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The workshop focused on fostering discussion across academic, government, business, and civil
society sectors to make use of existing data and information that can be adapted to track progress of
global sustainable development and human health. These products may include models and
simulations, mapping and visualization products, websites, and applications of techniques for
structuring decisions, such as cost-benefit analysis, multiattribute decision analysis, and scenario
analysis. In contrast to benefit-cost analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis compares costs of actions to
predefined objectives, without assigning a monetary value to those objectives. The assignment of
senior-level, experienced program managers to staff the USGCRP coordination office could increase
buy-in from the participating agencies; experienced staff will be needed to address program gaps and
help lead interagency program prioritization and coordination. Equally important are investments in
improving ice sheet process models that capture ice dynamics as well as ice-ocean and ice-bed
interactions. Additionally, this technology is available only in a few countries, so the developing
nations probably haven’t access to that. In addition, a single agency would be limited in its ability to
draw on the strengths of the non-USGCRP components of currently participating agencies. Zhenya
Gallon, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado. The companion report
Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change (NRC, 2010a) recommends that a national adaptation
strategy be established to engage decision makers, stakeholders, and researchers at all levels in
developing and implementing adaptation plans. ESSP is a joint initiative of WCRP, IGBP, IHDP and
DIVERSITAS. This body of research can provide important guidance for shaping effective
responses to climate change at local and regional levels. While some research has focused on useful
outputs for decision making and adaptation planning (Luers et al., 2003; Moss et al., 2002; Polsky et
al., 2007. Severe drought, especially combined with warming, has the. Note: Results may vary based
on the legibility of text within the document. It is important that such research not distract or take
away from other important research areas, including research on understanding the climate system
and research on “conventional” strategies for limiting the magnitude of climate change and adapting
to its impacts. However, their limited spatial distribution and ambiguous nature (e.g., vertical land
motion can cause erroneous signals that mimic the effects of climate change at some sites) limited
their use for climate research. Potential Use of Climate Change Scenarios in the Health Community.
The Katrina disaster also illustrates how scientific analyses alone are not sufficient to ensure an
effective response. FIGURE 11 Average arctic sea ice area for the month of September 2007 (in
white) and the. Finally, because most of the themes include research that contributes both to
fundamental scientific understanding and to more informed decision making, research under all
seven themes would benefit from. In addition, leaders of federal climate research should redouble
efforts to deploy a comprehensive climate observing system, improve climate models and other
analytical tools, invest in human capital, and improve linkages between research and decisions by
forming partnerships with action-oriented programs. Finally, at the international scale,
interdisciplinary science efforts focused on climate and global change have started to emerge (for
example, the ESSP projects under ICSU). Identification of differences in vulnerability across space
and time is both a pivotal research issue and a critical way in which scientific research can provide
input to decision makers as they make plans to adapt to climate. Thus, there are many opportunities
for states, municipalities, and other subnational entities to work with each other and with the federal
government to build expertise, fund relevant research and research infrastructure, and create the
kinds of networks and partnerships that enable effective collaborations among the research and
decision-making communities. Development of new fertilizers and fertilizer management strategies
that reduce emissions of N 2 O is one area of interest—one that may also yield benefits in terms of
agricultural contributions to other forms of pollution. An advanced generation of climate models
with explicit and improved representations of terrestrial and marine ecosystems, the cryosphere, and
other important systems and processes, and with improved representations and linkages to models of
human systems and actions, will be as important as improving model resolution for increasing the
value and utility of climate and Earth system models for decision making. Such processes can inform
decision makers about anticipated changes in climate, help scientists understand key decision-making
needs, and work to build mutual understanding, trust, and cooperation—for example, in the design
of decision tools and processes that make sense both scientifically and in the actual decision-making
context. Table 4.5 provides a list of the related scientific research needs that emerge from the
chapters in Part II of the report. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some
improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website. As
noted in Chapters 2 and 6, some of these feedbacks have the potential to dramatically accelerate
global warming (e.g., the possibility that the current warming of permafrost in high-latitude regions
will lead to melting of frozen soils and release huge amounts of CO 2 and CH 4 into the
atmosphere). Ice dynamics and thermal expansion are the main drivers of rising sea levels on a global
basis, but ocean dynamics and coastal processes lead to substantial spatial variability in local and
regional rates of sea level rise (see Chapters 2 and 7 ).
