Indicators for Understanding Global Climate Change

Consensus

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The stresses associated with climate change are expected to be felt keenly as human population grows to a projected 9 billion by the middle of this century, increasing the demand for resources and supporting infrastructure. Therefore, information to assess vulnerabilities to climate change is needed to support policies and investments designed to increase resilience in human and Earth systems.

There are currently many observing systems that capture elements of how climate is changing, for example, direct measurements of atmospheric and ocean temperature. Although those measurements are essential for understanding the scale and nature of climate change, they do not necessarily provide information about the impacts of climate change on humans that are especially relevant for political and economic planning and decision making.

Monitoring Climate Change Impacts tackles the challenge of developing an illustrative suite of indicators, measurements (and the locations around the globe where the measurements can be applied), and metrics that are important for understanding global climate change and providing insight into environmental sustainability. Eight panels provided input on: cryosphere, land-surface and terrestrial ecosystems, hydrology and water resources, atmosphere, human health and other dimensions, oceans (both physical and biological/chemical), and natural disasters. The book also provides an illustrative set of metrics that are likely to be affected by climate change over the next 20-25 years and, when taken together, can potentially give advance warning of climate-related changes to the human and environment systems.

Publication information

109 pages · 8.5 x 11 · paperback
ISBN Paperback: 0-309-15871-0
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-15872-9
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17226/12965

Suggested citation

National Research Council. 2010. Monitoring Climate Change Impacts: Metrics at the Intersection of the Human and Earth Systems. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

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Mark R. Abbott

Mark R. Abbott is dean of the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University. In addition to his scientific and academic administration expertise, Dr. Abbott will bring relevant appreciation of how the study topics relate to the programs of NOAA, NSF, and NASA. His research focuses on the interaction of biological and physical processes in the upper ocean and relies on both remote-sensing and field observations. He deployed the first array of bio-optical moorings in the Southern Ocean as part of the United States Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS). He is a member of the National Science Board, and he is a member of the Committee on Earth Studies. He also served on the Committee on NOAA NESDIS Transition from Research to Operations and the Panel on Land-use Change, Ecosystem Dynamics and Biodiversity of the NRC Decadal Survey on Earth Science and Applications from Space.

Robert A. Bindschadler

Dr. Robert Bindschadler has been an active Antarctic field researcher for the past 25 years. He has led 15 field expeditions to Antarctica and has participated in many other expeditions to glaciers and ice caps around the world. He maintains an active interest in the dynamics of glaciers and ice sheets, primarily on Earth, investigating how remote sensing can be used to improve our understanding of the role of ice in the Earth's climate. Applications developed by Dr. Bindschadler include measuring ice velocity and elevation using both visible and radar imagery, monitoring melt of and snowfall on ice sheets by microwave emissions, and detecting changes in ice-sheet volume by repeat space-borne radar altimetry. He has advised the US Congress and the Vice President on the stability of ice sheets and ice shelves and served on many scientific commissions and study groups as an expert in glaciology and remote sensing of ice. Some of the more significant awards he has received are: Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (2001); Goddard Senior Fellow (2000); Excellence in Federal Career (1989); the Antarctic Service Medal (1984) and the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (1994). He has published over 130 scientific papers, numerous review articles and has appeared on television and been heard on radio commenting on glaciological impacts of the climate on the world's ice sheets and glaciers. He currently is the Immediate Past President of the International Glaciological Society, chairs the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Initiative, sits on both the US and International Planning Groups for the International Polar Year and is an Editor for the Journal of Glaciology.

Rita R. Colwell

Rita R. Colwell (NAS) received her Ph.D. in Oceanography at the University of Washington. Dr. Colwell is the Chair of Canon U.S. Life Sciences, Inc., and Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, and at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Colwell was the first woman to be named Director of the National Science Foundation, where she served with distinction from 1998 to 2004. In her capacity as the NSF Director, she served as Co-chair of the Committee on Science of the National Science and Technology Council. Dr. Colwell has held many advisory positions in the U.S. government, nonprofit science policy organizations, and private foundations, as well as in the international scientific research community and is a member of the American Philosophical Society, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and National Academy of Sciences.

Jeff Dozier

Jeff Dozier is a professor in the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he has taught since 1974 after earning his PhD from the University of Michigan. He founded the Bren School and served as its first dean for 6 years. His research interests are in the fields of snow hydrology, Earth system science, remote sensing, and information systems. He has led interdisciplinary studies in two areas: one addresses hydrologic science, environmental engineering, and social science in the water environment; the other is in the integration of environmental science and remote sensing with computer science and technology. From 1990-92, he was the senior project scientist for NASA’s Earth Observing System when the configuration for the system was established. Professor Dozier has chaired or served on numerous NRC committees concerned with data for science, and he is currently a member of the Board on Earth Sciences and Resources. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an Honorary Professor of the Academia Sinica, a recipient of both the NASA/Department of Interior William T. Pecora Award and the NASA Public Service Medal, and the winner of the 2009 Jim Gray Award from Microsoft for his achievements in data-intensive science.

