This document contains positions papers of a policy forum for weather and highways developed by the Atmospheric Policy Program American Meteorological Society in coordination with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) with additional support from the National Science Foundation (NSF). In this document (Panel 3), panelists discuss policy issues affecting the use of weather information in managing the U.S. Highway System.

This document contains positions papers of a policy forum for weather and highways developed by the Atmospheric Policy Program American Meteorological Society in coordination with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) with additional support from the National Science Foundation (NSF). In this document (Panel 2), panelists discuss strategies to respond to weather and climate information. There are many opportunities to improve the highway system through an inclusive approach, taking into account the strengths of the research community, the private sector and the state and federal practitioners. As a first step, the weather community must better understand the mission and expectations of the highway manager and the highway manager must be able to understand the limitations and near term improvements of the weather community.

This report examines the policies and measures needed to accelerate the use of those technologies and dramatically reduce U.S. heat-trapping gas emissions by 2020. The goal is to set the nation on the path to achieving zero-carbon electricity by mid-century.

According to the summary, this report reviews U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases in the contexts both of domestic policy and of international obligations and proposals.

Antarctica is a continent for science. All countries working in Antarctica carry out scientific research, in a surprising range of physical and biological sciences, from the vastness of space to the minute scale of micro-organisms. Activities are regulated by the Antarctic Treaty, which has been in force since 1959 and is signed by all countries operating there. The Treaty reserves the continent for peaceful purposes, and all military and industrial activities are banned.

The Earth's climate has not been constant over geological time. This record is contained in ice, which has built up as snowfall accumulated in distinct yearly layers. Pockets of air trapped between the snow crystals contain traces of past atmospheres, which in turn tell us about the climate at the time the snow formed. Glaciologists collect this record by drilling ice cores and then use sensitive chemical techniques to analyse the layers.

Discovery of the hole in the ozone layer showed that human activity can have major, and often unexpected impacts on the planet. The destruction of ozone in the stratosphere high above the planet's surface has been brought about as the result of the widespread use of chemicals which under normal conditions are chemically inert and harmless

Plants and animals live in environments which change over different periods of time. Some changes happen each year with the seasons, whilst others take hundreds or even millions of years. As these changes occur, living organisms respond in different ways. To cope with the changing seasons, individuals can change their physiology or behaviour, for instance by hibernating or migration. In response to longer-scale change, species may adapt through evolutionary change. If they cannot, they must either move away or become extinct.

The Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map shows the types of vegetation that occur across the Arctic, between the ice-covered Arctic Ocean to the north and the northern limit of forests to the south. Environmental and climatic conditions are extreme, with a short growing season and low summer temperatures. As one moves southward (outward from map's center in all directions), the amount of warmth available for plant growth increases considerably.

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 document describes a research strategy for developing improved knowledge of climate variability and change and the potential impacts on the environment and on human lives. It also provides for the development of resources and tools that will empower policy-makers with the knowledge necessary for making decisions.

Coincident with the release of the Climate Change Science Program strategic plan, the Administration announces plans for the acceleration of select high priority research projects and climate observations. These activities contribute to filling critical knowledge gaps identified in the plan (aerosols, oceans and the natural carbon cycle). The selected investments have been coordinated among the agencies to maximize the overall impact. Funding will be reallocated from lower priority areas to enable these critical investments.

This program identifies the following criteria of interest: scientific or technical quality; relevance to reducing uncertainties and improving decision support tools; track record of consistently good past performance and identified metrics for evaluating future progress; and cost and value.

The Strategic Plan for the Climate Change Science Program was released in July 2003. The document is the first comprehensive update of a national plan for climate and global change research since the original U.S. Global Change Research Program strategy was issued at the inception of the program in 1989.

This strategic plan has been prepared by the 13 federal agencies participating in the CCSP, with coordination by the CCSP staff under the leadership of Dr. Richard H. Moss. This strategic plan responds to the President's direction that climate change research activities be accelerated to provide the best possible scientific information to support public discussion and decision-making on climate-related issues.The plan also responds to Section 104 of the Global Change Research Act of 1990, which mandates the development and periodic updating of a long-term national global change research plan coordinated through the National Science and Technology Council.This is the first comprehensive update of a strategic plan for U.S. global change and climate change research since the original plan for the U.S. Global Change Research Program was adopted at the inception of the program in 1989.

