Committee on Strategic Advice on the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, National Research Council – U.S. Climate Change Science Program Making Good Progress In Documenting And Understanding Changes, But Study Of Impacts On Humans And Communication With Decision Makers Lag: “Climate change research directed by the federal government has made good progress in documenting and understanding temperature trends and related environmental changes on a global scale, says a new report from the National Research Council. The ability to predict future climate changes also has improved, but efforts to understand the impact of such changes on society and analyze mitigation and adaptation strategies are still relatively immature, added the committee that wrote the report. Moreover, the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP), which oversees federal research in this area, has made inadequate progress in supporting decision making, studying regional impacts, and communicating with a wider group of stakeholders…In its review, the committee concluded that discovery science and understanding of the overall climate system are proceeding well. For example, knowledge of the nature and extent of atmospheric warming and other climate changes over the past few decades and the influence of human activities on these observed changes has advanced significantly. In addition, models that have demonstrated reasonable success in reproducing past climate conditions are improving confidence in future projections. Understanding of the water cycle has also improved, and good progress has been made in documenting land-use changes and estimating how carbon is distributed around the planet.”