Improved data collection, data analysis, and linkages with water managers are also critical. As the
demand for sustained climate observations is realized and actions are taken to improve, extend, and
coordinate observations, there will be an increase in the demands on both technology and human
capacity to ensure that the resulting data are securely archived, quality controlled, and made
available to a wide range of users (Baker et al., 2007; NRC, 2004a, 2005e, 2007d). Recommendation
6: The federal climate change research program should be formally linked with action-oriented
response programs focused on limiting the magnitude of future climate change, adapting to the
impacts of climate change, and informing climate-related actions and decisions, and, where relevant,
should. Other needed investments include fellowships and early career awards that can help direct
researchers toward interdisciplinary work, and “summer institutes” and other training opportunities
that provide extended interaction and promote cross-disciplinary engagement. Celsius or warming
reaches a much higher level depends fundamentally. Any time partners are involved, control must be
shared, and the success of the mission depends critically on the performance of all partners. LCA is
an important tool for identifying opportunities for reducing GHG emissions and also for examining
trade-offs between GHG emissions and other environmental impacts. The design of urban
developments can, for example, reduce the GHG “footprints” of buildings and the level of demand
they create for motorized travel. Increasing scientific understanding of the driving forces for
greenhouse. Research on improved designs of these and other types of monitoring and control
equipment could help reduce energy use by helping users operate homes, motor vehicles, and
commercial and industrial facilities more efficiently. Finally, it might be beneficial to coordinate
future reviews of the nation’s climate change research program with reviews of the effectiveness of
the nation’s overall response to climate change in terms of limiting climate change, developing
adaptation approaches, and informing effective climate-related decisions. Most fisheries are also
subject to other stressors, such as increasing levels of pollution, and the interactions of these other
stresses should be analyzed and incorporated into models. It should also be emphasized that ocean
altimetry, despite the challenges of ensuring overlap and continuity, is on a much better trajectory
than many other important climate observations, as described in the text. The assignment of senior-
level, experienced program managers to staff the USGCRP coordination office could increase buy-in
from the participating agencies; experienced staff will be needed to address program gaps and help
lead interagency program prioritization and coordination. Based on feedback from you, our users,
we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on
our website. For example, understanding and comparing the full effects of various energy
technologies or climate policies (including their comparative benefits, costs, risks, and distributional
effects) typically requires an integration of climate models with energy and economic models (
Theme 7 ), which in turn are based on fundamental understanding of the climate system ( Theme 1 )
and human systems. Changes in terrestrial vegetation and effects on the arctic food chain. Editha??s
checkerspot lived in the past, an asymmetrical pattern of population extinctions on a. ANN M.
ARVIN, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA. For example, economic analyses
often take preferences as given. NRC has published widely on climate change, the ecological impacts
have not been the subject. Priority setting is discussed in further detail in the next section. Register
for a free account to start saving and receiving special member only perks. Does the ultimate
challenge lie in peoplea??s world views. Chapter 4 includes a more extended description of these and
other research needs related to improved projections, analyses, and assessments. Mechanisms should
also be developed for regular interaction between users and researchers at the individual research
project level. Should the public come to believe that the scientific issues are settled, their views about
global warming will change accordingly. One such species is Edith's checkerspot butterfly
(Euphydryas. There is also increasing interest in solar radiation management and other
geoengineering approaches (see Chapters 9, 14, and 15 ). Erika Zavaleta, University of California,
Santa Cruz.
