Study: Cutbacks imperil climate research

WASHINGTON – The government’s climate change research is threatened by spending cuts that will reduce scientists’ observations from space and on the ground, a study says.

A major problem, the National Research Council said Thursday, is the program director’s lack of authority to organize spending and research among the 13 different agencies that study the impacts of climate.


Nonetheless, the report said, the U.S. Climate Change Research Program has made good progress “in documenting the climate changes of the past few decades and in unraveling the (human) influences on the observed climate changes.”

In contrast, the report said progress in combining research results and supporting decision making and risk management “has been inadequate.”

AP