IEDRO Newsletter Jan Feb 2010

Nov.Dec 2009 IDRN www.iedro.org

InternationalData Rescue News

Bi-Monthly NewsletterJanuary/February 2010

A Publication by the International Data Rescue Organization

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incurred while helping in the American Revolution and the Seven Years War. The government was in debt. Harsh winters caused crop failures. The resulting shortage of grain, consequently led to a rise in the price of bread. Because bread was the main source of nutrition for poor peasants, this led to starvation. The hungry populace was ready for extreme change. The French Revolution soon followed.

* August 30, 1800 might have been remembered as the day thousands of slaves in Richmond, Virginia, following a man named Gabriel, rose up against their masters, took the city armory, and freed all the slaves. Instead, a violent rainstorm kept the conspirators from gathering long enough for word of the plot to get out.

Studies have correlated climate changes with certaint human activities. Scientists and climatologists analyze global warming using sources from the past. From these sources, they can predict weather patterns. Climate simulation results are published which take into account both natural processes and human activities. The collection of historic weather data helps mankind prepare for and, even prevent extreme weather.

By saving data we can predict future events and save lives.

www.livescience.com/history/top10_weather_history.html

We have all been victims of meteorological mishaps:

* Packing for the perfect weekend getaway, only to find that your plans were ruined by a tornado watch or warning.

* Your garden is destroyed by a sudden downpour or a late frost.

Yes, the climate can and does change some of the mundane parts of our lives. Even major historical events have been drastically altered as a result of the weather. In fact, throughout time, weather has shaped the course of history:

* When George Washington became Commander of the American army, his recruits consisted of volunteers who lacked uniforms and weapons. The British army, by contrast, was a well-equipped fighting force. General Washington might have been defeated at the Battle of Long Island on August 22, 1776, had it not been for a thick fog that allowed the colonial forces to retreat unseen and fight another day.

* France was already suffering from an economic crisis caused by the debt

Editor’s Note:How the Weather Affects History

Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 8 August 1588 by Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg, painted 1796.http://www.livescience.com/history/top10_weather_history-1.html

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uncp.edu

www.IEDRO.orgJan/Feb 2010

ContentsEditor’s Note: How the Weather Affects History 2

Volunteer Spotlight: Andrea Kobeszko 3

IEDRO News 4

Could Global Warming Freeze the Planet? 7

The Dust Bowl 8

Caribbean Societal Impacts of Weather Workshop 9

IEDRO’s Data Search Services 11

About Weather Data: Satellite Sensors 12

The Little Ice Age 13

Review: Historic Climate Data Helps Agribusiness Decision-Makers 14

Interview with AndrewRevkin 16

Nov.Dec 2009 IDRN www.iedro.orgJan/Feb 2010

IEDRO welcomes one of our most recent volunteers: Andrea Kobeskzo. Andrea helps oversee Public Rela-

tions projects. Amongst her duties, she is Managing Editor of the IDRN news-letter, manager of IEDRO’s education series and coordinator of the website’s translation into foreign languages.

Q: For those volunteers who do not know you, can you tell us a little about yourself?A: I’m a 32 year old stay-at-home mom, currently based in Bartlett, Illinois with my husband and nine-month-old daugh-ter. I’ve accumulated several years of customer relations management and newsletter management experience before volunteering at IEDRO. I’ve also written grant proposals and overseen fundraising activities for other nonprofit organizations.

Q: How long have you been volunteer-ing at IEDRO?A: It’s just been a few months, but it already seems much longer, and I mean that in a good way!

Q: How have you contributed to IEDRO?A: I’ve been working closely with Penny as Assistant Manager of Public Relations. I’ve written two articles and edited others contributed by IEDRO volunteers. I’m currently overseeing the Educational Slideshow Series, the web-site’s translation into multiple languages, and was just recently made manager of the IEDRO newsletter.

Q: How did you hear about IEDRO and what made you want to volunteer?A: I stumbled across IEDRO during an

online search for volunteer positions. Since environmental causes are close to my heart, and I felt a strong con-nection with IEDRO’s mission; it seemed a perfect fit for me. I love volunteering, and as I recently be-came a “stay-at-homer” after decades of working at break-neck-pace organizations, I had a lot of time to fill.

