CARE was established to complement COLA's fundamental research on climate processes and prediction with focused efforts associated with the application of new scientific insights and emerging climate prediction capabilities to practical problems of sustainable economic development, resource management, and public health and safety. To accomplish this goal, CARE has three primary thrusts:

• conducting research on the human dimensions of environmental change, particularly climate variability and change, and developing advanced integrated assessment techniques which facilitate the production and dissemination of emerging climate information products;

• establishing and expanding communication links among climate researchers in the physical and natural sciences with their counterparts in the social sciences and economics research communities and with the prospective beneficiaries of this research in the public and private sectors; and

• supporting the continued evolution of environmental research and applications through a suite of science support services including scientific and strategic planning, program development and evaluation, education and training, and public communication and outreach.

With and emphasis on seasonal-to-interannual climate prediction, initial CARE plans include the following activities: (i) expansion of ongoing IGES climate prediction and applications efforts related to Brazil, India, and southern Africa; (ii) an evaluation of prototype applications projects in Peru, Brazil and the Pacific basin focused on the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO cycle; (iii) collaborative efforts with the National Weather Service to improve and apply new long-lead climate forecasts in the United States; (iv) collaborative efforts with climate applications efforts in the Pacific Rim, including the American Flag Pacific Islands ENSO Applications Center in Hawaii; and (v) a series of applications workshops targeted at key U.S. sectors (e.g., insurance, agriculture, energy and resource managment) designed to characterize their specific information needs and pursue opportunities for the application of new climate research and prediction products to those needs. In the future, CARE efforts are expected to expand to include long-term climate change and other global-scale environmental issues such as ecosystem change, including land use/land cover change and desertification.

last update: 9 May 1996