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NCSE Sends Transition Team Research and Education Recommendations and
Nominations for Administration Positions
January 4, 2009
The National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) has sent the
Energy and Environment Transition Team of the incoming Obama Administration
a report: Environmental Research and Education Needs: An Agenda for a New
Administration. The report presents the collective recommendations of more
than 5000 scientists, engineers, students, and decisionmakers who have
participated from 2000-2008 in the first 8 annual National Conferences on
Science, Policy and the Environment. It identifies research needed to
improve scientific knowledge, and education needed to improve public
understanding, professional capacity and a strong workforce. This report is
available at http://ncseonline.org/NCSEconference/ See below for details.
It supplements the memo NCSE presented during its recent meeting with the
Energy and Environment Transition Team summarizing the recommendations from
previous NCSE national conferences, including Energy, Climate Change:
Science and Solutions, Integrating Environmental and Human Health, Water,
Forestry, Monitoring and Forecasting, Environmental Education, International
and Institutional Changes. NCSE's memo to the transition team can be found
at website:
http://www.ncseonline.org/Conference/Biodiversity/Congressional%20Visits/Tra
nsition%20Memorandum%207%20edited.doc
NCSE has also provided the Transition Team with its draft recommendations
of its just concluded National Conference: Biodiversity in a Rapidly
Changing World. The draft recommendations can be found at:
http://www.ncseonline.org/Conference/Biodiversity/Recommendations/Breakout%2
0Recommendations%201st%20edited%20draft.pdf
NCSE has also provided the Transition Team with more than 200 names of
individuals to consider for environmental and energy positions in the Obama
Administration. These names were generated through a community nomination
process supported by the Presidential Climate Action Project
http://www.climateactionproject.com/ The names are being held in
confidence. NCSE is very pleased with President-elect Obama's nomination of
John Holdren as the Science Advisor to the President and Jane Lubchenco as
the NOAA Administrator.
Environmental Research and Education Needs: An Agenda for a New
Administration includes critical topics including agriculture, biodiversity,
built environment, business, education, energy, forecasting, climate change,
health, population, security and water. The recommendations cover nearly
every Cabinet department of the US government and many independent agencies.
The recommendations are directed to specific agencies, but are often
applicable to other agencies. Few of these recommendations have been fully
implemented. They collectively constitute an agenda that is a necessary
foundation for science-based decisionmaking.
The recommendations are grouped by topic and cross-referenced by agency and
by the conference at which the recommendations were made.
Key themes include the following:
o Current investment in environmental and energy research and education is
inadequate. The ability to prevent and solve environmental, economic and
other societal challenges is limited by the limited investment in research
and education.
o Multi-Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary approaches are essential. The
human dimensions of issues are often ignored, and funding for approaches
that explores human dimensions and coupled human and natural systems must be
greatly expanded.
o Current programs must be enhanced by vigorous competitively awarded merit
based research, integrated with training of the next generation of
scientists, managers and citizens.
o Clearinghouses and other mechanisms are needed to link scientific
information with the needs of decisionmakers.
Original copies of the reports of the NCSE conferences are available at
http://ncseonline.org/NCSEconference/ or by contacting NCSE at
confere...@ncseonline.org or 202-530-5810.
For more information, contact: David E. Blockstein, Ph.D.
da...@ncseonline.org
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