Q: What has been your best experi-ence?A: Everyday is a new experience. Working with Penny has been a real pleasure. She is great to collabo-rate with, and welcomes new ideas. We’re already cooking up some projects to work on in 2010. I look forward to seeing what the future holds…

Q: How do you benefit from volun-teering?A: It gives me a great sense of joy and satisfaction knowing I can make a contribution, no matter how hum-ble, at an organization I believe in.

Q: What is it about IEDRO that makes you want to keep volunteer-ing?A: Besides the chance to work with wonderful people? IEDRO’s pur-pose of rescuing and digitizing data toward solving so many environmen-tal issues is a cause definitely worth contributing to. I’m honored just to be a part of it.

Q: How much longer do you intend to volunteer?A: Forever!

Volunteer Spotlight:

Andrea Kobeszko currently lives in Bartlett, Illinois with her husband and daughter, Charlotte. She’s worked for over a decade in the marketing and ad-ministrative fields, before turning her attention to the needs of nonprofit agencies such as IEDRO.

Andrea is AssistantPublic Relations Man-ager and is IEDRO’s Newsletter Managing Editor.

3Jan/Feb 2010 www.IEDRO.org

An Interview with Andrea Kobeszko

Nov.Dec 2009 IDRN www.iedro.org3

IEDRO NewsStrip-Chart Digitization Software Program

www.iedro.org

Larry Nicodemus and Drs. Ed Root and Rick Crouthamel attended the Ameri-can Meteorological Society annual meeting in Atlanta at the end of January. Larry presented a paper on the strip chart digitizing software program that

Ed developed.

Jean-Paul Miller, Larry and Ed are working on ways to enter metadata in each chart more quickly. Rick will be submitting a funding request to cover the program’s fu-ture development. He will also request the funds to hire a few part-time subcontrac-tors to begin the digitization work we already have in the pipeline from Malawi and El Salvador (approximately 6,000 charts)

Rick completed a global hydrometeorological data rescue and digitization funding proposal, and has submitted it to the National Weather Service’s International Activ-ity Office. The proposal spans six project areas, including maintaining our existing 12 sites, adding three new ones and entering the digitization arena.

MalawiNew volunteer, Ben Johnson, visited Malawi. He carried a number of replacement digital cameras for Project Manager, Martin Munkhondya, which will replace inop-erative ones in Tanzania. Ben also carried a Lenovo notebook computer that will be on permanent loan to Martin, to facilitate his work on our behalf.

TanzaniaTanzania is experiencing difficulty imaging their PIBAL charts (upper-air weather observations.) The data was written in very faint pencil, and was too faint for the camera to pick up. Rick suggested that Tanzania Fed Ex their original paper records to IEDRO Headquarters, where, hopefully, our sensitive scanner will image the records and allow the data to be read by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admin-istration (NOAA) digitization contractors.

ZambiaIEDRO just received another CD with over 1000 PIBAL images from this project.

2010 Voluntary Cooperation FundingProposals

Operations

ClimateZoo ProjectThis is a cooperative project funded by the United Kingdom Meteorological Of-fice and IEDRO (if we receive funds). The project’s goal is to work with Oxford University to set up a process similar to their GalaxyZoo.org project that uses internet volunteers to classify galaxies. ClimateZoo will use volunteers to digitize hydrometeorological data found in ship’s logs. Jean-Paul Miller will be working on IEDRO’s version to get internet volunteers to digitize weather data from our projects. (Cont on p. 6)


Give a day--paint a community build-ing, and get a Disney Day.

http://themeparks.about.com/od/disneyparks/a/Dis-neyDayVolunt.htm


IEDRO Joins HandsOn Network and Disney:Participate in the "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day" Program

On September 9, 2009, Disney Parks announced a new program designed to cel-ebrate the spirit of volunteer service: the “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day” promo-tion. Hoping to inspire families everywhere, Disney is offering one million people, performing volunteer services at participating organizations, a free one-day admis-sion ticket to a Walt Disney World Resort or Disneyland Resort theme park.

Disney has partnered with HandsOn Network, the nation’s largest volunteer net-work, to facilitate sign-ups for eligible volunteer projects. Part of the Points of Light Institute, HandsOn Network has 250 volunteer action centers, as well as a network of over 70,000 nonprofit, corporate and faith organizations.

