The Environment Division of OSTP addresses a wide range of issues that we have grouped into two major categories or “clusters”, climate change and environmental quality.  Major topics in each area are as follows:

• Our current list of key projects includes:
   
• The National Assessment of Climate Change

  
  The authorizing legislation of the U. S. Global Change Research Program (GCRP) directs the Program to undertake periodic assessments of the consequences of global change for the U.S. In response to a 1997 request from former Science Advisor Jack Gibbons the USGCRP initiated the first national assessment of climate change to “analyze and evaluate what is known about the potential consequences of climate variability and change for the Nation in the context of other pressures on the public, the environment, and the Nation's resources.”  The process has been designed to be broadly inclusive, drawing on inputs from academia, government, the public and private sectors, and interested citizens. Starting with broad public concerns about the environment, the Assessment is exploring the degree to which existing and future variations and changes in climate might affect issues that people care about.

  A National Assessment Synthesis Team (NAST) is responsible for the report, with sectoral and regional teams responsible for additional analyses. A “Blue Ribbon Panel” under the auspices of the PCAST Environment Panel (co-chaired by Peter Raven and Mario Molina) is providing oversight and guidance for the assessment process.

  The Report has gone through one stage of technical review.  The report will undergo rigorous government review and will then be made available for a 60-day public comment period on the Web as requested by Congress (probably in April).  The final step will be approval by the NSTC, followed by publication in summer of 2000.
   

• A New Long-Term Plan for the US Global Change Research Program

  
  The USGCRP began as a Presidential Initiative, and was codified by the Global Change Research Act of 1990. Twelve agencies participate.  The overall budget request for FY2001 is $1.74 billion, making the USGCRP the largest civilian interagency research program under the auspices of the NSTC.

  The program's fundamental purpose is to increase understanding of the Earth system, and of human and naturally induced changes in the Earth's environment, and thus provide a sound scientific basis for national and international decision making on global change issues.  During its first decade, the USGCRP has played a major role in demonstrating that climate change, ozone depletion, and other global-scale environmental changes were, in fact occurring, and that human activities were at least partially responsible for such changes.  The focus of global change science is now shifting somewhat to include examination of the potential consequences of such change for managed and unmanaged ecosystems and human society.

  One of the requirements of the Global Change Act is that the program creates and submits to Congress a long-term research plan.  Such a plan was produced in 1990, but never updated.  To assist with this task the USGCRP request commissioned a major National Research Council study of future research challenges.  The NRC identified over 500 important questions across atmospheric chemistry, ecosystems science, social science, and other areas, and recommended that carbon cycle, water cycle, and climate change research receive special attention.

  Over the next year, this very broad statement of scientific needs must be transformed into a long-term research strategy.
   

• Carbon Cycle Research

  
  This is an area of emphasis for the FY 2000 and FY 2001 budgets.  US emissions of greenhouse gases could be partially offset by increasing the amount of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere by vegetation (crops and trees absorb carbon dioxide as they grow). Under the terms of the Kyoto Protocol, parties would be allowed to count removals by some classes of carbon “sinks” against their total emission reduction targets. Enhancement of carbon sinks could thus provide environmental and economic benefits to the U.S., but we need better information to guide decision making and public and private investment.

  The Administration initiated a carbon cycle science initiative within the USGCRP in the FY2000 budget to help answer important questions about the amount of carbon terrestrial sinks take up, how long such sinks will last, and how sinks are best managed.  Research advances on these questions will provide information needed as a basis for sound policymaking, as well as valuable information about potential management strategies to land and forest managers in both the public and private sectors.
   

• Energy Technology

  
  The Environment Division has worked with PCAST and the other divisions of OSTP to write two major reports on energy in the last several years, "Federal Energy Research and Development for the Challenges of the Twenty-First Century", November 1997, and "Powerful Partnerships: The Federal Role in International Cooperation on Energy Innovation", June 1999.  The November 1997 report laid the foundation for the President's $6 Billion five-year Climate Change Technology Initiative; the June 1999 report is the foundation for the President's $100M International Clean Energy Initiative request for FY2001.  In addition, the Environment division has worked with the Technology division to develop the President's Biofuels and Bioproducts Initiative, which is requesting an additional $93M for these activities in FY2001.
   

