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NNYN PEER Award Winner Solecki Is Among Project Leaders
Now there is a portal to provide comprehensive information on
climate change in the New York metropolitan area. Created by
the Center for International Earth Science Network at Columbia
University's Earth Institute the website (http://ccir.ciesin.columbia.edu/nyc)
is one of the first of its kind -- an attempt not only to track
regional global warming but also to create awareness about the
process and policy.
The website, which can be found at http://ccir.ciesin.columbia.edu/nyc,
is meant to guide visitors in plain language through wide-ranging
information related to climate change. Discussions of the issues,
issue briefs, links to independent data and studies, and other
resources are presented in an easily accessible manner. The
site, designed to be useful to all levels of readers, from climate
experts to grade school students, has been created as an information
resource for policymakers, educators, and the general impacts
of climate change and variability in the tri-state New York
metropolitan area. It also suggests ways to adapt to expected
change and ways to limit their impacts in the future.
"Everyone has a stake in climate change," said Roberta Balstad
Miller, Director of CIESIN. "Forward-thinking people can use
this information to evaluate what needs to be done, and to invest
in mitigation so that New Yorkers prepare for and avoid as much
as possible the problems climate change and variability can
cause." Investments in disaster prevention can be cheaper and
more beneficial than those spent to clean up after a tragedy,
a point that was reinforced by the recent Indian Ocean tsunami,
she noted.
The project to develop the portal, known as the Climate Change
Information Resource, New York Metropolitan Region (CCIR-NY
for short), was undertaken at Columbia University's Earth Institute.
Project leaders included Dr. Balstad Miller, Christopher Lenhardt
and Robert Downs, data specialists at CIESIN, Cynthia Rosenzweig
of the NASA/Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia,
and William Solecki, a professor of geography at Hunter College.
Solecki is also a recipient of NNYN's PEER award for 2004.
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