Since 1989, the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) has submitted annual reports to Congress called Our Changing Planet. The reports describe the status of USGCRP research activities, provide progress updates, and document recent accomplishments
In particular, Our Changing Planet highlights progress and accomplishments in interagency activities. These highlights represent the broad spectrum of USGCRP activities that extend from Earth system observations, modeling, and fundamental research through synthesis and assessment, decision support, education, and public engagement.
Under Executive Orders (EO) 13514 and 13653, President Obama directed Federal agencies to evaluate and prepare for climate-related risks to ensure that they can continue to meet their missions and serve the American public as climate changes. A key component of USGCRP’s work to prepare the Nation for global change involves informing Federal preparedness and resilience efforts with resources built on sound scientific understanding.
To further support these efforts, USGCRP recently released an easy-to-access, web-based collection of resources to help Federal
...With the release of the Third National Climate Assessment (see related Highlight 9) came a spike in public demand for information about climate change, its impacts on America, and USGCRP. The Program met this press of interest with a new user-friendly, public-oriented website that launched concurrently with the report’s release. The site deploys the Third National Climate Assessment in an interactive, shareable format. It also provides a dynamic suite of resources and information spanning the breadth of USGCRP and serving user groups including scientists, decision
...Vision – A Nation,globally engaged and guided by science, meeting the challenges of climate and global change.
Mission – To build a knowledge base that informs human responses to climate and global change through coordinated and integrated Federal pro- grams of research, education, communication, and decision support.
...
Goal 1 – Advance Science: Advance scientific knowledge of the integrated natural and human components of the Earth system.
Goal 2 – Inform Decisions: Provide the scientific basis to inform and enable timely decisions on adaptation and mitigation.
Goal 3 – Conduct Sustained Assessments: Build sustained assessment capacity that improves the Nation’s ability to understand, anticipate, and respond to global change impacts and vulnerabilities.
Goal 4 – Communicate and Educate:
Overview
Through its annual funding of START (the Global Change SysTem for Analysis, Research and Training), USGCRP supports the African Climate Change Fellowship Program (ACCFP), an effort that is strengthening a growing pan-African knowledge network on adaptation to climate change. The ACCFP