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Program Goal. Rational response strategies and sound policy can only be built upon reliable information, predictions, and assessments of the complex phenomena of the global earth system. It is in this context that the U.S. Global Change Research Program goal has been developed.

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U.S. Global Change Research Program Goal

To Establish the Scientific Basis for National and International Policymaking Related to Natural and Human-induced Changes in the Global Earth System.
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 The Program is based on the premise that three developments have converged to make this goal feasible in the 1990's:

1. The science essential to an understanding of global change has matured dramatically in the past several decades and can begin to address the full range of global change research issues.

2. The methodologies and research tools to address the global scales of change are rapidly maturing and can be fully operational in the 1990's (e.g. earth-observing satellites, supercomputers for global scale models and for information management systems, advanced instrumentation and measurement systems, and platforms for ground and ocean-based observations).

3. The national and international infrastrutures and commitment to the global change research agenda are basically in place, with such elements as the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, the World Climate Research Program, the CES, and the National Academy of Sciences.