Posted on 05/13/2008 7:40:58 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - With concerns about global warming rising along with the planet's temperature, the head of the federal agency in change of weather research and forecasting is proposing creation of a new National Climate Service.
Conrad C. Lautenbacher said Tuesday a climate service within his agency could combine data from the research and analysis work done by several agencies, as well as coordinate climate information for the government.
"In the future I think it would make a lot of sense for us to separate the science from the political furball of policy," he said.
Lautenbacher is head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which includes the National Weather Service, National Ocean Service, National Marine Fisheries Service and other activities.
Currently, the U.S. Climate Change Science Program integrates climate research by 13 government agencies.
Lautenbacher said he felt it would make a more sense to have something that is a lot more organized, pulling together data from both U.S. agencies and other countries around the world.
Today everybody just cherry-picks the data that support their point of view, Lautenbacher said of the debate over climate change. "We need to deal with this in a scientific manner."
Whether there is warming or not, no one doesn't want solid, scientific information, Lautenbacher said. That, he added, could depoliticize the arguments.
The Bush Administration has been reluctant to subscribe to limits on carbon emissions that other countries have sought in an effort to combat global warming.
But Lautenbacher said the White House has signed off on "the idea" of a climate service, and he said he plans to seek funds to help organize it in the 2010 budget.
In NOAA, for example, the Climate Prediction Center that looks at long-term outlooks is part of the Weather Service's National Centers for Environmental Prediction, while data on climate is compiled by the National Climatic Data Center, a part of the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service.
The difference between weather and climate is basically one of time. Weather happens from day to day, while climate is the overall averages — and extremes — of weather over seasons and years.
Some have described the difference as "climate is what you expect, weather is what you get."
A new Climate Service would not have any regulatory power, he stressed. It would provide data to other agencies for their use — for example to the Transportation Department, Department of Agriculture and Department of Energy.
And a National Climate Service would not take over climate research carried out by other agencies such as NASA, Environmental Protection Agency or U.S. Geological Survey, he said.
NOAA: http://www.noaa.gov
Executive Order No. 1 in the McCain Administration?
Sure, like all the other gubmint agencies. /sarcasm
Why don't they be honest and call it the Ministry of Global Warming Propaganda?
Hander hoch!
Doubtful. Sen. McCain would like to see the current duplication of funding.
“In the future I think it would make a lot of sense for us to separate the science from the political furball of policy,”
Great idea, separate it from the furball of government funding and we’d have something to talk about.
It would be nice if they just got the forecast correct.
OMG !
I’m freezing my @$$ off in Arizona right now. It snowed last night and today. My wife just turned the heater back on. Can we talk about “climate change” later on this summer when it’s a little warmer?
Somebody said there was a foot of snow in Evergreen, above Denver, CO.
Realspeak translation: “Maybe the right hand should know what the left hand is doing...”
This is the best idea I have heard coming out of these moribund agencies, as long as we get genuine raw data and not a bunch of massaged consensus soup.
Congratulations. You have been chosen as the new czar of global warming. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to perpetuate your office and increase its budget.
Thus, you must always support claims of manmade global warming and censor any ideas to the contrary. You must spend huge amounts of government money (the more you spend, the more important you are) to support “research” which supports the idea that global warming is occurring, that it is manmade, and that its effects will be disastrous. Any study which even obliquely supports these arguments is fair game for your financial support.
Hmmm... 13 agencies replaced with one... What will they do with those 130,000+ out of work folks? /s
Of course! Create yet another governemt agency to fix a problem. Except when has any such agency ever actually fixed said problem? What, and put themselves out of a job? Heavens no! We need MORE spending because the problem is even larger than we knew before we spent (fill in the $$ amount) on fixing it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
