Why Climate Affairs?

Climate and climate-related issues such as food security, water resources, energy production and consumption, public health and public safety have during the last decade become increasingly important to governments, corporations, individuals, as well as to the general public.

In part this elevated interest in climate issues and weather extremes has been a result of the end of the Cold War. During the 1990s, various weather extremes and climate anomalies have occurred, such as the "El Niño of the Century" (the 1997-98 El Niño), followed by a protracted La Niña event, and some very damaging hurricanes in the Caribbean Sea, droughts in North Korea and Afghanistan, and floods in Western and Eastern Europe and in Mozambique, for example. Some researchers have linked these weather episodes to global warming of the atmosphere, while others proposed that they were random occurrences under a normal but varying global climate regime. Today, one could argue that governments are in the process of creating a "Law of the Atmosphere" as they had earlier developed a "Law of the Sea."

Climate has traditionally been described as weather averaged over some specified time period. It is much more than that. Climate encompasses *variability* from season to season, and from year to year; *fluctuations* occur on the order of a few decades; *climate change* takes place on the order of centuries and longer; *extreme meteorological events* including both weather and climate extremes; and *seasonality* or the natural flow of the seasons as defined at specific locations. By including these five aspects of climate into a Climate Affairs Program, a realistic balance in teaching and research of climate on various time scales can be developed.

A truly multidisciplinary Climate Affairs Program must contain the following dimensions: *Climate Science,* *Climate Impacts on Ecosystems and Societies,* *Climate Policy & Law,* *Climate Politics,* *Climate Economics,* and *Climate Ethics.*

This website will hopefully serve as a catalyst for discussion of ideas and issues relating to the development of Climate Affairs education, training and research activities. In addition to several meetings to discuss the notion of climate affairs as a potential academic activity, two workshops have begun to explore these ideas: A conference on Climate Affairs in Latin America, and a workshop on Climate Affairs in South and Southeast Asia. A Master of Arts Program in Climate and Society based on the climate affairs model is now being offered at Columbia University to start in the fall of 2004.

Please send your thoughts on any ideas you may have about climate affairs or about this website.

Michael H. Glantz, Senior Scientist, NCAR