However, the research community will need to work closely with a broad range of responsible
entities and stakeholders, including programs for adapting to, limiting the magnitude of, and
supporting effective decisions related to climate change, to ensure that the scope and structure of the
observing system can support both fundamental research on and responses to climate change. As the
climate research program expands to include a greater emphasis on use-inspired and decision-
relevant research, additional gaps and barriers are likely to arise unless steps are taken to address
these deficiencies and help the program evolve. The observing system, like other research activities
and responses to climate change, should be integrated and flexible, and it should support adaptive
risk management and decision making. For example, you don’t expect to see geography research
papers endorsing the fact that the earth is round. One lesson from the existing literature is worth
highlighting—the earlier in the process of technological development that social acceptance is
considered, the more likely it is that technologies will be developed that will actually be used (Rosa
and Clark, 1999). Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in
the book. Systems Analysis (IIASA) have been able to show a continuation in one. The output from
such models needs to be made readily available to a wide range of decision makers in formats that
allow them to incorporate model analyses and projections into their decision-making processes. In
contrast, one portion of fruit, such as an apple, uses the equivalent of one four-minute shower, and
driving just 0.6km. In fairness, they are very different meals, and quantities of food, but the point is
clear. The utility and potential applications of LCA have been recognized by government agencies in
the United States and around the world (EPA, 2010a; European Commission Joint Research Centre,
2010) and by the private sector. Examples include morbidity and mortality data associated with air
and water quality, expanded data sets focusing on household risk-pooling strategies and adaptation
options, and data on urban infrastructure vulnerabilities to extreme weather and climate events.
Unfortunately, many of the needed observational assets are either underdeveloped or in decline. The
NRC report Informing Decisions in a Changing Climate (NRC, 2009g) recommends that the federal
government “expand and maintain national observation systems to provide information needed for
climate decision support. Climate data records (see NRC, 2004a) are generated by a systematic and
ongoing process of climate data integration and reprocessing. Sign up for email notifications and
we'll let you know about new publications in your areas of interest when they're released. As
discussed in Chapters 4 and 6, great strides have been made in improving the spatial resolution,
comprehensiveness, and fidelity of global climate and Earth system models. A more compelling
categorization is offered by Stokes (1997), who argues that two questions should be asked of a
research topic: Does it contribute to fundamental understanding. As with the integrated climate
observing system—and perhaps more so, given the highly technical and interdisciplinary nature of
many model development activities—the federal climate change research program is the logical
entity for coordinating and integrating these development efforts. This section highlights a few of
the integrated tools and approaches that can be used, including. Finally, a research enterprise that
includes the development, testing, and implementation of improved risk assessment approaches and
decision-support systems will enhance the capacity of decision makers in the coastal zone—as well
as other sectors—to respond effectively to climate change. Based on feedback from you, our users,
we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on
our website. Finally, a research enterprise that includes the development, testing, and implementation
of improved risk assessment approaches and decision-support systems will enhance the capacity of
decision makers in the coastal zone—as well as other sectors—to respond effectively to climate
change. This chapter examines some of the steps that will be needed to implement this new era of
climate change research. Acquiring the needed scientific knowledge, and making it useful to
decision makers, will require an expanded climate change research enterprise. For example, in 2000,
the coastal counties of California were home to 77 percent of the state’s residents, 81 percent of jobs,
and 86 percent of the state’s gross product—which represents nearly 19 percent of the total U.S.
economy (Kildow and Colgan, 2005). Direct, long-term monitoring of sea level and related
oceanographic properties via tide gauges, ocean altimetry measurements from satellites, and an
expanded network of in situ measurements of temperature and salinity through the full depth of the
ocean water column are needed to quantify the rate and spatial variability of sea level change and to
understand the ocean dynamics that control global and local rates of sea level rise. For example, the
C-ROADS model 6 divides the countries of the world into blocs. Another is that, beyond the
character of the innovation itself, it is essential to understand the role of the decision and institutional
environment in fostering or constraining its adoption (Lemos, 2008; Rayner et al., 2005). Many of
these concepts and research needs also emerge from the next two themes in this chapter. The report
called for “cultural changes” in the practice of environmental research in the federal government,
including greater engagement of the ecological, social, and engineering sciences. These include
responses to consumer and investor demand, management of supply chains and production networks,
standard setting within sectors, decisions about technology and process, how environmental
performance is assessed and reported, and the interplay between government policy and private-
sector decision making (NRC, 2005a). Re-.
Issues related to the implementation of these themes are explored in the next chapter. Acquiring the
needed scientific knowledge, and making it useful to decision makers, will require an expanded
climate change research enterprise. In addition, a single agency would be limited in its ability to
draw on the strengths of the non-USGCRP components of currently participating agencies.