• Integrated Science for Ecosystem Challenges

  
  Land and water use changes, resource exploitation, invasive species, pollution and nutrient enrichment, and climate variability are all stresses that, singly or in combination, produce adverse effects on the Nation's environmental resources.  Science is increasingly called upon to determine whether and how these stresses have impaired ecosystem structure and function and to identify approaches to prevent further impact, preserve and improve productivity and resiliency, and enhance recovery of damaged ecosystems.  The Integrated Science for Ecosystem Challenges (ISEC) initiative is designed to help provide an improved science base to guide decision-makers in these efforts by increasing funding for ecological research.  This initiative will:

  · improve our understanding of the causes and consequences of environmental stressors;
  · intensify activities to understand the importance and ecological role of biodiversity;
  · increase the study of ecosystem processes to improve our ability to predict responses to stresses, detect loss of critical function, and evaluate options for restoration;
  · make it possible to begin to apply 21st century information technology to ecological data:

  For FY 2001, increases of $91 million were requested for the ISEC initiative, to be shared among 6 agencies (USDA, USGS, NOAA, NSF, EPA, and the Smithsonian Institution).  Each of these agencies has already made substantial investments to establish base programs on the aspects of these topics required by their missions.
   

• A Report on the State of the Nation's Ecosystems

  
  In 1996, the Vice President requested OSTP to develop a “report card on the health of the Nation's ecosystems” by 2001.  The OSTP Environment Division has been working with and supporting the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment to develop a recently released interim report, “Designing a Report on the State of the Nation's Ecosystems” as the first fruit of this effort. The central idea behind the development of an ecosystem report card is to develop a set of environmental indicators for characterizing the state of our environment that parallel familiar economic indicators. These indicators, such as the rates of unemployment and inflation, are accepted standards and are relied upon by decision-makers in making economic choices.  Similarly, information on human health, such as longevity, infant mortality, and estimates of death rates by category of disease, is used universally to gauge the status of human welfare.  However, no such measures exist for understanding the status of ecosystems on which both economic and human health depends.

  The Heinz Center is a non-profit institution dedicated to improving environmental policy by fostering collaboration among industry, environmental organizations, government and academia. The Center is undertaking this effort with the support and collaboration of scientists and policy makers across the full spectrum of public and private organizations and agencies.  The interim report produced thus far provides a basic framework for reporting ecological condition and applies this framework to three broadly defined ecosystems: croplands, coasts and oceans, and forests.  In 2001, the Center will complete the first full report on the status of the Nation's ecosystems, which will be expanded to address six major ecosystems.  The existing report on croplands, forests, and coasts and oceans will be revised and updated, and new material on arid lands and rangelands, urban/suburban areas, and freshwater systems will be added.  It is hoped that the complete “report card” will provide a scientifically credible, nonpartisan tool for decision-makers and the public that effectively utilizes the information already being gathered by government and non-government organizations.
   

• Science for Salmon Recovery in the Northwest

  
  To support the President's initiative to recover salmon in the Pacific Northwest, we are preparing a report that compiles the findings of a number of recent "state-of-science" reports on salmon.  These findings are being evaluated to determine gaps in the state of our knowledge gaps regarding salmon and the ecosystems on which they depend. The Federal portfolio of salmon research is also being assessed to determine its current composition.  Using the information on knowledge gaps and the portfolio determinations, we hope to be able to identify new areas of research to improve our understanding of recovery options and their potential effectiveness.  We then hope to convene stakeholder agencies at a spring meeting this year to secure an agency consensus and craft changes in the science portfolio.
   

• Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico

  
  Hypoxia occurs when dissolved oxygen concentrations are below those necessary to sustain most animal life.  Since 1993, mid-summer bottom-water hypoxia in the northern Gulf of Mexico has encompassed an area greater than 4,000 square miles. In 1999, it was 8,000 square miles, about the size of the state of New Jersey.  The Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act (HABHRCA) of 1998 calls for an integrated assessment of causes and consequences of hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico.  HABHRCA also calls for a plan of action to reduce, mitigate, and control hypoxia. The National Science and Technology Council's Committee on Environment and Natural Resources developed .a draft integrated assessment which is about to undergo final review by the NSTC Committee on Environment and Natural Resources.  The EPA Mississippi River/ Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force (MR/GM Task Force) will then use this assessment over the next year to develop options for managing the problem.  The Integrated Assessment has already been somewhat controversial because its key finding that hypoxia in the northern Gulf of Mexico is caused primarily by excess nitrogen delivered from the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin in combination with stratification of Gulf waters.  The major source of this excess nitrogen is runoff from agricultural land in the Mississippi Basin.  Agricultural groups are concerned about what actions may be taken in the future to reduce runoff and have expressed opposition to the Assessment's initial conclusions.
   

