This far and no further: The rise and fall of the committee on earth and environmental sciences
- National Inst. for Global Environmental Change, Davis, CA (United States)
During the 1970s and 1980s, issues of global change-zone depletion, global warming, deforestation, and more-captured both the popular and scientific imagination. Scientists in specialties like oceanography and climatology developed new, interdisciplinary approaches reflecting the complex processes involved, and launched a major international initiative, the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (ICBP), linking dozens of countries` research efforts. In the United States, federal agencies involved in earth science research, particularly the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF), began programs in global change, and also began to struggle among themselves for bureaucratic preeminence in the new area. At the same time, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), both part of the Executive Office of the President, began to worry that federal agencies` various global change activities were not well planned and coordinated, and that the country was not getting as much for its money as it could be. In 1987, William R. Graham, director of OSTP, created the Committee on Earth Sciences (CES) under the Federal Coordinating Council on Science, Engineering and Technology (FCCSET) to improve the situation. Chaired by NOAA chief Tony Calio its charge was to plan and coordinate the goverment`s global change research and provide scientific and policy advice to the rest of the government. The CES`s first meeting was a disaster. The agency representatives refused to accept Calio`s leadership and were bluntly told by OMB not to expect new funding for global change research. Calio left both the committee and the government. Graham was faced with the choice of abandoning the new committee or taking steps to launch it anew.
- Research Organization:
- National Inst. for Global Environmental Change, Davis, CA (United States); California Univ., Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States); National Science Foundation, Washington, DC (United States); National Inst. for Global Environmental Change, Davis, CA (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FC03-90ER61010
- OSTI ID:
- 10172963
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/ER/61010-T8; ON: UN93018781; CNN: Grant SES-9011503; TRN: 93:021635
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 10 Aug 1993
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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