When IEDRO joined with HandsOn Network and Disney to participate in “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day” Pennell Paugh (Penny), Public Relations Manager said, “We’re thrilled to be a part of this program. There are so many people out there willing to help. The Disney free-pass program is a fun way of saying thank you, and a gift anyone would enjoy!”

For those of you who volunteer for IEDRO, please visit http://www.disneyparks.com. Once your service has been verified, you will receive an email from Disney containing a voucher for one free ticket to a Walt Disney World or Disneyland theme park.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact Penny at [email protected], or visit our website at www.iedro.org.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disneyland_Park_%28Anaheim%29


IEDRO News (Cont from p. 4 )

Products for Data OwnersBill Thompson, retired meteorologist, is working with members of the Technical Team to find software programs. These programs may generate sponsor countries with products, which could, in turn, create funding for project sites with the digi-tized data generated from working with IEDRO.

Horizons for the Digitizing Software ProgramIt is IEDRO’s primary goal to advise, assist, convert, and preserve these deterio-rating data formats and convert them into digital images and digitized records. IEDRO has developed a way to automate digitization of daily precipitation charts. We also are considering automating other data types. Figure 1 shows manuscript records of surface observations.

Figure 1: Uruguay Manuscript Records

Hydrometeorological “strip charts” record changes in parameter values over time. Observational data, such as temperature, atmospheric pressure, relative humidity, precipitation, stream flow, wind direction, speed, etc. are recorded as a pen trace on a grid. These charts are mounted on cylinders that rotate at a constant speed, and a pen, attached to a mechanical device, records the changes in parameter val-ues over time. Depending on the speed at which the cylinder turns, the charts may represent parameter changes over a 24-hour period or 7-day week.

Future Developments

IEDRO volunteer, Toni Rosati, has written an article entitled, “Public Perceptions of Tsunamis and Tsunami Warn-ing Signs in Los Angeles,” that is scheduled to ap-pear in The Front Page, Blog of the American Mete-orological Soci-ety, http://blog.ametsoc.org/, April 2010.

Upcoming Events

Publications



Some scientists believe this domino effect could throw Europe into another “little ice age,” similar to the one that struck the 16th through the 19th centuries. The worst case scenario would be a great ice age, overtaking the entire globe.

Other scientists give weight to an upcoming ice age, but discount global warming as a cause. History has proven that ice ages of vary-ing severities occur cyclically. The last major ice age was 11,500 years ago, leaving many scientists to say we are simply overdue for another large one. These theories, like glo-bal warming and so many others, have yet to be fully proven.

Scientists agree on one thing: it is imperative that we continue to gather and study historic environ-mental data to understand today’s and tomorrow’s climate changes, and truly prepare for the future.

http://www.informationclearing-house.info/article15809.htmhttp://www.commondreams.org/views04/0130-11.htmhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/scien-cetech/article-1242011/DAVID-ROSE-The-mini-ice-age-starts-here.html

4 www.iedro.org

Current weather patterns have a lot of people scratching their heads. With the weather

growing frigidly colder over certain parts of the globe many are wonder-ing if we are indeed victims of global warming, or if we could, in fact, be heading toward some sort of abrupt cooling period, essentially another ice age. The common belief regarding global warming is that it causes just that: global warming. In fact, that’s only a part of the big picture behind the theory. Scientists who back glo-bal warming are referring to long-term climate changes. Advocates say global warming will not just cause warm weather, but weather of every extreme, including hotter summers, colder winters, stronger storms and longer droughts. Al Gore mentioned the melting of Greenland glaciers in his film, An In-convenient Truth. According to some scientists, the ramifications of this catastrophe are frightening. Melting ice caps could theoretically produce enough water flow into the North At-lantic Ocean to affect the Gulf Stream surface current.

The Gulf Stream is responsible for transporting waters that warm both Europe and northeastern North America, and is a major part of the Great Conveyer Belt. The pouring of cold water into this belt could af-fect the delicate balance of these two flows: warm water from the Pacific and the cold, salty water beneath it, effectively shutting the belt down.

Jan/Feb 2010 www.IEDRO.orgJan/Feb 2010 www.IEDRO.org

siberpopphotos.com


blueridgeoutdoors.com

Could Global Warming Freeze Our Planet?

