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THE CHANGING ATMOSPHERE-CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITES

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[[caption]] The 1988 summer's American drought, whether or not it is related to greenhouse warming, indicates the vulnerability of our agricultural system to relatively minor climate fluctuations, and it is typical of what can be expected in the future. (Photo by Robert Bumpas, NCAR Photographics.) [[/caption]]

It takes little imagination to recognize that climate changes of this magnitude will bring with it changes in the economies and well-being of all countries and will result in shifts in the balance of the world trade and of world power. It is essential that policy makers and scientists work closely together to upgrade our models and observations to increase understanding and ability to predict impending climate changes, including associated regional changes, whether and how climate change can be slowed, and how our own country should adjust to the inevitable global changes.

3.2 Components of a Coordinated Climate Change Program

We need to mobilize the talents of the best scientists and our best scientific institutions to improve our understanding of global climate and to sharpen predictions of climate changes and their implications. We must include agricultural scientists, forecasters, economists, and planners at the outset, to ensure that the research of physical scientists will produce the information needed by the policy-making community.

The changes that are anticipated are global, and the challenge of meeting them is now recognized by leading scientist in every country around the world. Multidisciplinary research programs to address the problems of global change are now being organized both nationally and internationally, to commence in earnest in the early 1990s. These planned programs will in effect put the earth in intensive care, by monitoring the

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