than 20 sub-global assessments. The findings are contained in the fifteen reports listed in the box above. The MA is an instrument to identify priorities for action. It provides tools for planning and management and foresight concerning the consequences of decisions affecting ecosystems. It helps identify response options to achieve human development and sustainability goals, and has helped build individual and institutional capacity to undertake integrated ecosystem assessments and to act on their findings. Earth Exploration Toolbook (EET) - EOS-WEBSTER is a founding partner in the EET. EET is a collection of case studies or chapters in which the user obtains data and uses specific analytical tools to learn more about issues or concepts in Earth science. Screen shots are provided to assist those who may be less familiar with the software or other analytical tool that is used in the chapter. Each chapter also includes a detailed list of what is needed (typically software) to complete the chapter and any associated costs. The chapter also identifies which National Science Education Inquiry and Content Standards are addressed in the case study and concludes with suggestions for other applications of the data and areas for further exploration. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - IPCC has been established by WMO and UNEP to assess scientific, technical and socio- economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation. It is open to all Members of the UN and of WMO. |
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