Researchers hope to avoid a gap in the satellite record because measurements from tide gauges and
other satellite measurements would not be sufficient to accurately determine the bias between the
two time series on either side of the gap. JONATHAN T. OVERPECK, University of Arizona,
Tuscon. However, improvements are still needed in the ability of climate models to represent key
climate feedback processes (such as the carbon cycle and changes in ice sheets) and to resolve and
simulate the physical processes, interactions, and feedbacks that govern climate change at regional
scales. As described later in the chapter, a number of domestic and international scientific programs
have organized the research community to focus on climate and other regional and global
environmental changes. These. There are also ongoing changes in cultural, governance, and economic
conditions, as well as in technologies, all of which have substantial implications for human well-
being. We rated the level of endorsement of human-caused global warming in each abstract, a short
summary at the start of each paper. There are two important caveats that need to be kept in mind
when designing and implementing strategies to increase interactions between the research community
and its stakeholders. Assessment activities represent an important opportunity to improve linkages
between the scientific and decision-making communities. Given this complexity, understanding
climate change, its impacts, and potential responses inherently requires integration of knowledge
bases from different areas of the physical, biological, social, health, and engineering sciences.
Moreover, because it is difficult to assign a monetary value to some kinds of impacts (for example,
biodiversity loss or threats to national security), the development of alternative metrics and
assessment strategies is needed. Many societal and cultural changes can be traced to the confluence
of individual and organizational decision making, which is shaped by institutions that reward some
actions and sanction others, and by technologies. Identified reasons for these shortcomings include a
lack of consistent and adequate funding and institutional support for fundamental. Collectively, these
observations span a broad range of instruments and types of information, from instruments initially
deployed as part of research experiments to operational networks at the local, state, regional,
national, and international levels deployed by a range of public and private institutions. Several
mechanisms help connect scientific and decision-making entities in the context of the USGCRP.
Research on the impacts of natural climate variations can also provide insight into the possible
impacts of human-. A large number of individual, community, and organizational decisions have a
substantial effect on GHG emissions and land use change as well as on vulnerability to climate
change. Chapter 5 discusses how this broader, more integrated climate change research enterprise
might be formulated, organized, and conducted, and provides recommendations for the new era of
climate change research. Many data collection efforts previously undertaken for governmental
administrative purposes, business purposes, or social science research not related to climate change
could potentially support the research needed for understanding the human aspects of climate change
and climate-related decision making, but only if they are geocoded and linked to other data sets. In
fact, a careful reading of the Global Change Research Act of 1990 indicates that the program was
intended to accomplish many of the goals identified in this report. They can also be powerful tools
for helping decision makers understand and develop strategies to cope with uncertainty, especially if
coupled with improved visualization techniques (Sheppard, 2005; Sheppard and Meitner, 2005). The
development of common metrics and frameworks for vulnerability and adaptation assessments is
needed to assist cross-sectoral and interregional comparison and learning. Changes to the Global
Change Research Act or other mechanisms, such as an Executive Order or performance measures,
may be appropriate means to implement these changes and strengthen the program’s budget
coordination and alignment with identified research priorities. Finally, research can help to develop
frameworks for decision making that allow these barriers, costs, benefits, co-benefits, and trade-offs
to be explicitly evaluated and incorporated into strategies for reducing emissions. To develop
research that is both fundamental and useful, assessments of research priorities will need to engage
both the scientific community and those who will make use of new scientific understanding in
decision making, ideally through interactive and ongoing dialogues. Most of these themes are
integrative—they require collaboration across different fields of study, including some fields that are
not typically part of the climate change science enterprise. The report does not recommend a specific
budget goal, but it examines a “representative” budget in the range of 170 to 200 Gt CO 2 -eq 2 for
the period 2012 to 2050. 3 As the Limiting report notes, reaching a goal in this range will be easier
and less costly overall if actions to limit GHG emissions are undertaken sooner rather than later. On
the more positive side, he said that researchers.
