Government Climate-Change Research Plan Is Good Start, But Major Improvements Needed to Meet Nation's Needs WASHINGTON -- While the federal government has taken a good first step toward better understanding and responding to climate change by drafting a strategic plan that contains new research initiatives, the plan lacks a clear guiding vision and does not sufficiently meet the needs of decision-makers who must deal with the effects of climate change, says a new report from the National Academies' National Research Council. The committee that wrote the report also noted that the president's fiscal year 2004 budget request appears to...