NEON on Capitol Hill for Release of Major Climate Report

NEON, Inc. co-sponsored a reception on Capitol Hill on June 17 to recognize the release of a major climate change report from the U.S. Global Change Research Program.

The event’s opening remarks featured Sen. Kerry (D-MA), Dr. John Holdren (OSTP) and Dr. Jane Lubchenco (NOAA). The report, “Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States,” covers the observed and projected consequences of climate change for our nation and people. Dr. Jerry Melillo, who sits on the NEON, Inc. Board of Directors, was one of three co-chairs of the Federal Advisory Committee responsible for writing the report.

The release of this report coincides with a push by senior Obama administration officials to pass the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES Act, H.R. 2454, otherwise known as the Waxman-Markey Bill) by the week of June 21.

NEON will serve as a research platform for discovering the impacts of climate change on ecology, enabling the understanding and forecasting of climate change impacts, and will provide comprehensive information on continental ecosystem changes for science advisors to make decisions. Additionally, NEON will serve as a U.S. terrestrial contribution to the proposed Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).