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Climate Change Program Gets Mixed Review

A new report says the U.S. government is making progress in understanding climate change on a global scale. The review of the Climate Change Science Program was led by a Scripps Institution of Oceanog

Climate Change Program Gets Mixed Review

A new report says the U.S. government is making progress in understanding climate change on a global scale. The review of the Climate Change Science Program was led by a Scripps Institution of Oceanography researcher. But the report says some areas of the program are not making progress. KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce has details.

The new report comes from a national committee chaired by Scripps Professor V. Ramanathan . He says the ability to predict future climate changes has improved. But Ramanathan says while scientific research has moved forward, there's a lack of progress in figuring out how climate change will affect us.

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Ramanathan: Taking the knowledge developed by these national scientists how effective have we been addressing how it's going to affect human well-being.  As an example of this inadequate progress we point out no national assessment of impacts on agriculture, water and health. There's been some ad-hoc efforts but not nationwide.

He says more emphasis needs to be placed on understanding how people will be affected by climate change. The committee's report is the first review of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program since that program started in 2002.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.