Nov.Dec 2009 IDRN www.iedro.org5Jan/Feb 2010 www.iedro.org

The Dust Bowl was one of the worst climatic events in the history of the United States. From 1930 to 1936 a

period of severe dust storms caused major ecological and agricultural damage to Amer-ican and Canadian prairie lands. The Dust Bowl left the Great Plains without humus, nutrients, or plant cover. It all but dried up an already depressed American economy, creating millions of dollars in damages.

The phenomenon was caused by severe drought coupled with decades of extensive farming on prairie land. Farming practices that would have been preventive were lacking, including crop rotation and use of fallow fields and cover crops.

Although the disaster occurred in the mid-1930s, its basis was laid in 1914 when the Turkish Navy blockaded the Dardanelles and cut off the flow of Russian wheat to the rest of the world. To meet the sudden increase in demand, farmers on the Great Plains plowed under land that they had not previously considered worthy of cul-tivation, taking out loans to purchase the equipment needed to expand their work. When the price of wheat fell after the war, they planted more and more acres, racing desperately to stay ahead of their debts. Rainfall was irregular in the 1920s. When the rains stopped altogether in 1932, no native ground-cover was left. Deep plowing of the virgin topsoil of the Great Plains had killed the natural grasses that normally kept the soil in place and trapping moisture even during periods of drought and high winds. The dust storms were so large they were experienced in Washington, DC and San Francisco.

Because the nation’s politicians became aware of the problem first hand, a nation-wide effort was made to resolve the prob-lem. Hugh Hammond Bennett, who came to be known as "the father of soil conserva-tion” led the soil conservation movement in the 1920s and the 1930s. Through his work on soil surveys and investigation of declin-ing crop yields, Bennett became convinced

that soil erosion was a problem not only for farmers, but for the economies of rural areas and the nation overall. He aroused the na-tion to the potentially perilous effects of soil erosion and urged a new approach to farm-ing to avoid similar catastrophes. Largely in response to Bennett’s campaign for soil conservation, U.S. Rep. James P. Buchanan of Texas attached an amendment to the 1930 appropriations bill authorizing the U.S. De-partment of Agriculture to establish a series of soil erosion experiment stations.

The menacing conditions that produced the Dust Bowl of the 1930s could be prevented. However, dust-bowl conditions are ongo-ing in China, Australia, and Africa. One alarming report, made in 2007 by the World Changing website, states that China is turn-ing its productive land into desert at the rate of one million acres per year; producing huge sandstorms. The population of graz-ing farm animals has quadrupled since the 1960s, which is another cause of desertifi-cation. To reduce the vulnerability of these regions to future droughts, it’s crucial to remember the severity of the drought that once blasted the hope and hard work of people in the Great Plains.

The complexity of current weather pat-terns in addition to farming methods might require different remedies than those used in the Dust Bowl area. The collection of weather data throughout the world will help mankind understand the causes of dust-bowl conditions and, thus, help to develop spe-cific solutions.

http://weather.about.com/od/weatherfaqs/f/dustbowl.htm

The Dust Bowl


weru.ksu.edu.

www.paranormalknowledge.com


The National Center for At-mospheric Research Societal Impacts Program announces

the call for applications for the first Weather and Society * Integrated Studies (WAS*IS) Caribbean work-shop to be held June 6-11, 2010, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

WAS*IS is a grassroots movement to fully integrate social science into meteorological research and practice. WAS*IS is doing this by:

1. building an interdisciplinary com-munity of practitioners, researchers, and stakeholders who are dedicated to the integration of meteorology and social science; and

2. providing this community with opportunities to learn about ideas, methods, and examples related to integrated weather-society work.

Building on the WAS*IS model, the WAS*IS Caribbean workshop that

Caribbean Societal Impacts of Weather Workshop:Call for Applications

Please visit: http://www.sip.ucar.edu/wasis/caribbean/apply.jsp to learn the application details and to read more about WAS*IS.

If you have ques-tions about the WAS*IS Carib-bean workshop, please contact:

Dr. Thomas Behler National Center for Atmos-pheric ResearchPO Box 3000, Boulder, CO [email protected] (303) 497-8492

will bring together diverse stakeholders from the Caribbean region including forecasters, broadcasters, emergency managers, academics, healthcare pro-fessionals, and other public and private sector individuals. The workshop will feature capacity building activities among a small group of moderators/ fa-cilitators, a set of expert topic present-ers, and 20 - 30 workshop participants.

