Our Changing Planet: The FY 2001 U.S. Global Change Research Program   [open pdf - 4MB]

"The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) seeks to provide a sound scientific understanding of the human and natural forces that influence the Earth's climate system-and thus provide a sound scientific basis for national and international decisionmaking on global change issues. The USGCRP seeks to observe, understand, predict, and assess the critical natural and human-induced dynamic states and trends of the Earth's global environmental system across a wide range of time and spatial scales."