The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today
released its final strategic plan that will guide the agency’s efforts
to respond to the threat posed by global warming. The plan, titled “Rising to the Urgent
Challenge: Strategic Plan for Responding to Accelerating Climate
Change,†provides a framework within which the Service will work as part
of the conservation community to help ensure the sustainability of
fish, wildlife, plants and habitats in the face of accelerating climate
change. See the press release for full details.
A new document titled When Every Drop Counts: Protecting Public Health During Drought Conditions – A Guide for Public Health
Professionals has been finalized and is available on the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC), National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) Web
site at http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/ehs/Publications/Drought.htm. CDC’s National Center for
Environmental Health developed this publication to assist public health
officials, practitioners, and other stakeholders in their efforts to understand
and prepare for drought in their communities. The document includes information
about how drought affects public health, recommends steps to help mitigate the
health effects of drought, identifies future needs for research and other
drought-related activities, and provides a list of helpful resources and tools.
The EPA recently released a Tabletop Exercise Tool (TTX Tool) that is designed to introduce users to the potential
impacts of climate change on the water sector and prepare them for emergency response. Five climate change-related scenarios
provide an opportunity for utilities to consider and implement
long-term planning measures in order to mitigate the potential impacts
of climate change. Copies of the TTX Tool can be obtained by emailing ttxtool@epa.gov with a mailing address and number of requested copies.
On September 23, 2010, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced the locations
selected for the Department of the Interior’s Southeast and Northwest
regional Climate Science Centers (CSC) and the finalization of a cooperative
agreement for the Alaska Climate Science Center, which opened on Sept. 1
in Anchorage.
North Carolina State University will host the Department of the
Interior’s Southeast Climate Science Center. A consortium of three
universities--Oregon State University, University of Washington and the
University of Idaho--will lead the Northwest Climate Science Center. Including the first CSC, the Alaska CSC hosted by the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, a total of three of the eight planned regional Climate Science Centers have been announced. These regional Climate Science Centers and their partnership networks
will function to provide the science needed to understand which regional resources are most
vulnerable to climate change, and they will work closely with the resource managers that have to work on planning for climate change. For more details, see the DOI press release at http://www.doi.gov/news/pressreleases/Interior-Announces-Climate-Science-Centers-for-Southeast-and-Northwest-Regions.cfm.
EPA has released for independent external peer review and public comment a draft report entitled, A Method to Assess Climate-Relevant Decisions: Application in the Chesapeake Bay.
This draft report presents a method to inventory and analyze
environmental management decisions and their sensitivity to climatic
change for the purpose of subsequent prioritization. The peer review
and public comments will be accepted until November 1, 2010 and will be
used to revise the draft report. A final report will be posted online.
This draft report is available at: http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/cfm/
recordisplay.cfm?deid=227483.