A variety of general topics will be dis-cussed that typically are covered in the traditional WAS*IS workshops. Con-cerns specific to the Caribbean region will also be addressed, including hurri-canes and tropical storms, both gen-eral and flash flooding, storm surges, tsunamis, and the special concerns of disadvantaged Caribbean population groups.

Workshop Details:

* Applicants are limited to those cur-rently living in the Caribbean region.

* The National Center for Atmospher-ic Research will cover reasonable costs of travel, lodging, and meals for all participants who are NOT U.S. government employees.

* The workshop will be conducted in English. Applicants must have a working knowledge of English.

* Individuals will be responsible for meeting their own passport/visa re-quirements and costs associated with those requirements. See http://www.state.gov/travel for more information regarding passports and visas.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/satpic/wsatcar.htm

Jan/Feb 2010 www.IEDRO.org9


The process to extract information from these charts and digitize the values over specific periods of time involves manually running a digitiz-ing pen over the trace on the chart which is mounted on a light table to transfer the data onto a form. This manual process usually takes 15 -20 minutes of effort.

Figures 2a-2d provide examples of strip chart formats we have locatedthat are in need of rescue. They include relative humidity, temperature, wind movement and wind gust, station pres-sure data, solar radiation data [pyrohe-liometer and incoming solar radiation (or insolation)], as well as polar sea ice locations.

Figure 2a: Relative Humidity and Temperature Strip Charts

IEDRO News (Cont from p. 6)

Figure 2b: Relative Wind Movement and Wind Gust Recording Charts

Figure 2c: Station Pressure and Solar Radiation (Pyroheliometer) Data

(Cont on p. 11)

Volunteer Openings

Mandarin, Farsi and Portuguese inter-preters to translate our website.

Dreamweaver ex-pert to continue to develop, update and maintain our current website. Develop foreign language versions of our web-site, in particular.

HTML and Flash knowledge to de-velop an animated educational series of web-based trainings originally developed in PowerPoint.

Blog and newsletter writers

Indesign graphic designers

K-12 educators to help us develop an educational series.


arb.ca.gov


IEDRO News (Cont from p. 10)

Figure 2d: Polar Sea Ice Locations

IEDRO’s Data Search Services

Need weather data for your project? IEDRO will perform a search for a nominal donation. We perform a search using the National Climatic Data Center’s database. All donations received will directly support data

rescue and digitization that IEDRO does in developing countries. To initiate a search, provide the following information:

1. A brief description of the project.2. The geographic area for which data is needed, i.e., country or regional name.3. The specific meteorological elements required and time frame (hourly, synop-

tic, daily)

Send your request to: [email protected].


“The further back you look, the further forward you can see.”

-- Winston Churchill

robertnealmarshall.com


We read during the previ-ous news-

letter how valuable radiosonde data can be towards improving our awareness of local atmospheric conditions. Through this process we can measure wind speed and direction along with temperatures at multiple levels of the atmosphere. Couple this information with rain gauges at the surface and a total understand-ing of meteorologi-cal conditions can be represented at spe-cific locations. Unfor-tunately, our globe is not sampled at every location on the earth, which makes having a complete understanding of our planet’s mete-orological conditions impossible. Global cov-erage is restricted by human and economic resources, as well as by physical geographic terrains that limit meas-urements at challenging and unpopulated condi-tions.

However, global data can be accessed from multiple remote sensing systems through satel-lite applications, thanks to modern technology. The downside is that

these remotely sensed measurements do not represent single-point locations, but instead estimated conditions on a given generalized grid coordinate system. The spatial dimension of the grid is known as the spatial resolution, which can range from 30 square meters (LandSat) to 2.5 degrees latitude and longitude (NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis products). Only a few classified intelligence satellites may have less than 1-meter resolution. The advan-tage of high-resolution data is that it more accurately resolves the observed condi-tions, but the disadvantage is that data space and storage can be extreme when managing fine scale resolution over a large region.

