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Appendix B
U.S. Climate Change Science Program
The U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) integrates the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) and the Climate Change Research Initiative (CCRI). The USGCRP, the first federally coordinated program supporting climate change research, began as a presidential initiative in 1988 and received congressional support in 1990 under the Global Change Research Act. The act called for the development of a research program “to understand, assess, predict, and respond to human-induced and natural processes of global change,” and it guided federally supported global change research for the next decade. In 2001, President Bush launched the CCRI to investigate uncertainties and set new research priorities in climate change science. The CCRI also gave priority to research that could yield results within a few years, either by improving decision-making capabilities or by contributing to improved public understanding. The two programs were merged into the CCSP the following year and given an ambitious guiding vision: a nation and the global community empowered with the science based knowledge to manage the risks and opportunities of change in the climate and related environmental systems.
The CCSP is guided by five overarching goals and organized into seven research elements and six crosscutting issues (CCSP, 2003):
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Overarching goals
Improve knowledge of the Earth’s past and present climate and environment, including its natural variability, and improve understanding of the causes of observed variability and change
Improve quantification of the forces bringing about changes in the Earth’s climate and related systems
Reduce uncertainty in projections of how the Earth’s climate and related systems may change in the future
Understand the sensitivity and adaptability of different natural and managed ecosystems and human systems to climate and related global changes
Explore the uses and identify the limits of evolving knowledge to manage risks and opportunities related to climate variability and change
Research elements: Atmospheric composition, climate variability and change, water cycle, land-use/land-cover change, carbon cycle, ecosystems, and human contributions and responses to environmental change
Crosscutting issues: Decision support resources development, communications, modeling strategy, observing and monitoring the climate system, data management, and international cooperation
The CCSP research elements are consistent with but broader than those of the predecessor U.S. Global Change Research Program. A time line of how the research focus has evolved is given in Table B.1.
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TABLE B.1 Evolution of Research Elements, USGCRP and CCSP
USGCRP
CCSP
1989-1996
1997-1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004-2008
Climate and hydrologic systems
Climate change over decades to centuries
Climate system
Climate system
Climate system
Climate system
Climate variability and change
Seasonal to interannual climate variability
Global water cycle
Global water cycle
Global water cycle
Global water cycle
Global water cycle
Biogeochemical dynamics
Global carbon cycle
Global carbon cycle
Global carbon cycle
Global carbon cycle
Ecological systems and dynamics
Changes in land cover and in terrestrial and marine ecosystems
Biology and biogeochemistry of ecosystems
Biology and biogeochemistry of ecosystems
Biology and biogeochemistry of ecosystems
Ecosystems
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USGCRP
CCSP
1989-1996
1997-1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004-2008
Land use/land cover change
Land-use/land-cover change
Human interactions
Human contributions and responses to global change
Human dimensions of global change
Human dimensions of global change
Human dimensions of global change
Human dimensions of global change
Human contributions and responses to environmental change
Solar influences
Changes in ozone, ultraviolet radiation, and atmospheric chemistry
Composition and chemistry of the atmosphere
Composition and chemistry of the atmosphere
Composition and chemistry of the atmosphere
Composition and chemistry of the atmosphere
Atmospheric composition
Earth system history
Paleoenvironment and paleoclimate
Paleoenvironment and paleoclimate
Solid Earth processes
SOURCES: CCSP (2003, Strategic Plan; 1989–2008, Our Changing Planet).
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The CCSP is managed by a director with the help of a program office and interagency committees that plan future research and crosscutting activities (e.g., decision support, communications). Funding is controlled and managed by the individual participating agencies and has been declining since 1996, mostly because of decreases in NASA’s investment in climate observations (Figure 1.2). Participating agencies include the Agency for International Development, Department of Agriculture, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of State, Department of Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Institutes of Health, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Science Foundation, Smithsonian Institution, and the U.S. Geological Survey.
REFERENCES
CCSP (Climate Change Science Program), 1989–2008, Our Changing Planet: The U.S. Climate Change Science Program, Climate Change Science Program and Subcommittee on Global Change Research, Washington, D.C., 17 volumes.
CCSP, 2003, Strategic Plan for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, Climate Change Science Program and Subcommittee on Global Change Research, Washington, D.C., 202 pp.
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