NOAA chief urges study of climate
"It's a scientific consensus that's out here, and it's supported by everybody I know," added retired U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr. in an exclusive Deseret Morning News interview.
Lautenbacher spoke with the newspaper shortly after his keynote address at a three-day convention in the Sheraton City Centre in Salt Lake City.
The meeting, "Water Policies and Planning in the West: Ensuring a Sustainable Future," is sponsored by the Western Governors' Association and the Western States Water Council.
In addition to Lautenbacher's talk, Gov. Jon M. Huntsman delivered a keynote speech, and advocacy groups distributed a study that they say shows the proposed Snake Valley pipeline to Las Vegas would harm the environment, ranches and members of an Indian tribe who need the water for culinary purposes.
Lautenbacher told the newspaper that he can think of nothing more important than what's going on with the climate and how that connects with the management of water.
America needs to continue its investment in climate research and climate science, he said. "We don't know everything we need to make the wisest choices at this time." However, well-researched reports are available from the agency, he added.
Someday, NOAA's National Integrated Drought Information Systems may allow scientists to predict what growing seasons will be like in a month, next year or in 10 years, he said. Adaptation and mitigation programs "need more research," Lautenbacher said.
Regional centers in which different NOAA functions are brought together are being developed, including one in Salt Lake City. They are intended to make it easier for the agency to connect with the public, whether about reports from the National Weather Service, information about fish laboratories, earth science, atmospheric studies, ocean research or surveying operations.
Previously these entities each communicated with Washington, D.C., in "kind of a hub-and-spoke deal. What we're trying to do now is make NOAA resources available regionally."
The effort began about eight months ago. NOAA is still building it, but, Lautenbacher added, in two or three years the public will see more of the regional NOAA offices.
During his speech, he said the five states with the fastest-growing populations in the West are Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and Idaho. This year Salt Lake City suffered through its hottest summer ever, with an average temperature of 79.3 degrees, and August was the second-hottest and fifth-driest on record.
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Fact?? I also thought it was a fact in the '70's that we...
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Anthropogenic global warming is a fact, not a theory. The vast majority...
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