Researchers at NASA and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), studying changes in tropical precipitation patterns, have noted a higher frequency of El Niños and La Niñas over the last 21 years. In addition, when either of those events occur, the world can expect more months with unusually high or low precipitation with droughts more common than floods over land areas.

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was one of the first laws ever written that establishes the broad national framework for protecting our environment. NEPA's basic policy is to assure that all branches of government give proper consideration to the environment prior to undertaking any major federal action that significantly affects the environment. NEPA requirements are invoked when airports, buildings, military complexes, highways, parkland purchases, and other federal activities are proposed. Environmental Assessments (EAs) and Environmental Impact Statements (EISs), which are assessments of the likelihood of impacts from alternative courses of action, are required from all Federal agencies and are the most visible NEPA requirements.

The Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) supports the use of deep geologic repositories for the safe storage and/or disposal of radioactive waste. The Act establishes procedures to evaluate and select sites for geologic repositories and for the interaction of state and federal governments. It also provides a timetable of key milestones the federal agencies must meet in carrying out the program. The NWPA assigns the Department of Energy (DOE) the responsibility to site, build, and operate a deep geologic repository for the disposal of high-level waste and spent nuclear fuel. It directs EPA to develop standards for protection of the general environment from offsite releases of radioactive material in repositories. The Act directs the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to license DOE to operate a repository only if it meets EPA's standards and all other relevant requirements.

The annual report includes an overview of the diffusion of environmentalism in Japan and the world during FY 2003. The report details the environmental issues and the environmental conservation measures by the Japanese government in FY 2003.

The annual report describes the environment of Japan in FY 2004. It includes an overview on efforts to build a Low Carbon Society, as well as the environmental issues and environmental conservation measures led by the Japanese government.

This proceedings provides possible answer to the question of what social network analysis can contribute to addressing the problem of climate change. In the workshop, social scientists from Japan, the USA, and Europe reported on social network theory, applications and methodology to envision their use for on-the-ground social change regarding carbon management. The earth has always cycled carbon in the atmosphere (mainly as CO2); in the oceans (surface, intermediate waters, deep waters and marine sediments); in terrestrial ecosystems (vegetation, litter and soil); in rivers and estuaries; and in fossil carbon, which is being remobilized by human activities. However, with the rate of fossil fuel burning feeding industrialization, urbanization and transportation and with large scale land clearing, the naturally balanced carbon cycle is in a non-analogous and dangerous state. The participants agreed that current management of the carbon cycle is piecemeal, careless, inconsistent, profligate and shortsighted. Enabled by past and current networks of power, the world has embraced a carbon culture that has spun out of control in the past 100 years. This issue has often been referred to as a problem of scale in the climate change research community (or frames in the social science community). Climate researchers have focused …

The Energy Policy Act (EPA) addresses energy production in the United States, including: (1) energy efficiency; (2) renewable energy; (3) oil and gas; (4) coal; (5) Tribal energy; (6) nuclear matters and security; (7) vehicles and motor fuels, including ethanol; (8) hydrogen; (9) electricity; (10) energy tax incentives; (11) hydropower and geothermal energy; and (12) climate change technology. For example, the Act provides loan guarantees for entities that develop or use innovative technologies that avoid the by-production of greenhouse gases. Another provision of the Act increases the amount of biofuel that must be mixed with gasoline sold in the United States.

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) provides a program for the conservation of threatened and endangered plants and animals and the habitats in which they are found. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) of the Department of the Interior maintains a worldwide list which, as of Feb. 20, 2008, included 1574 endangered species (599 are plants) and 351 threatened species (148 are plants). Species include birds, insects, fish, reptiles, mammals, crustaceans, flowers, grasses, and trees. Anyone can petition FWS to include a species on this list. The law requires federal agencies, in consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and/or the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service, to ensure that actions they authorize, fund, or carry out are not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any listed species or result in the destruction or adverse modification of designated critical habitat of such species. The law also prohibits any action that causes a "taking" of any listed species of endangered fish or wildlife. Likewise, import, export, interstate, and foreign commerce of listed species are all generally prohibited.

The annual report summarizes the state of the global environment and development of individual and community efforts in Japan, FY 2002. Also it introduced the environmental issues and environmental conservation measures by the Japanese government.

This law was passed by the Republic of China (Taiwan) to safeguard public health by protecting drinking water resources from pollution by dumping, logging, industry, nuclear waste, ranching, recreation, mineral exploration and extraction, transportation, and other activities.

This law was passed by the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to protect the natural environment from some of the negative effects of economic growth.

This law was passed by the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to protect human health and the environment by controlling the production and handling of toxic chemicals.

This law, passed by the Republic of China (Taiwan) establishes the role National Institute of Environmental Analysis.

This law was passed by the Republic of China (Taiwan) in order to support the training of government officials in certain areas of environmental regulation, assessment, inspection, arbitration, and enforcement.

The Africa Adaptation Programme (AAP) has been designed to support the long-term efforts of targeted countries to further develop their capability to successfully identify, design and implement holistic adaptation and disaster risk reduction programmes that are aligned with national development priorities. This report provides insight into the Africa Adaptation Programme (AAP) and its related country project profiles. The AAP has shifted into implementation, with Namibia and Tunisia as the first countries to complete national inception workshops. Eighteen out of the total twenty programme countries will complete national inception processes and start full-fledged implementation in the coming months.

This report contains the proceedings of a Roundtable of panelists speaking on the connection between biodiversity and cultural diversity, and on how sustainable solutions for development will benefit both types of diversity.

This document is intended to assist Federal agencies with analyzing cumulative effects during the NEPA process. It outlines general principles, common cumulative effects assessment methodologies, and resources for additional information and background data.

This executive order establishes guidelines for how federal agencies consume natural resources.

This report provides a detailed perspective on how the National Environmental Policy Act has affected federal agency decision making. The report summarizes how the Act has been implemented, how federal agency performance aligns with the intent of NEPA's framers, reactions from the public, NEPA stakeholders, and federal decision makers, and future challenges with ensuring the Act's continued effectiveness.

This report outlines general concepts that underlie biological diversity analysis and management, and discusses methods for considering biodiversity in current and future NEPA analyses.

The purpose of this scorecard is to assist governments, donors and NGOs to investigate and record significant aspects of aProtected Area (PA) financing system –its accounts and its underlying structural foundations – to show both its current health and status and to indicate if the system is holistically moving over the long-term towards an improved financial situation. The scorecard is designed for national systems of PAs but could be used by sub-national eg state, regional or municipal or networks of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).

These country-level climate data summaries address the climate change information gap for developing countries by making use of existing climate data to generate a series of 52 country-level studies of climate observations and the multi-model projections

These country-level climate data summaries address the climate change information gap for developing countries by making use of existing climate data to generate a series of 52 country-level studies of climate observations and the multi-model projections

These country-level climate data summaries address the climate change information gap for developing countries by making use of existing climate data to generate a series of 52 country-level studies of climate observations and the multi-model projections