"New Priorities for Climate Change Research"

Apparently the new IPCC synthesis on climate change has provided ground that current climate change is largely anthropogenic. Although it may still take up to decades for the U.S. to put carbon emission control system into their legislation, the responsibility of *Homo Sapiens* cannot be easily exempted.

For the U.S., their research focus has been shifted from proving the responsibility to "the causes, the impacts, and solutions". From [Science](http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/316/5833/1828b):

> [the budget bills] include more than half a billion dollars for new applied energy research, a novel $50 million climate research commission that would address regional impacts, and some $17 million to spread the message on climate change through education and public outreach....
>
> ...[A] draft spending bill would set aside $24.9 million for NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to begin to develop two of the canceled sensors--both crucial for measuring Earth's heat balance--to bolt onto the crafts later if possible.

These priorities are, in fact, hardly anything new. The scientific society has called it for years. It is just at present that these budget requests are finally seen to. Of course such investment and prioritisation of climate-related research will surely accelerate the gain of understanding of climate trends and impacts. But the U.S. should not be boasting such late-bestowed attention to a pressing and significant problem.