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open access

Effective Sea System and Case Studies

Description: This report describes SEA (Strategic Environmental Assessment), and case studies demonstrating the merits of SEA in Europe and North America. The report is aimed at helping readers understanding and implementing SEA.
Date: June 2003
Creator: Hayashi, Kiichiro; Sadler, Barry; Verheem, Rob; Dusik, Jiri & Tomlinson, Paul
open access

Outline of the Basic Environment Plan

Description: This is the third Basic Environment Plan of Japan. The theme of the plan is "integrated improvements of the environment, economy, and society." The plan develops long-term goals and will be assessed by quantitative targets and indicators for management. The plan calls for a clear public information campgaign.
Date: August 2006
Creator: Japan. Kankyōshō.
open access

Our Changing Planet: The U.S. Climate Change Science Program for Fiscal Year 2010

Description: The report describes the activities and plans of the Climate Change Science Program (CCSP), which incorporates the U.S. Global Change Research Program established under the Global Change Research Act of 1990, and the Climate Change Research Initiative that was established by the President in 2001. CCSP coordinates and integrates scientific research on climate and global change supported by 13 participating departments and agencies of the U.S. Government. The document highlights recent advances … more
Date: September 2009
Creator: U.S. Global Change Research Program and Subcommittee on Global Change Research
open access

Remarks by Administrator O'Keefe at the Earth Observation Summit

Description: Remarks by NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe at the 2003 Earth Observation Summit in Washington, DC. The purpose of the summit was to promote the development of a comprehensive, coordinated, and sustained Earth observation system or systems among governments and the international community to understand and address global environmental and economic challenges, and also to begin a process to develop a conceptual framework and implementation plan for building this integrated Earth observation sys… more
Date: July 31, 2003
Creator: O'Keefe, Sean
open access

More El Niños May Mean More Rainfall Extremes

Description: 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.
Date: January 16, 2001
Creator: Earth Observatory
open access

Oil Pollution Act of 1990

Description: The Oil Pollution Act (OPA) of 1990 streamlined and strengthened EPA's ability to prevent and respond to catastrophic oil spills. A trust fund financed by a tax on oil is available to clean up spills when the responsible party is incapable or unwilling to do so. The OPA requires oil storage facilities and vessels to submit to the Federal government plans detailing how they will respond to large discharges. EPA has published regulations for above ground storage facilities; the Coast Guard h… more
Date: 1990
Creator: United States. Congress.
open access

National Environmental Policy Act of 1969

Description: 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 a… more
Date: January 1, 1970
Creator: United States. Congress.
open access

NOAA Updates What Defines Normal Temperature

Description: Normal temperatures and precipitation levels for your area may have changed as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climatic Data Center recently released new 'normal' data for about 8,000 weather stations. The data defines the normal temperature at locations across the United States, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and U.S. Pacific Islands. These data are used as a benchmark for weather forecasters to calculate day-to-day temperature and rainfall departures from typic… more
Date: September 6, 2001
Creator: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
open access

Nuclear Waste Policy Act

Description: 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 geo… more
Date: January 7, 1983
Creator: United States. Congress.
open access

Our Changing Planet: The FY 2001 U.S. Global Change Research Program

Description: This report, prepared under the auspices of the President's National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), highlights the Program's recent research and describes future plans and goals. The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) was established in 1989 and authorized by Congress in the Global Change Research Act of 1990. The first edition of Our Changing Planet was transmitted to the Congress as a supplement to the FY1990 budget. In just over a decade, the USGCRPhas generated remarkable … more
Date: September 2000
Creator: Subcommittee on Global Change Research, Committee on Environment and Natural Resources of the National Science and Technology Council
open access

Our Changing Planet: The Fiscal Year 2003 U.S. Global Change Research Program and Climate Change Research Initiative

Description: This document is a supplement to the President's Fiscal Year 2003 Budget. The report describes the activities and plans of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP). The report also describes the start-up activities for the U.S. Climate Change Research Initiative (CCRI), established by President George W. Bush to accelerate research on climate change. The CCRI supplements the ongoing USGCRP work by providing focus and targeting resources to areas where significant 2 to 5 year improvement… more
Date: 2002
Creator: Climate Change Science Program (U.S.)
open access

New Source of Natural Fertilizer Discovered in Oceans

Description: New findings suggest that the deep ocean is teeming with organisms that produce essential natural fertilizers. A National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded research team led by Jonathan Zehr, a marine scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has discovered a previously unknown type of photosynthetic bacteria that fixes nitrogen, converting nitrogen from the atmosphere into a form other organisms can use.
Date: August 8, 2001
Creator: National Science Foundation (U.S.). Office of Legislative and Public Affairs.
open access

Solid Waste Disposal Act

Description: The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) gives EPA the authority to control hazardous waste from the "cradle-to-grave." This includes the generation, transportation, treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste. RCRA also set forth a framework for the management of non-hazardous solid wastes. The 1986 amendments to RCRA enabled EPA to address environmental problems that could result from underground tanks storing petroleum and other hazardous substances. HSWA - the Federal Haza… more
Date: 1976
Creator: United States. Congress.
open access

