Last week I traveled to NOAA’s Climate Program Office in Silver Spring, Maryland to get some more information about how NOAA participates in the UNFCCC. I have wanted to work for NOAA for quite a few years now, so this was also a self-motivated trip to meet some people in the organization and get their insight into how I should go about becoming a researcher for NOAA. I went into this meeting expecting to hear similar things that I had heard in our meetings in D.C., but came out with a completely new appreciation for our government’s position on climate change and what it was doing to promote policies globally.
The woman I met with was the Climate Program Office’s International Program Manager. Basically, her job is to integrate NOAA’sresearch into world policy at delegations like the ones at COP. She is actually the person who speaks on behalf of the United States’ about its views at the COPs and translates scientific questions from the delegations back to the scientists at NOAA. She maintains NOAA’s connections with other government agencies, such as the Department of Defense, Department of the Treasury, and the Department of State. In other words, I was extremely fortunate to get to speak with her and pick her brain about some of the climate issues we are investigating as this year’s ACS
delegates!
One of the most surprising answers I received during the meeting was related to the United States’ “debate” on climate change. I asked something along the lines of, “How can we be the only nation who is still debating on whether climate change actually exists?” Even our presidential candidates have strayed from mentioning this major issue in recent debates and convention speeches. The perplexing answer, “Sometimes the more quietly things happen, the better they are.” Thankfully, she was quite eager to explain what she meant by this statement, probably somewhat due to the look of …Huh….? on my face. She
explained to me that the official position of the United States on climate change was that it was an unarguable occurrence and is due in part to anthropogenic activity. So the government does agree with the rest of the world that the climate is changing? Who knew! We have turned this issue into such a politically partisan divider that candidates today are afraid to address their own government’s standpoint on climate because they don’t want to cross those who support them.
The next question that came to mind was, “It seems like the Obama
administration was expected to largely address climate change, but has fallen
short. How will the upcoming election affect climate change policy in the United
States?” Similar to the answer given previously, I was told that the Obama
administration has actually made a lot of headway in regulating emissions and
addressing climate change. However, we typically never hear of these actions
because the media does not highlight them and deem to be “exciting”enough for
readers to be interested in. Even as an avid climate enthusiast, I had not heard
much of the progress I was hearing about! To name a few, the government over the last four years has moved forward with the Clean Air Act, expanded the
development of alternative energies within the Department of Energy tremendously, worked on developing programs like DARPA and ARPAE (which invest money in high risk development for high reward energy alternatives), and
created a large percentage of economic growth within green jobs and training.
Phew, that is plenty of writing for today! Look for my next post soon, which will talk a little more about NOAA and the United States’ involvement at the COP as
learned from my meeting!
The woman I met with was the Climate Program Office’s International Program Manager. Basically, her job is to integrate NOAA’sresearch into world policy at delegations like the ones at COP. She is actually the person who speaks on behalf of the United States’ about its views at the COPs and translates scientific questions from the delegations back to the scientists at NOAA. She maintains NOAA’s connections with other government agencies, such as the Department of Defense, Department of the Treasury, and the Department of State. In other words, I was extremely fortunate to get to speak with her and pick her brain about some of the climate issues we are investigating as this year’s ACS
delegates!
One of the most surprising answers I received during the meeting was related to the United States’ “debate” on climate change. I asked something along the lines of, “How can we be the only nation who is still debating on whether climate change actually exists?” Even our presidential candidates have strayed from mentioning this major issue in recent debates and convention speeches. The perplexing answer, “Sometimes the more quietly things happen, the better they are.” Thankfully, she was quite eager to explain what she meant by this statement, probably somewhat due to the look of …Huh….? on my face. She
explained to me that the official position of the United States on climate change was that it was an unarguable occurrence and is due in part to anthropogenic activity. So the government does agree with the rest of the world that the climate is changing? Who knew! We have turned this issue into such a politically partisan divider that candidates today are afraid to address their own government’s standpoint on climate because they don’t want to cross those who support them.
The next question that came to mind was, “It seems like the Obama
administration was expected to largely address climate change, but has fallen
short. How will the upcoming election affect climate change policy in the United
States?” Similar to the answer given previously, I was told that the Obama
administration has actually made a lot of headway in regulating emissions and
addressing climate change. However, we typically never hear of these actions
because the media does not highlight them and deem to be “exciting”enough for
readers to be interested in. Even as an avid climate enthusiast, I had not heard
much of the progress I was hearing about! To name a few, the government over the last four years has moved forward with the Clean Air Act, expanded the
development of alternative energies within the Department of Energy tremendously, worked on developing programs like DARPA and ARPAE (which invest money in high risk development for high reward energy alternatives), and
created a large percentage of economic growth within green jobs and training.
Phew, that is plenty of writing for today! Look for my next post soon, which will talk a little more about NOAA and the United States’ involvement at the COP as
learned from my meeting!
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