NOAA on Monday announced it plans to start a National Climate Service _ what Commerce Secretary Gary Locke described as a "one-stop shop" for local governments, businesses and the public to find out what climate researchers are forecasting.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's chief, marine scientist Jane Lubchenco, said in a conference call with reporters that NOAA gets many questions already from governments and businesses that need information about the future climate to make investments now. The new service will start by pulling together NOAA staff from various offices, but still needs approval from Congress. NOAA hopes to start it at the beginning of the next fiscal year.
In the meantime, NOAA opened a new Website about climate today for the public, www.climate.gov.
NOAA is one of the world's major sources of climate data. It already puts all that raw data online publicly. Lubchenco said the new site will make it easier for people to understand the information that goes into scientific assessments about climate.
Reporters on the call asked Lubchenco about the reliability of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the group made up of thousands of scientists who review research on climate. An IPCC error _ mention of an erroneous report that said Himalayan glaciers would be gone by 2035 _ has made some people doubt the IPCC's overall credibility.
NOAA scientists are some of the international researchers who work on the IPCC reports. The IPCC has a rigorous system to review the latest climate science and produces a "wealth of very credible information about climate change," Lubchenco said. "The science is sound and solid."
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