Lubchenco Shifts U.S. Approach to Climate Science

Exactly one year before his assassination, civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a sermon in New York City's Riverside Church, preaching against racism in the Vietnam War.

Forty years later, his now-famous warning of "the fierce urgency of now" has found new meaning among the leaders of today's climate movement. Former U.S Vice President Al Gore quoted the sermon in the introduction to his influential book An Inconvenient Truth. On Monday, the newly appointed administrator of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Jane Lubchenco, borrowed Reverend King's words as well.

"‘We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on,'" Lubchenco said at an event at the National Academies of Science (NAS) in Washington, D.C. "‘Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: Too late.'"

After several years of the Bush administration stalling or obstructing federal climate scientists from fully reporting their findings, Lubchenco, a marine ecologist, brings a stark change in tone.

In statements to Congress and NOAA, the agency that forecasts weather, manages seafood industries, and studies climate, Lubchenco promised to expand regional and national climate forecasting to improve how the country can adapt to climate change and avoid contributing to disastrous levels of global warming. She also suggested a renewed focus on reversing fisheries decline.

During one of her the first public appearances since Congress approved her nomination last month, Lubchenco addressed a collection of the nation's top climate scientists at the NAS on Monday. "Climate change is indeed one of the greatest challenges of our time. It will permeate every aspect of our lives," she said. "The time has come for our nation to act."

The event marked the launch of America's Climate Choices, a project tasked with forming recommendations for the United States to limit greenhouse gases, adapt to climate change, and improve future climate studies. Lubchenco noted in her address that she previously participated in several NAS studies focused on climate change, dating back to the first national climate assessment in 1979. Prior to her appointment, she taught at Oregon State University and Harvard University and once served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

As Lubchenco exited the building, she embraced several of the attending scientists. "They clearly feel like there was a war against climate science in the previous administration," said Rick Piltz, a former senior associate with the U.S. Climate Change Science Program whose 2005 resignation raised attention to government intervention in federal climate studies. "The door is open right now."

Lubchenco said the climate program will release a report this spring detailing the latest evidence of how climate change is affecting the United States. The Bush administration, in contrast, delayed the program from publishing any comprehensive reports until 2008, the former president's final year in office.

"Climate changes are indeed noticeable in the United States including increased temperatures, rising sea levels, and changes in patterns of precipitation," Lubchenco said. "[The report] concludes that widespread impacts of these changes are under way and expected to increase, leading to adverse effects on human health, ecosystems, and industries."

Lubchenco reiterated on Monday that she will continue the work of her predecessor, retired Navy Vice Admiral Conrad Lautenbacher, in developing a National Climate Service. NOAA seeks to aggregate the most recent climate science, similar to how the National Weather Service combines nationwide weather forecasts.

"Improved climate forecasting... can serve as the backbone of new enterprises helping businessmen and public servants alike make better decisions about infrastructure, public safety, consumer needs and product research and development," she said in her testimony to Congress [PDF] in February.

Raised in Colorado, Lubchenco said she "fell in love with the oceans" when she visited Woods Hole, Massachusetts, as a college student, according to a video prepared for NOAA employees. She has since become a leading proponent of sustainable fisheries and the establishment of marine protected areas.

With regard to fisheries, Lubchenco appears supportive of catch shares, policies that limit the amount of seafood that fishers are allowed to haul to shore, according to an interview with The New York Times. "In the end, fishing jobs depend on fish, and fish depend on healthy oceans," she said.

Lubchenco joins a growing cast of well-regarded scientists in the Obama administration. Nobel physicist Steven Chu leads the Department of Energy and Harvard environmental scientist John Holdren is Obama's chief science advisor. Both Lubchenco and Holdren are recipients of the MacArthur Foundation's "genius award."

Ben Block is a staff writer with the Worldwatch Institute. He can be reached at bblock@worldwatch.org.

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