Scientists urge U.S. to protect economy from climate (Reuters)
"We don't think we have the right kind of tools to give a lift decision makers plan for the future," Jack Fellows, the vice president instead of corporate affairs of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, a consortium of 71 universities, told reporters in a teleconference attached Wednesday.
The groups, including the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society, urged Democratic presidential solicitant Barack Obama and Republican rival John McCain to support $9 billion in investments between 2010 and 2014 to help protect the country from extreme weather, which would nearly double the current U.S. lot with a view to the area.
The U.N.'s science panel says extreme weather events could hit more often as temperatures rise right to meteorological character modify.
Each year the United States suffers billions of dollars in weather-related damages ranging from widespread events like Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the besides novel droughts in the Southeast, to smaller, more frequent glitches like airline delays from storms, they said.
More than a quarter of the inhabitants's economic output, about $2 trillion, is weak to extreme endure, they added.
The investments would pay for satellite and ground-based instruments that observe the Earth's climate and for computers to help make weather predictions more accurate.
John Snow, the co-chairman of the Weather Coalition, a business and university group that advocates for better weather prediction, said improved computers would help scientists forecast extreme weather events more locally, which could help cities better prepare for weather disasters.
It could also help businesses that produce potentially no greenhouse emissions, such as wind farms, know to what to best locate their operations, he said.
The scientists said cooler temperatures in the first half of this year are making their task more difficult. "One of the challenges we face … is to make the put in a box that while we are in a period of warming, we should not expect every year to be the warmest year on record," Snow said.
The global mean temperature to the end of July was 0.50 degrees Fahrenheit (0.28 C) aloft the 1961-1990 average, the UK-based MetOffice for climate make some change in. research said forward Wednesday. That would make the first half of 2008 the coolest since 2000.
Neither campaign responded immediately to questions about the plea for funding. Obama and McCain, who confidence off in a November election, both support precept of greenhouse gases from one side market mechanisms such for the reason that cap-and-trade programs on emissions.
(Editing by Eric Beech)
From: Scientists urge U.S. to protect economy from climate (Reuters)