The Regional Impacts of Climate Change: An Assessment of Vulnerability

Description: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was jointly established by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme in 1988 to assess the scientific and technical literature on climate change, the potential impacts of changes in climate, and options for adaption to and mitigation of climate change. Since its inception, the IPCC has produced a series of Assessment Reports, Special Reports, Technical Papers, methodologies and other products which hav… more
Date: November 1997
Creator: Watson, Robert T.; Zinyowera, Marufu C.; Moss, Richard H. & Dokken, David J.
open access

Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics (GLOBEC) Science Plan

Description: Human population and associated industrial activities continue to increase rapidly, and have reached levels that put the environment under stress in many areas of the world. In addition natural fluctuations of the Earth's physical and biological systems, often occur in time frames that are not readily evident to man. Such fluctuations cause additional stress on the environment, and can result in changes that impact society in terms of diminished availability of clean water, unspoiled land and n… more
Date: 1997
Creator: Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics (GLOBEC)
open access

The Miombo Network: Framework for a Terrestrial Transect Study of Land-Use and Land-Cover Change in the Miombo Ecosystems of Central Africa

Description: This report describes the strategy for the Miombo Network Initiative, developed at an International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) intercore-project workshop in Malawi in December 1995 and further refined during the Land Use and Cover Change (LUCC) Open Science Meeting in January, 1996 and through consultation and review by the LUCC Scientific Steering Committee (SSC). The Miombo Network comprises of an international network of researchers working in concert on a 'community' research age… more
Date: 1997
Creator: Desanker, Paul V.; Frost, Peter G. H.; Justice, Christopher O. & Scholes, Robert J.
open access

Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone: Science Plan and Implementation Strategy

Description: Coastal zones play a key role in Earth System functioning, by contributing significantly to the life support systems of most societies. Human activities modifying riverine hydrology and riverine material fluxes to the coastal zone, have increased in both scale and rate of change in the last 200 years. The underlying processes that drive changes to coastal systems occur at a multiplicity of temporal and spatial scales. These changes alter the availability of ecosystem goods and services. However… more
Date: 2005
Creator: Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone
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Global Land Project: Science Plan and ImplementationStrategy

Description: The Global Land Project (GLP) Science Plan and Implementation Strategy represents the joint research agenda of IGBP and IHDP to improve the understanding of land system dynamics in the context of Earth System functioning. This plan is therefore a first critical step in addressing the interaction between people and their environments. It is part of the broader efforts to understand how these interactions have affected, and may yet affect, the sustainability of the terrestrial biosphere, and the … more
Date: September 2005
Creator: Global Land Project (GLP)
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Integrated Land Ecosystem-Atmosphere Processes Study: Science Plan and Implementation Strategy

Description: The iLEAPS Science Plan and Implementation Strategy defines the scientific objectives and key research issues of the land-atmosphere project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme. It also outlines a strategy for addressing the key research questions. The scope of iLEAPS research spans from molecular level processes - such as synthesis of volatile organic compounds in vegetation - to Earth System science issues, climate and global change. iLEAPS research emphasises the importance o… more
Date: 2005
Creator: Integrated Land Ecosystem-Atmosphere Processes Study
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Science Plan and Implementation Strategy

Description: This Science Plan and Implementation Strategy sets out the research agenda for the second phase of IGBP. The document describes the IGBP strategy for producing high quality, unbiased, credible, fundamental scientific research in the area of global change: a strategy centered on ten projects, to be carried out by the several thousand scientists worldwide who are part of the IGBP network. Further, the document describes how the organization will communicate the results of this research to diffe… more
Date: 2006
Creator: International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme
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Our Changing Planet: The U.S. Climate Change Science Program for Fiscal Years 2004 and 2005

Description: This edition of Our Changing Planet includes a review of the Strategic Plan for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) from 2003 and outlines how the CCSP is moving forward to implement the Strategic Plan during FY 2004 and FY 2005. As a part of this implementation, the report announces the production of 21 scientific syntheses and assessments on a range of topics to support informed discussion of climate variability and associated issues by decision makers and the public.
Date: July 2004
Creator: Climate Change Science Program (U.S.)
open access

Our Changing Planet: The U.S. Climate Change Science Program for Fiscal Year 2006

Description: This Fiscal Year 2006 edition of Our Changing Planet describes a wide range of new and emerging observational capabilities which, combined with the Climate Change Science Program’s analytical work, lead to advances in understanding the underlying processes responsible for climate variability and change. The report highlights progress being made to explore the uses and limitations of evolving knowledge to manage risks and opportunities related to climate variability, and documents activities to … more
Date: November 2005
Creator: Climate Change Science Program (U.S.)
open access

Our Changing Planet: The U.S. Climate Change Science Program, 2007

Description: This Fiscal Year 2007 edition of Our Changing Planet describes a wide range of new and emerging observational capabilities which, combined with the Climate Change Science Program’s analytical work, lead to advances in understanding the underlying processes responsible for climate variability and change. The report highlights progress in exploring the uses and limitations of evolving knowledge to manage risks and opportunities related to climate variability, and documents activities to promote c… more
Date: November 2006
Creator: Climate Change Science Program (U.S.)
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