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Number 30, October 2001
Guest Editorial
Building the Policy-Competency of the Atmospheric Community
Over several decades, weather and climate service
providers and the supporting scientific community have made great strides.
Never in our history have we been able to contribute more to public safety
and national security; to agriculture, energy, transportation, and other
weather-sensitive sectors of the economy; and to protection and wise use
of the environment, ecosystems, and water resources.
At the same time, however, societal needs for meteorological
information have grown dramatically in scope and complexity. Hurricane
evacuations are growing in duration, regional impact, and extent. Business
demands weather and climate forecasts of increasing accuracy, over more
extended time horizons. After several years of improvement, air quality
is declining, especially in important urban areas. Military requirements
for weather support are escalating. Weather and climate service providers
and the research community have been struggling to keep pace. Moreover,
our continuing ability to keep pace in future years is by no means assured.
In large measure, this is because the challenge is
more than a matter of scientific innovation and service provision per
se. Whether our science and services can be put to good use, not just
today but for years to come, depends on public policy. More and more,
we must work with Congress, federal agencies, and natural constituencies
to put into place, maintain, and exercise supportive national policy frameworks.
Increasingly, public policy determines the success or failure of efforts
to develop and maintain observing systems, telecommunications, and computing
infrastructure; international data sharing agreements; federal support
for R&D and the transfer of research progress into concrete services;
and meteorological and scientific education.
To operate effectively in the policy arena, the meteorological
community (broadly construed) must take several steps including the development
of present and future leaders who have an understanding of and facility
with the policy process, familiarity with current policy issues and the
major players, and an ability to network with others to achieve common
goals.
The American Meteorological Society has conceived
and organized the Summer Policy Colloquium as a means toward these ends.
The first Colloquium, held in Washington, DC from June 3-12, 2001, brought
together 37 meteorologists, oceanographers, and hydrologists. Some 23
of these came from the private sector, government, and academia. Another
14 were graduate students in meteorology and related fields, selected
on the basis of a national competition from universities across the United
States. Their participation was fully supported by the AMS (using Development
Funds) and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. All participants
were chosen because of their leadership contributions and potential.
Participants began their preparations well before
assembling in Washington. They pored over hundreds of pages of advance
reading - introductory material on the policy process, recent articles
and relevant books, and two major case studies. Roger Pielke, Jr., and
Robert Landis, respectively, prepared the case studies for the Colloquium.
The first dealt with the establishment of the Global Change Research Program
and subsequent congressional oversight. The second examined international
data sharing issues as they shaped the World Meteorological Organization's
Resolution 40, adopted in 1995.
Participants met and dialogued for nine intense days,
including several evening sessions. Some 60 presenters including congressional
staffers, political consultants, executive branch officials, private sector
business leaders and entrepreneurs, and policy researchers and scholars
also participated.
The first modules treated the basics of the prevailing
federal policy framework, emphasizing the budget process. Participants
visited Capitol Hill, and met with Senate and House staffers, as well
as with representatives from OSTP and OMB. The group then worked through
each of the case studies in two steps. First, the case developers used
the Socratic method to lead participants through the cases. Then, in follow-up
sessions, participants dialogued for several hours with the senior policy
officials responsible for developing the GCRP, and for developing Resolution
40, respectively. Participants also worked through an initiative exercise
designed to simulate today's inter-agency competition for federal funds.
In other modules, the group met with policy researchers
to gain familiarity with current policy issues. They heard from former
presidential science advisor D. Allan Bromley. High-level executives at
NOAA, USGS, FEMA, and Capitol Hill, as well as from the private sector,
surveyed the changing landscape with respect to energy, climate, and natural
disaster reduction.
Throughout, participants examined the linkages between
the private and public sectors and their associated implications for policy.
They looked at the role of the aerospace industry in shaping the GCRP.
They studied the impact of country-to-country differences in the public
and private meteorological services on international data sharing. On
the final day of the Colloquium, four entrepreneurs from the private sector
gave presentations covering the history of their respective companies
and their role in service provision.
The Colloquium occurred early in the Bush Administration,
on the eve of the president's first trip to Europe, and amidst announcements
of NAS/NRC findings with regard to the IPCC reports and administration
climate change policies. This timing provided additional immediacy. Jo
Anne Barnhart led the first day's discussion of the legislative policy
process. It was announced later that week that she was President Bush's
choice to be Commissioner of the Social Security Administration. Elbert
"Joe" Friday, from the National Research Council, met the group
the day after the Academy released its report to the President on the
IPCC findings. Allan Bromley strongly hinted to the group that the President
was close to selecting a science advisor, just days before John Marburger's
name was announced. Roger Pielke, Jr. joined the group on Friday to discuss
his Senate briefing of that morning.
All participants would agree that this first Summer
Policy Colloquium, in and of itself, was of great value. However, the
Colloquium will achieve a far greater impact over the coming years. As
the number of case studies swells by two to three each year, they will
grow to be an increasingly valuable resource for policy centers and departments
of environmental science across the nation. As the participants rise to
positions of greater responsibility in government and the private sector,
their influence is expected to grow. The American Meteorological Society
is planning to provide continuing opportunities for Colloquium participants
at future AMS Annual Meetings.
The Atmospheric Policy Program will conduct its next
Summer Policy Colloquium in Washington, DC, from June 2-11, 2002. Further
details will soon be available on the AMS web site.
In August 1999, Roger Pielke, Jr., wrote an editorial for WeatherZine
entitled "Weather policy?
What's that?". Hopefully, as the atmospheric community
becomes better versed in policy matters over the next few years,
that question will no longer need to be asked.
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