• Marine Resources

  
  The Environment Division, together with the Technology Division, has been evaluating a possible Oceans research initiative for the FY 2002 budget that would focus on coastal biological resources, an area of research that found new resonance following the International Year of the Ocean in 1998.  Such an initiative would develop and execute a research agenda to ensure that by 2010 we are using our ocean's biological resources sustainably -- both ecologically and economically.  Maggie Smith, our Stanford intern, has synthesized an initial picture of priorities from reports by NSF, NRC, NOAA, Office of Naval Research and CORE.  Thus far, there is broad agreement among the groups for increasing ecosystem level research, but a lack of suggested mechanisms to accomplish these goals.  Preliminary conversations with NOAA and ONR suggest that NOPP, (the National Ocean Partnership Program), would be willing to develop an R&D agenda for the sustainable use of the ocean's biological resources in the next six months.  Such an agenda could right the historical imbalance that now tilts in favor of deep-water ocean research and physical oceanography at the expense of coastal and biological research.
   

• Regional Climate Change Workshops
  • U.S. Global Change Research Program
  In order to improve understanding of the national-scale consequences of global climate change, the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) are sponsoring a series of regional workshops to examine the vulnerabilities of various regions of the United States to climate variability and climate change and to aggregate information across regions to support national-scale scientific assessment.

• Natural Disaster Reduction
  • Natural Disaster Reduction Initiative
  • Public Private Partnership 2000
  • International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR)
  • Disaster-Related Organizations and Other Sources of Hazards/Disaster
  • Selected Internet Sites on Hazards and Disasters
  The costs of natural disasters are high and escalating rapidly.  Natural Disasters in the United States over the past five years have averaged a billion per week.  To meet the challenge of making significant reductions in losses from natural disasters, the National Science and Technology Council's (NSTC's) Committee on Environment and Natural Resources (CENR) has identified a number of actions  that would strengthen the Nation's infrastructure and better serve states and local communities at risk.
   
• National Environmental Monitoring and Research
  • The National Environmental Monitoring Initiative (EPA)
  The National Science and Technology Council's (NSTC's) Committee on Environment and Natural Resources (CENR) has recognized a high priority need to integrate and coordinate environmental monitoring and research networks and programs across the federal government.  This effort will allow a comprehensive evaluation of our Nation's environmental resources and its ecological systems.
   
• Endocrine Disruptors Research
  • Endocrine Disruptors Research Initiative (EPA)
  There is evidence that domestic animals and wildlife have suffered adverse consequences from exposure to environmental chemicals that interact with the endocrine system.  A CENR Working Group is developing an integrated research strategy across the federal agencies to address high priority research needs related to endocrine disruptors including developing a planning framework for federal research, conducting an inventory of on-going federally funded research, and identifying research gaps and facilitating a coordinated  interagency research plan to address them.
   
• North American Research Strategy for Tropospheric Ozone
  • The NARSTO Quality Systems Science Center (QSSC) (DOE)
  The NSTC's Committee on Environment and Natural Resources (CENR) identified ground-level ozone as an initiative in 1995.  The North American Research Strategy for Tropospheric Ozone (NARSTO) is a unique public/private partnership whose membership spans government, industry, the utilities, and academia throughout North America, including Mexico and Canada.  Its primary mission is to coordinate and enhance policy-relevant scientific research and assessment of tropospheric ozone behavior, with the central goal of providing the information needed for workable, efficient, and effective strategies and policies for local and regional ozone management.

President and First Lady | Vice President and Mrs. Gore
Record of Progress | The Briefing Room
Gateway to Government | Contacting the White House
White House for Kids | White House History
White House Tours | Help | Text Only

Privacy Statement