Photo: NOAA.gov
A proposed new service from the federal government is designed to help businesses adapt to global warming and to encourage development of new technologies to cope with it.
“Even with our best efforts, we know that some degree of climate change is inevitable and American citizens and businesses, and American governments … must be able to rise to environmental and economic challenges that lie ahead,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke says.
NOAA Climate Services requires a reorganization at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is part of the Commerce Department and includes the National Weather Service. Locke said new private second industries could develop from information generated by the service, just as industries based on data from the National Weather Service and U.S. Census Bureau have done.
“In the process, we’ll discover new technologies, build new businesses and create new jobs.”
Concentrating NOAA’s expertise and information on climate change in one place would help these industries and others, including renewable energy like wind power, infrastructure and architecture planning and disease prevention and control. The service would help plan for sea level rise, coastal erosion, longer growing seasons, increases in heavy downpours and other severe weather events.
Congress must approve the transfer of funds to the new service. Locke said he hoped it would be operating by the start of the 2011 fiscal year.
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Tags: Climate Change, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Weather Service, U.S. Commerce Department
