climate change strategic plan issued by us federal science panel

the us multi-agency federal panel has issued its strategic plan to research some of the most complex questions concerning the global climate change.

the plan outlines five scientific goals aimed at addressing key questions and uncertainties:
1. extend knowledge of the earth’s past and present climate and environment, including its natural variability.
2. improve understanding of the forces bringing about changes in the earth’s climate and related systems.
3. reduce uncertainty in projections of how the earth’s climate and environmental systems may change in the future.
4. understand the sensitivity and adaptability of different natural and managed systems to climate and associated changes.
5. identify the limits of evolving knowledge to manage risks and opportunities related to climate variability and change.

along with us $17.9 hundred million of the climate change science fund, the us government plans to ask for additional us $ 103 million at the national assembly, seeking to facilitate further scientific research on the climate change related issues.

on the other hand, the environmental activists to the strategic plan, claiming that it is an artificial activity, which merely repeats the sufficiently reviewed study on natural variability; and that it is scattering the focus on the anthropogenic cause for climate change.


ozone benefits from treaty

a team of us researchers at the university of alabama found that the rate at which the layer is being destroyed has markedly slowed down. however, they say it will not be completely healed for at least 50 years.

it has been declining at about 8% per decade for a couple of decades, and now it is only about 4% per decade. the recovery is due to the success of one of the first global treaties, the montreal protocol. established in 1987, it banned the use of chemicals responsible for ozone damage, notably cfcs.