Michaels H. Glantz

 

Climate Affairs: A multidisciplinary approach to
and Climate-related impact studies

Michael H. Glantz
National Center for Atmospheric Research

     Climate and climate-related issues such as food security, water resources, energy production and consumption, public health and public safety have during the last decade become increasingly important to governments, corporations, individuals, as well as to the general public. In part, this elevated interest in climate issues and weather extremes has been a result of the end of the Cold War.
     During the 1990s, numerous weather extremes and climate anomalies have occurred, often resulting from air-sea interactions, such as the "El Nino of the Century" (the 1997-98 El Nino). This was followed by a protracted La Nina event and some very damaging hurricanes in the Caribbean Sea, in addition to droughts in North Korea and Afghanistan, and floods in Western and Eastern Europe and Mozambique.
     Some researchers have linked these weather episodes to global warming of the atmosphere, while others proposed that they had been random occurrences under a normal but varying climate regime. Today, one could argue that governments are in the process of creating a "Law of the Atmosphere" as they had earlier developed a "Law of the Sea." The notion of Climate Affairs can serve to foster multidisciplinary research, applications, and education much in the same way that Marine Affairs has done since the late 1960s in response to deliberations for the Law of the Sea.
     The nation of Climate Affairs can serve to foster multidisciplinary research, applications and education much in the same way that Marine Affairs has done since the late 1960s in response to deliberations for the Law of the Sea.