Senator Olympia J. Snowe

SNOWE, LAUTENBERG HAIL INCLUSION OF CRITICAL ABRUPT CLIMATE CHANGE FUNDING IN FY 2005 APPROPRIATIONS BILL

Contact: Antonia Ferrier/ (202) 224-5344
Tuesday, September 21, 2004

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Olympia J. Snowe (R-ME) and Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) today said they were pleased that the Senate Appropriations Committee included critical funding for Abrupt Climate Change and Paleoclimate research that had been zeroed out in the Bush administration’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2005 budget. The Senators have fought to ensure that two critical research projects within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) “Climate & Global Change Programs” were sufficiently funded.

“I am pleased that the Senate Appropriations Committee has rightly recognized the valuable research detailed by NOAA through the Abrupt Climate Change and Paleoclimate studies, and has continued funding these programs in the fiscal year 2005 Commerce-Justice-State Appropriations bill. Independent scientific findings, documented warming trends and recent volatile weather patterns have all served to garner national and international attention to the real global concern of abrupt climate change. It is critical that we further investigate the factors that influence our climate and seek realistic measures to mitigate future abrupt changes to our global environment,” said Snowe.

“I applaud the Senate Appropriations Committee for funding NOAA’s vitally important research on abrupt climate change,” said Senator Lautenberg. “Additional data and a clearer understanding of climate science will help us to adequately confront global warming and the potentially catastrophic impacts it poses for the planet and humankind.”

In June, Snowe and Lautenberg petitioned Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State and the Judiciary Chairman Judd Gregg (R-NH) and Ranking Member Fritz Hollings (D-SC) to restore the funding in the FY 2005 Commerce-Justice-State (CJS) Appropriations bill of $2 million for Abrupt Climate Change and $1.037 million for Paleoclimate research.

“This information will guide the development of future models to assist both scientists and policy makers to improve their understanding of climate change. We are alarmed by scientific observational evidence that indicates that regional changes in climate, particularly increases in temperature, are already affecting a diverse set of physical and biological systems in many part of the world,” the bipartisan letter from Snowe and Lautenberg read.

NOAA’s “Climate and Global Change Programs” have provided support for the Consortium on Oceans Role in Climate Change (CORC)-Abrupt Climate Changes Study (ARCHES) programs for over a decade. CORC-ARCHES seeks to understand the causes of both abrupt climate changes and quasi-periodic changes in periods of years to centuries, and thereby access their predictability.