Alaska to host Interior's first climate science center
By Katherine McIntire Peters kpeters@govexec.com March 4, 2010
Interior officials announced on Thursday they would establish the department's first regional climate change science center at the University of Alaska Anchorage within the next eight weeks.
"With rapidly melting Arctic sea ice and permafrost, and threats to the survival of native Alaskan coastal communities, Alaska is ground zero for climate change," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement.
Seven additional centers will be established during the next two years. All the centers are to provide land managers with necessary expertise to better protect natural and cultural resources as weather patterns evolve.
While Interior will select the hosts of the seven other centers on a competitive basis, the department picked the University of Alaska without competition because officials deemed it the only institution in the region capable of conducting necessary research in conjunction with federal scientists, according to a senior department official who asked not to be named.
The cost of the Alaska center has not been determined; the university is expected to submit a proposal within the next few weeks outlining plans and costs, the official said.
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