NOAA Climate Service: Obama's Answer to IPCC

The Obama administration announced plans to form a federal office of climate science with the open intent of challenging the IPCC as the gold standard for research in this field. Described as "one-stop shopping" for climate information, the proposed service would vary greatly from programs instituted by the IPCC. Officially called NOAA Climate Services, the program would be "open source;" all information gathered and any research done under official auspices will be able to be browsed and downloaded online. This means that aspiring researchers will have access to billions of points of raw data, public officials will get an inside look into why researchers came to their conclusions, and climate skeptics will be able to precisely examine the data that drives global warming science. The country of India announced a similar initiative last week, saying that the impacts of climate research are too severe to trust with the IPCC.

The Obama administration says that this new program will help shore up the public's mistrust of climate science and "regain the consensus" lost by the recent scandals that have troubled the United Nations IPCC. Some environmental groups, like Sierra Club, welcome the program and see NOAA Climate Services as a method to quell skeptic momentum. "As polluters and their allies continue to try and muddy the waters around climate science, the Climate Service will provide easy, direct access to the valuable scientific research undertaken by government scientists and others," said Carl Pope, President of Sierra Club. According to officials, planning for NOAA Climate Services began before troubles surfaced at the IPCC.

The Obama administration will be redirecting funds from existing NOAA climate programs to fund the new Climate Services office to avoid any budget increase. In addition to serving as America's climate change authority, NOAA also supplies the raw data used by private researchers, agricultural interests, the billion-dollar weather industry and more. Despite NOAA's internal funding methods, the Obama administration will be required to have this massive reorganization approved by Congress. It is expected that Republican Senators will require specific guarantees that data and research be available to the public, regardless of its effects on the Climate Services program's core mission, and that the program will not negatively effect any other NOAA programs.

While 550 NOAA employees will be relocated to NOAA climate services, officials say they say that the new office will create jobs in the private sector. By offering up billions of points of data, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke says that NOAA Climate Services could lead to the privatization of climate research. Locke predicts a swell in research and analytic businesses that repackage climate data, much like how the Weather Channel repackages information from NOAA's National Weather Service.

The initial response from climate skeptics to the NOAA Climate Service was harsh. Popular blogs maintained by climate skeptics like Tom Nelson and Anthony Watts say that the materials published so far by the NOAA Climate Service are biased. Chief among their concerns are headlines they say are meant to drive alarmism, such as those claiming that there is a link between climate change and meningitis and assertions that the last decade of cooling temperatures must be classified as a statistical anomaly. Skeptics also attacked the Climate Service's proposed administrator, Tom Karl, who was accused of sensationalizing scientific assessment reports on climate change in 2008. These blogs and other skeptics likened NOAA Climate Services to federal funding of climate science public relations, as no new research will actually be performed as a direct result of the organization's creation.

If Congress approves the reorganization, NOAA Climate Services could begin operations in earnest by October 1st, 2010.