Climate scientists often refer to gridded precipitation estimates for climate applica-tions when ground measurements are una-vailable. Two examples of such products are the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) and the NASA Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP).

TRMM provides 3 hourly rainfall meas-urements at a 0.25-degree spatial scale from 50S to 50N. GPCP provides monthly rainfall estimates from a 2.5-degree spatial scale over the globe.

The GPCP monthly record begins in 1979 and extends to the present, while a finer scale 1-degree daily product from GPCP begins from 1997. TRMM is available from 1998.

To accomplish the task of producing global rainfall estimates, TRMM uses an array of tools aboard its platform—pre-cipitation radars, microwave imagers and visible and infrared scanners. GPCP

combines multiple sensors from participating operational satellites (a 7-channel 4-frequency special sensor microwave and infrared imager) with available precipitation measurements from ground stations. Together these two options provide valuable alterna-tives to an otherwise discontinuous data record (in space and time).

In a perfect world, where meteorologi-cal conditions are recorded globally, we would not require remotely sensed precipitation estimates. IEDRO continues to support the worthwhile cause of data recovery in an attempt to provide valuable data that exceeds the resolution constraints of precipita-tion estimates. In addition, recovered data is integrated into programs, like the GPCP’s which merges it into their precipitation estimate program to improve the accuracy of their existing products. Data recovery continues to be a vital link to unearthing hidden treasures that can help to answer key components of the climate puzzle.

Additional information about TRMM and GPCP can be found at http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/ and http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/gridded/data.gpcp.html.

www.NASA.gov


About Weather DataSatellite Sensors


The Little Ice Age

From the 16th to the 19th centuries, there was a cooling period that af-

fected the world, most notably in the northern hemisphere. This is a period that scientists refer to as the Little Ice Age. Paintings from the 16th cen-tury depict scenes of people in Great Britain and the Neth-erlands skating on rivers that were frozen deeply enough to support them. Severe winters affected the crops of colonies in the Swiss Alps, Iceland and Greenland. Glacial expansions caused many to retreat and lose their homes. In Portugal, there were reports of heavy snow-fall in the winters of the 17th and 18th century, while such weather activity is rare today.

The Little Ice Age affected human conflicts as well: the


cold winter of 1794 froze the river of the Netherlands, allowing the French army of Pichegru to march on them.

By studying weather data, we can hypothesize on the causes of such drastic changes to the weather. Study-ing levels of isotopes can help us un-derstand whether solar activity con-tributed to the Little Ice Age. Looking at sulfur levels in conjunction with winter temperatures allows us to see if volcanic activity played a role. By gathering data on carbon dioxide levels of the late 19th century, we can see whether the Industrial Revolution may have played a role in reversing the Little Ice Age. By studying many of these factors, we can predict and prepare for drastic weather changes in our future.

“Little Ice Age in Europe,” http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/mandias/lia/little_ice_age.html

uncp.edu

patdollard

wikimedia.org


Study Description

Implications, Conclusions and Recommendations

This study sought to identify the climate information uses and needs of agribusi-ness decision makers in the U.S. It was conducted in three phases:

1. A nationwide mail questionnaire survey. Usable responses were obtained from 107 individuals involved in nine types of agribusiness activity.

2. A two-day workshop. Fourteen of the questionnaire survey respondents were used as primary participants.

3. Individual, day-long, post-workshop discussions. These were held with several of the workshop attendees.

Four types of climate information were considered: historical data, year-to-date ac-cumulations, now-only conditions, and climate predictions.

Climate information is currently being used extensively by agribusiness decision makers. This usage has increased substantially in recent years and occurs in design and planning of ongoing and future operations, monitoring of in-season conditions, and model-based prediction of crop yields.

Climate information is used most by integrated pest management consultants, the grain trade, the seed production and food processing industries, and profes-sional farm managers. The information used involves a relatively wide range of meteorological parameters. This is barely recognized by the atmospheric science community. Its implications for the United States National Climate Program, the World Climate Programme, agribusiness, and the provision of climate services are discussed.

Nonuse of climate information is found to stem from reservations about the avail-ability, utility, cost, value, and (in the case of climate predictions) accuracy of that material. To remove these impediments, substantial initiatives are needed in the areas of data acquisition/assembly, scientific research, information generation and dissemination, as well as user education.