Since the early 1990s, the International Group of Funding Agencies for Global Change Research
(IGFA) has provided a forum through which national agencies that fund global change research
identify issues of mutual interest and look for appropriate ways to coordinate. The development of
common metrics and frameworks for vulnerability and adaptation assessments is needed to assist
cross-sectoral and interregional comparison and learning. Strategies, tools, and approaches for
improving linkages between science and decision making are described in Chapter 4 and discussed
in detail in the companion volume Informing an Effective Response to Climate Change (NRC,
2010b). Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier
than ever to read thousands of publications on our website. One step that could be taken to improve
program leadership could be achieved by assigning higher-level leaders within the partner agencies
and organizations to be liaisons to the program. Socioeconomic data are also critical for linking
environmental observations with assessments of climate-related risk, vulnerability, resilience, and
adaptive capacity in human systems. As with other types of observations, long time series are needed
to monitor changes in the drivers of climate change and trends in resilience and vulnerability.
However, all climate-relevant socioeconomic and other human systems data need not necessarily be
held in a single common observing system. Improved regional projections of changes in precipitation,
soil moisture, runoff, and groundwater availability on seasonal to multidecadal time scales are
needed to inform water management and planning decisions, especially decisions related to long-
term infrastructure investments. When temperatures get too warm, crops tend to mature. Building
and mobilizing this broad research community will require both a concerted effort and a new
approach. It destroyed 40% of the country's road network and caused widespread crop failure.
Efforts to limit climate change are also inherently cross-sectoral and international in scope—national
efforts to limit GHG emissions are connected by the global climate system, making it necessary for
the United States to formulate and coordinate its strategies for reducing emissions in the context of
international agreements and the actions of other nations. But Dr Dangour accepts this would be too
much to ask of people and would result in minimal impact due to there being less uptake than more
realistic options, like the one above. One model is to create a new office or agency that aggregates all
federal climate change research into one organizational structure. Berenbaum of the University of
Illinois and Dr. George Hornberger of Vanderbilt University. Finally, because most of the themes
include research that contributes both to fundamental scientific understanding and to more informed
decision making, research under all seven themes would benefit from. It can also assist in the
development of new, more effective decision-making processes and tools. Connecting adaptation
programs with scientific research is complicated, however, by the fact that many adaptation decisions
are inherently local or regional in scale and can take years to implement. Second, input from
stakeholders needs to be considered in the context of the tractability of the proposed research and
the resources required, and mechanisms are needed to ensure that the scientific enterprise is not
totally dominated by near-term decision-support activities. Accordingly, in addition to climate and
climate-related information, decision makers need information about the current state of human
systems and their environment, as well as an appreciation of the plausible future outcomes and net
effects that may result from their policy decisions. However, there are many disadvantages to
consolidation, and those may outweigh its benefits. The companion report Adapting to the Impacts
of Climate Change (NRC, 2010a) recommends that a national adaptation strategy be established to
engage decision makers, stakeholders, and researchers at all levels in developing and implementing
adaptation plans. Likewise, confusing the atmospheric lifetimes of GHGs with those of conventional
air pollutants sometimes leads people to the erroneous inference that if emissions stop, the climate
change problem will rapidly go away (Bostrom and Lashof, 2007; Morgan et al., 2001; Sterman,
2008; Sterman and Booth Sweeney, 2007). In response to the risks posed by climate change, actions
are now being taken both to limit the magnitude of future climate change and to adapt to its
unavoidable impacts. In much of the country winter temperatures are not as severe as before, which
may be more. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it
easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website. An additional and valuable role of
integrated assessment activities is to help decision makers deal with uncertainty. When Hurricane
Katrina struck in late August of that year, the human-induced changes in the region’s hydrology,
vegetation, and land-building processes, together with the failure to maintain adequate protective
structures around New Orleans, resulted in extensive flooding of the city and surrounding area over
the following week (see figure below). The global average temperature since 1900 has risen by about
1.5F. By 2100, it is projected to rise another 2 to 11.5F. The U.S. average temperature has risen by a
comparable amount and is very likely -- to rise more than the global average over this century, with
some variation from place to place. Changes in ocean circulations and heat transport are also
connected to the rapid disappearance of summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean.
Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available. Collectively, these
observations span a broad range of instruments and types of information, from instruments initially
deployed as part of research experiments to operational networks at the local, state, regional,
national, and international levels deployed by a range of public and private institutions. Identifying
and setting research priorities across such a broad and diverse range of scientific activities is much
more challenging than priority setting within individual disciplines, which usually share common
practices, understandings, and language. Finally, as discussed in Chapter 10, there are a number of
potential options for reducing GHG emissions from the agricultural, fisheries, and aquaculture
sectors through new technologies or management strategies. In the last decades the population grown
quickly, so those people consume more natural resources. Such processes can inform decision makers
about anticipated changes in climate, help scientists understand key decision-making needs, and
work to build mutual understanding, trust, and cooperation—for example, in the design of decision
tools and processes that make sense both scientifically and in the actual decision-making context.
Table 4.5 provides a list of the related scientific research needs that emerge from the chapters in Part
II of the report. The report called for “cultural changes” in the practice of environmental research in
the federal government, including greater engagement of the ecological, social, and engineering
sciences. The research needs highlighted in this report are intended to both improve fundamental
understanding of and support effective decision making about climate change. The report does not
recommend a specific budget goal, but it examines a “representative” budget in the range of 170 to
200 Gt CO 2 -eq 2 for the period 2012 to 2050. 3 As the Limiting report notes, reaching a goal in
this range will be easier and less costly overall if actions to limit GHG emissions are undertaken
sooner rather than later. The act also mandates research that is closely aligned with decision-making
needs, including decisions related to the nation’s energy, natural resources, and public policy
programs. The USGCRP has achieved many of the original goals of the act. For example, Brazil has
the greatest concern about climate change that can have significant impacts on tropical forests
because the continuation deforestation ( Fearnside). While much is known about some of these
strategies, others are not well understood, and there are many scientific research needs related to the
development, improvement, implementation, and evaluation of virtually all technologies, policies,
and other approaches for limiting climate change. Ice dynamics and thermal expansion are the main
drivers of rising sea levels on a global basis, but ocean dynamics and coastal processes lead to
substantial spatial variability in local and regional rates of sea level rise (see Chapters 2 and 7 ). First,
and most important, interactions between users and producers of scientific information should
always preserve the integrity of the research process in reaching factual conclusions. For example,
widespread adoption of batteries and fuel cells would switch the main source of transportation
energy from petroleum to electricity, but this switch will only result in significant GHG emissions
reductions if the electricity sector can provide low- and no-GHG electricity on a large scale. Such
systems will thus play an important role in improving the linkages between climate science and
decision making called for both in this report and in many previous ones (e.g., Cash et al., 2003;
NRC, 1990a, 1999b, 2009g). Numerous scientific and engineering disciplines contribute to the
development and implementation of energy technology options: the physical, biological, and
engineering sciences, for example, are all critical for the development of new technologies, while the
social sciences play a key role in both technology development and technology deployment and
adoption. The federal climate change research program (see Recommendation 5) is the entity. The
integration of tide gauge and satellite data provides an excellent example of how satellite and
surface-based observations are essential complements to one another within an integrated observing
system. These responses to climate change should be informed by the best possible scientific
knowledge. Efforts to limit climate change are also inherently cross-sectoral and international in
scope—national efforts to limit GHG emissions are connected by the global climate system, making
it necessary for the United States to formulate and coordinate its strategies for reducing emissions in
the context of international agreements and the actions of other nations. These and other scientific
challenges are starting to be addressed by the research community (see, e.g., Finnveden et al., 2009;
Horne et al., 2009; Ramaswami et al., 2008); additional research on LCA would allow its application
to an expanding range of problems and improve its use as a decision tool in adaptive risk-
management strategies. Issues related to the implementation of these themes are explored in the next
chapter. That study’s recommendations set appropriate strategic directions for an integrated data
system. Several different kinds of integrated assessment approaches are discussed in the paragraphs
below. Though not predictive, such models and exercises can provide unexpected insights into future
possibilities, especially those that involve human interactions. Typically, participants work with
experts to generate and interpret decision-relevant information and then revisit the objectives and
choices based on that information. Improved data assimilation techniques have also led to improved
data sets for analyses of climate change. Recommendation 6: The federal climate change research
program should be formally linked with action-oriented response programs focused on limiting the
magnitude of future climate change, adapting to the impacts of climate change, and informing
climate-related actions and decisions, and, where relevant, should. The act envisions a program that
covers the full spectrum of activities from understanding climate change and its interactions with
other global changes and stresses through developing and improving responses to these changes.