Darrell G. Herd

Dr. Darrell Herd is a Senior Research Scientist (Defense Intelligence Senior Level, DISL) in the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Dr. Herd was appointed as DIA’s Chief Research Scientist in October 2005. He is spearheading Defense efforts to secure U.S. intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance advantage for the 21st Century. Dr. Herd was awarded a Bachelor of Arts with High Distinction and Departmental Honors in geology and anthropology by Indiana University in 1971. He received a Master of Science degree (1972) and a Doctor of Philosophy degree (1974), both in geology, from the University of Washington. From 2000 to 2003, Dr. Herd served as the Deputy Director for National Support, Central MASINT Organization, DIA. In 2000 Herd launched a major reassessment of key North Korean command and control facilities and their vulnerabilities to attack. In 2001 Herd founded a special exploitation cell for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, to provide perishable, time-sensitive, all-source intelligence to Special Operations teams pursuing fleeting targets. Between 2001 and 2003, Herd pioneered innovative use of several nontraditional collection capabilities, securing unique intelligence sources at minimal cost. Dr. Herd is the first author and architect of the U.S. Intelligence Community’s exploitation of overhead classified remote-sensing collection systems to warn, detect, and respond to natural disasters. His successful, nontraditional use of classified collection systems in the response to a succession of disasters (e.g., Spitak, Armenia, earthquake, 1988; Pinatubo volcano, the Philippines, 1991; Hurricane Andrew, Florida, 1992; Northridge, California, earthquake, 1994; etc.) prompted the founding of dedicated disaster-response teams at the Central Intelligence Agency (National Photographic Interpretation Center) and at U.S. Pacific Command, Hawaii (the Pacific Disaster Center).

William H. Hooke

William H. Hooke is a Senior Policy Fellow and the Director of the Atmospheric Policy Program at the American Meteorological Society in Washington, DC. Prior to arriving at AMS in 2000, he worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and antecedent agencies for 33 years. After six years of research with NOAA he moved into a series of management positions of increasing scope and responsibility including Chief of the Wave Propagation Laboratory Atmospheric Studies Branch, Director of NOAA's Environmental Sciences Group (now the Forecast Systems Lab), Deputy Chief Scientist, and Acting Chief Scientist of NOAA. Between 1993 and 2000, he held two national responsibilities: Director of the U.S. Weather Research Program Office, and Chair of the interagency Subcommittee for Natural Disaster Reduction of the National Science and Technology Council Committee on Environment and Natural Resources. Dr. Hooke was a faculty member at the University of Colorado from 1969 to 1987, and served as a fellow of two NOAA Joint Institutes (CIRES, 1971-1977; CIRA 1987-2000). The author of over fifty refereed publications, and co-author of one book, Dr. Hooke holds a B.S. (Physics Honors) from Swarthmore College (1964), and S.M. (1966) and Ph.D. (1967) degrees from the University of Chicago.

Dr. Hooke chaired the Disasters Roundtable of the NAS/NRC from 2002-2009, and chairs the newly-formed NAS/NRC Committee on Private-Public Sector Collaboration to Enhance Community Disaster Resilience. He was named an NRC National Associate in 2008. He was elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society in 2006.

John A. Orcutt

John A. Orcutt is a distinguished professor of geophysics at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Orcutt earned a B.S. in mathematics and physics from the U.S. Naval Academy, an M.Sc. in physical chemistry as a Fulbright Scholar from the University of Liverpool, and a Ph.D. in geophysics from the University of California, San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography. His research focuses on cyber infrastructure and geophysical applications; geophysical studies of ocean seismo-acoustics including rough seafloor scattering, acoustic-elastic interactions, and the use of small arrays; structure of the elastic earth using seismology, synthetic seismograms, and geophysical inverse theory; internal structure of ocean spreading centers; genesis of the oceanic lithosphere; and nuclear test-ban verification methods. Dr. Orcutt is a past president of the American Geophysical Union and a Secretary of the Navy/Chief of Naval Operations Oceanography Chair. He is a member of the American Philosophical Society and served briefly as Interim President of the Ocean Drilling Program in 2000. Dr. Orcutt is a former member of the Ocean Studies Board and has served on numerous NRC committees, including the OSB’s Committee on Exploration of the Seas.

Herman H. Shugart, Jr.

Dr. Shugart is the W.W. Corcoran Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences with a joint appointment in the Biology Department. He directs the Global Environmental Change Program at the University of Virginia. His primary research interests focus on the simulation modeling of forest ecosystems. He has developed and tested models of biogeochemical cycles, energy flow and secondary succession. In his most recent work, he uses computer models to simulate the growth, birth and death of each tree on small forest plots. The simulations describe changes in forest structure and composition over time, in response to both internal and external sources of perturbation. The models are applied at spatial scales ranging in size from small forest gaps to entire landscapes and at temporal scales of years to millennia.

Steven C. Wofsy

Dr. Steven C. Wofsy was born in New York City in 1946 and is currently Abbott Lawrence Rotch Professor of Atmospheric and Environmental Chemistry at Harvard University, Division of Engineering and Applied Science and Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. He studied
chemical physics at University of Chicago (BS, 1966) and Harvard (PhD 1971), shifting to atmospheric chemistry in 1971. His work has focused on changes in the composition of the stratosphere and troposphere, at first in theory and modeling and later in field and laboratory studies. His current research emphasizes the effects of terrestrial ecosystems on the global carbon cycle, aircraft measurements of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the impacts of climate change and land use on ecosystems and atmospheric composition. Several projects focus on quantitative measurements of ecosystem carbon fluxes, for time scales spanning instantaneous to decadal and spatial scales from meters to thousands of kilometers, combining physical, chemical and biological methods. His awards include AGU's McIlwane prize and NASA's Distinguished Public Service Medal.

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Indicators for Understanding Global Climate Change

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Indicators for Understanding Global Climate Change

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Featured publication

Monitoring Climate Change Impacts: Metrics at the Intersection of the Human and Earth Systems

Description

Contributors

Committee

Sponsors

Staff

Major units and sub-units

Contact

Contact us

Provide feedback

Request materials

More like this

Review of the draft United by Nature assessment

Modernizing Mathematics Education for Grades 9-14

Health Care Financing to Improve Availability of Affordable Contraception: Identifying Promising Practices

Strengthening Southeast Asian Academia and Industry Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Safety and Security - A Workshop

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