Climate Science: A Shift Toward Impacts Research?
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“[Its] focus has definitely not been on understanding impacts,” says Lubchenco
“Š local and regional officials are receiving
‘inadequate’ help in preparing for potentially
catastrophic changes.”
“Š you have to monitor the planet closer than we’re doingŠ”
“Š CCSP staff Š recommend a shift toward impacts science.”
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SCIENCE
10 OCTOBER 2008 VOL 322
NEWSFOCUS
Impacts Research Seen As Next Climate Frontier
Scientists hope the next U.S. president will
devote more of the billion-dollar climate change
research program to impacts
Marine ecologist Jane Lubchenco was among the
first scientists to study how ecosystems off the
California coast are being affected by climate
change. Although that work has put her ahead of
the curve, it’s hurt her chances of obtaining
funding from the $1.8 billion U.S. Climate Change
Science Program (CCSP), the major federal effort
in the field. “[Its] focus has definitely not
been on understanding impacts,” says Lubchenco, a
professor at Oregon State University, Corvallis,
and a former president of AAAS (which publishes
Science). Instead, she’s relied on grants from
private foundations to support her examination of
oxygen-depleted oceanic “dead zones.”