Kathy Jacobs, director of the Arizona Water Institute based at UA, testified today to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation in a hearing on "Climate Science – Empowering Our Response to Climate Change." The hearing addressed the growing discussion for creating a national climate service.
Kathy's prepared testimony is posted at the committee site.
Her key points are that:
1. Our current ability to bridge the gap between science and decision-making is woefully inadequate, and despite billions of dollars spent on the federal climate program, it has not been as effective as it would have been if it were more focused on building adaptive capacity
2. Adaptation decisions are made at the state, regional and local levels – and the magnitude of the climate change challenge is so great that new mechanisms of engagement are required to build local and regional capacity to respond
3. The climate service needs to have a broad, inclusive vision; be adequately funded; address both climate variability and climate change at multiple time and space scales; and have the authority to either encourage or force the integration of federal science capacity to support decisions
The full hearing (4 presenters, 2-1/2 hours) was videotaped and can be viewed online.