Natural resource and economic implications of global climate change. Foreign trip report, November 3, 1990-November 9, 1990.

摘要

I participated in the International Workshop on the Natural Resource and Economic Implications of Global Climate Change, held in Interlaken, Switzerland. The purpose of the workshop was to allow an international group of scientists and administrators to discuss (1) the methods and results of a major project funded by the US Department of Energy to evaluate the effects of a potential climate change on the natural resource base and integrated economic system of a midwestern US study region and (2) the applicability of the methods to the study of the potential effects of climate change elsewhere in the world. The role of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in the project was to provide quality-assured data bases to support the analyses and to use geographic information systems to assist in interpreting and displaying the input data and results of the analyses. I served as the principal investigator for ORNL's tasks in the project, and my participation in the workshop focused to a large extent on these tasks. I also served as co-rapporteur of a working group exploring the applicability of the methods used to the rest of the world and presented the findings of the working group to the workshop attendees in a concluding plenary session. The workshop produced a thorough and constructive critique of the project, and it provided valuable guidance on how the approach could be generalized for global applications.