National Assessment on Climate Change
Encyclopedia
The National Climate Assessment (NCA) is a large-scale national project that is conducted under the auspices of the Global Change Research Act of 1990, and is one of the many activities of the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), a program which coordinates and integrates federal research on changes in the global environment and their implications for society. The next National Climate Assessment is due to produce a report for the President and Congress in 2013.
on the United States
. The project was articulated into some 20 regional studies - each involving dozens of scientific and academic experts as well as representatives of industry and environmental groups. The final reports synthesizing regional and national findings were published in November 2000, titled "National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change."
The National Assessment was attacked upon publication by the Competitive Enterprise Institute
(CEI), an industry-funded think tank with an anti-regulatory free-market philosophy and a longstanding history of opposing efforts to address global warming. CEI filed lawsuits seeking to have the NACC report declared unlawful and to suppress its dissemination. These suits were dismissed "with prejudice," which means they had so little merit that they could not be refiled. In an interview, James R. Mahoney, admitted that the Climate Change Science Program has been constrained in its ability to use information in the National Assessment.
The NACC report has also been attacked by other industry-funded think tanks, including the American Enterprise Institute
. Its critics claim that the report is flawed in its methodology and conclusions, however, their assertions are not based on fact but rather political ideology .
In 2005, a group of scientists took a second look at the National Assessment and declared it a success.http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2005/oct/policy/pt_grassroots.html Their report was published in the peer-reviewed journal, Environmental Science & Technology
.
. That program produced 21 reports, yielding its first in May, 2006.
In June 2002, the United States Environmental Protection Agency
produced its own, separate report on climate change, titled the "Climate Action Report." http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/ResourceCenterPublicationsUSClimateActionReport.html It reached conclusions similar to the NACC report and was also attacked by CEI, which used the occasion to call for the firing of EPA head Christine Todd Whitman
. http://dynamic.greenpeace.org/smoking-gun/CEImemo.swf
History
The first National Assessment on Climate Change (NACC) was a multidisciplinary effort to study and portray in regional detail the potential effects of human-induced global warmingGlobal warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
on the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The project was articulated into some 20 regional studies - each involving dozens of scientific and academic experts as well as representatives of industry and environmental groups. The final reports synthesizing regional and national findings were published in November 2000, titled "National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change."
Criticism
The National Assessment received criticism from many of those who were involved in its early review.- "Critics claimed that many of the model-projected impacts of possible future climate changes were overstated and unsubstantiated. The National Assessment Synthesis Team (NAST), with overall authority for the report, countered that much of the criticism it had received did not take into account the time scales upon which the report was based; the report targeted the effects of climate toward the middle of this century to the end of the next. Also, seemingly contradictory outcomes were produced by the two climate models selected for making the climate projections, casting some lingering doubt on the overall value and utility of the results for decision makers at the local, regional, and national levels. Various regional and resource-focused assessments are now available at the USGCRP website http://globalchange.gov/publications/371. A final synthesis report by the NAST, of the same title and consisting of an overview of all of the regional and sectoral studies, was released in December 2000."http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/tech/environ/9549.pdf
The National Assessment was attacked upon publication by the Competitive Enterprise Institute
Competitive Enterprise Institute
The Competitive Enterprise Institute is a non-profit think tank founded on March 9, 1984 in Washington, D.C. by lobbyist Fred L. Smith, Jr to advance economic liberty and fight over-regulation by big government...
(CEI), an industry-funded think tank with an anti-regulatory free-market philosophy and a longstanding history of opposing efforts to address global warming. CEI filed lawsuits seeking to have the NACC report declared unlawful and to suppress its dissemination. These suits were dismissed "with prejudice," which means they had so little merit that they could not be refiled. In an interview, James R. Mahoney, admitted that the Climate Change Science Program has been constrained in its ability to use information in the National Assessment.
The NACC report has also been attacked by other industry-funded think tanks, including the American Enterprise Institute
American Enterprise Institute
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research is a conservative think tank founded in 1943. Its stated mission is "to defend the principles and improve the institutions of American freedom and democratic capitalism—limited government, private enterprise, individual liberty and...
. Its critics claim that the report is flawed in its methodology and conclusions, however, their assertions are not based on fact but rather political ideology .
In 2005, a group of scientists took a second look at the National Assessment and declared it a success.http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2005/oct/policy/pt_grassroots.html Their report was published in the peer-reviewed journal, Environmental Science & Technology
Environmental Science & Technology
Environmental Science & Technology , is a peer-reviewed scientific journal, published since 1967 by the American Chemical Society. As the name indicates, it publishes original research in environmental science, but also comprehensive, critical reviews. Publication is currently every other week...
.
Successors
The National Assessment was followed in 2002 by a new program, the Climate Change Science ProgramClimate Change Science Program
The Climate Change Science Program was the program responsible for coordinating and integrating research on global warming by U.S. government agencies from February 2002 to June 2009...
. That program produced 21 reports, yielding its first in May, 2006.
In June 2002, the United States Environmental Protection Agency
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
produced its own, separate report on climate change, titled the "Climate Action Report." http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/ResourceCenterPublicationsUSClimateActionReport.html It reached conclusions similar to the NACC report and was also attacked by CEI, which used the occasion to call for the firing of EPA head Christine Todd Whitman
Christine Todd Whitman
Christine Todd "Christie" Whitman is an American Republican politician and author who served as the 50th Governor of New Jersey from 1994 to 2001, and was the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in the administration of President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2003. She was New...
. http://dynamic.greenpeace.org/smoking-gun/CEImemo.swf
External links
- "National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change," National Assessment on Climate Change, November 2000.
- "Climate Action Report," U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, June 2002.
- Katharine Hayhoe et al. (2004), "Emissions pathways, climate change, and impacts on California", Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesProceedings of the National Academy of SciencesThe Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, usually referred to as PNAS, is the official journal of the United States National Academy of Sciences...
, Volume 101, 34, page(s) 12422-12427 - Paul D. Thacker "Interview with Rick Piltz" in Environmental Science and Technology
- Chris Mooney, American Prospect, June 2005, "Lowball Warming: There should be a special circle in hell for people who mess with scientific data"
- Paul D. Thacker "Researchers Applaud Grassroots Climate Change Study" in Environmental Science and Technology.