The vision document provides an overview of the Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) long-term strategic plan to enhance scientific understanding of global climate change.This document is a companion to the comprehensive Strategic Plan for the Climate Change Science Program.

A draft strategic plan for the Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) was released to the scientific community and the public in November 2002. At the request of the CCSP, the National Academies formed a committee to review this draft strategic plan; the results of this review are reported herein.

This report presents recommendations to change the NEPA implementation process, based on the review of an appointed task force.

Meeting the EU objective of limiting global average temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels requires a peak in global greenhouse gas emissions within the next two decades. This means that early participation of developing countries in global emission control is needed, even under a significant strengthening of the commitments of Annex I countries under the Kyoto Protocol. The study has shown that it is possible to design a set of consistent rules for the attribution of the long-term emission endowments of the different world regions. The gains from participating in global emission trading and from reduced air pollution damage and/or abatement costs does substantially enhance, from a developing country perspective, the attractiveness of an early participation in a regime based on greenhouse gas reduction pathways, provided that the level and the form of their commitment is well designed so as to minimise economic risks.

This report analyze the impacts of linking JI and CDM to the future European Emission Allowance Trading System (ETSy). The result indicate that the volume of credits obtained through JI and CDM projects by the enlarged EU Emission Allowance Trading Scheme, as well as the magnitude of cost savings and allowance price impacts will crucially depend on how much competition there will be from EU Member States and other countries in JI and CDM credits.

WWF is working harder than ever to establish a global network of ecologically representative and effectively managed land, freshwater, and marine protected areas. With 40 years experience, targeted conservation goals, and projects combining practical field implementation with highlevel policy work in over 100 countries, we are uniquely placed to lead protected area work into the 21st century.

This paper considers the potential impacts of climate change on protected areas (PAs) and actions that can be taken to mitigate them. Recent research suggests that the types of environmental changes predicted in climatic models are now taking place. Studies of many animals and plants that show significant alterations in range or behaviour find that the most consistent explanation for these is climate change. These impacts may necessitate a fundamental rethinking in the approach to protection. Protected areas are rooted in the concept of permanence: protection works best as a conservation tool if the area remains protected for the foreseeable future. But under climate change, species for which a particular protected area was established may no longer survive there. Some protected areas - for instance in coastal, arctic and mountain regions - may disappear altogether in their current form.

Carbon cycle research is often carried out in isolation from research on energy systems and normally focuses only on the biophysical patterns and processes of carbon sources and sinks. The Global Carbon Project represents a significant advance beyond the status quo in several important ways. First, the problem is conceptualised from the outset as one involving fully integrated human and natural components; the emphasis is on the carbon-climate-human system (fossil-fuel based energy systems + biophysical carbon cycle + physical climate system) and not simply on the biophysical carbon cycle alone. Secondly, the development of new methodologies for analysing and modelling the integrated carbon cycle is a central feature of the project. Thirdly, the project provides an internally consistent framework for the coordination and integration of the many national and regional carbon cycle research programmes that are being established around the world. Fourthly, the project addresses questions of direct policy relevance, such as the management strategies and sustainable regional development pathways required to achieve stabilisation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Finally, the Global Carbon Project goes beyond the traditional set of stakeholders for a global change research project by seeking to engage the industrial and energy sectors as well as …

The ocean is a vital component of the metabolism of the Earth and plays a key role in global change. In fact, the oceans cover so much of the Earth's surface that our planet has been described as the Water Planet, and it could be argued that its most extensive ecosystems are marine. Marine ecosystems are inextricably involved in the physical, chemical, biological and societal processes of global change. It is impossible to describe and understand the Earth system without understanding the ocean, the special characteristics of the environment that it provides for life, the changes that it is undergoing and the manner in which these changes interact with the total Earth System. Understanding the functioning of marine ecosystems and how they respond to global change is also essential in order to effectively manage global marine living resources, such as fisheries. The GLOBEC project is an international response to the need to understand how global change will affect the abundance, diversity and productivity of marine populations, from zooplankton to fish, that comprise a major component of oceanic ecosystems. GLOBEC's goal is to advance our understanding of the structure and functioning of such ecosystems, their major subsystems, and responses to physical …