An in-depth consideration of these needs is presented. It includes an assessment of the most appropriate roles for federal and state government agencies, universities, private meteorological companies and agribusiness itself. The potential exists for a substantial and profitable increase in the use of climate information by the private agricultural sector.

Lamb, Peter J. Use of Climate Information by U.S. Agribusiness. Rockville, MD. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Climate Program Of-fice, Technical Report, Dec. 1985, 67.Climate informa-

tion is currently being used exten-

sively by agribusiness decision makers. This usage has increased substantially in recent years and occurs in the designing and planning of ongoing and future operations, monitoring of in-season conditions and model-based pre-diction of crop yields.

Climate information is used most by integrat-ed pest management consultants, the grain trade, seed production and food processing industries, and profes-sional farm managers. The information used involves a relatively wide range of meteoro-logical parameters.

Historical data is one of four types of cli-mate information used by agribusiness deci-sion makers. The other three are: year-to-date accumulations; now-only conditions and climate predictions.

www.IEDRO.org14Jan/Feb 2010

Review:Historic Climate Data Helps Agribusiness Decision-Makers


An Interview with Andrew RevkinBy: Andrea Kobeszko

Guest Interview withAndrew Revkin

www.IEDRO.org15Jan/Feb 2010

Andrew Revkin has reported for The New York Times for nearly 15 years, covering such environmental events as hurricane Katrina and the Asian tsunami.

He now writes Dot Earth, a blog focusing on climate change and sustainability.

Q: After over a quarter century of covering environmental events, you have witnessed firsthand what many people have only either seen or read about in passing. In your book, The North Pole Was Here, you wrote for a large audience: ages ten and up. You have mentioned that one reason for writing the book was to explain global warming to the next generation. Do you feel the next generation is any closer to understanding global warming than the last?

A: I don't think it's a generation question; certainly not an age ques-tion. I wrote the book for kids be-cause I think I have to explore these issues for all generations who need to be part of moving to a sustainable energy future. That implicitly in-volves today's youth. I've met people from the age of 95 (Ted Kheel) to under 12 who are utterly focused on climate, energy, and building a fruitful human future on a thriving planet.

Q: Do you think younger people are "getting it" more than us "fossils?"

A: Not really. I see the same sub-set of engaged people, what I call "Generation E," in every population I encounter.

http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/generation-e/

Q: The North Pole Was Here was published in 2006. Have events since then changed your outlook on the future, for better or worse?

A: Every day I start out optimistic and end up pessimistic; but as I rise in the morning each day, I have hope that we can chart a productive course. That hasn't changed at all. This is one reason I sometimes label myself a "despairing opti-mist"— a term coined by Rene Dubos, whose work I've followed since college.

Andrew’s blog can be found here: http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/

Facebookhttp://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/-International-Environmental-Data-Rescue-Organiza-tion-/147922398987?ref=ts

Bloghttp://internationalenvironmentaldatarecoveryorganization.pbworks.com/

Twitterhttp://twitter.com/IEDRO

Linkedinhttp://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/2337122/

Managing EditorsPennell PaughAndrea Kobeszko

IEDRO Managing OfficersJanet Sansone, Chairman, Board of DirectorsRichard Crouthamel, Sci.D., Executive DirectorLarry Nicodemus, Manager, TechnologyPennell Paugh, Manager, Public RelationsAndrea Kobeszko, Assistant Manager, Public RelationsSusan Callis, Manager, Operations

Graphic DesignersJenny WitteGeorgette Esipila Adam KobeszkoPennell PaughJudy Harter

HTML Email Designand MailingJoan Kauth

International Environmental Data Rescue Organization901 Main Street, Deale, MD 20751 Phone: 410-867-1124 Fax: 410-867-9259Email: [email protected]: www.iedro.org

InternationalData Rescue News

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InterpretersAndrea FudgeAura Lawson-AlonsoCarolina MezaDario DiFrancoMiriam MunozMonica VilporsBrook NgoShane AbeareVirginie Noel

Writing StaffJames AveryCameronGerald HawkinsGarry ReidisterRezwana AbedSandra RutherfordTeddy AllenVirginie NoelWoo Yun

IEDRO Newsletter Jan Feb 2010

Education

Transcript of IEDRO Newsletter Jan Feb 2010