1990 Budget Preserves Healthy Increase For Global Climate Change Research

The president's global change program looks impressive, thanks to a cooperative Congress and some sleight of hand. WASHINGTON--This year the federal government will invest $664 million to study global climate change, a fivefold increase over its 1989 efforts. But this seemingly huge increase is more a reflection of a broader definition than of a bigger pocketbook. The biggest change occurred when the National Aeronaytics and Space Administration shifted almost $500 million into its global chan

Elizabeth Pennisi

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The president's global change program looks impressive, thanks to a cooperative Congress and some sleight of hand.

WASHINGTON--This year the federal government will invest $664 million to study global climate change, a fivefold increase over its 1989 efforts. But this seemingly huge increase is more a reflection of a broader definition than of a bigger pocketbook. The biggest change occurred when the National Aeronaytics and Space Administration shifted almost $500 million into its global change program.

Last January, President Bush took aim at this pressing environmental issue by proposing to Congress a research agenda that integrated efforts by seven federal agencies. The plan was outlined in detail in July by the Committee on Earth Sciences (CES), an interagency panel set up by the administration's Office of Science and Technology Policy. It called for $191.5 million in 1990 to support research directly related to global change. Increases for individual agencies ranged ...

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