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Aimed At Creating Awareness About Climate Change White House Launches Climate Data Initiative
The White House has launched an initiative which is aimed at expanding the use of climate data nationwide helping communities to cope with rising impacts of global warming.
The initiative includes making federal data more accessible through a website climate.data.gov. The interactive website consists of various tools, maps and sections including a list of relevant information to tackle climate change.
It will also launch a design competition to demonstrate the extent to which citizens are vulnerable to coastal flooding, Washington Post reported.
"If Congress won't act on the issue of climate change, I will. I ask you to support my plan and take action in your own community now," said president Barack Obama on his website, according to DNA.
Officials told reporters the initiative would allow government officials and business to prepare for climate changes like rising sea levels, flooding and draught.
"This begins to make clearer what the risks are of inaction," said White House counselor John D. Podesta, according to Washington Post.
The idea of creating a centralized climate data center incepted back in 2006 during Bush administration. Four years later, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) formally proposed its creation.
"[The effort] is very timely. As we saw at NOAA the requests for information are just escalating exponentially . . . It's not just data, it is being able to visualize it, to manipulate it, and to tailor it to the decisions you are making," said NOAA's administrator in 2010, Jane Lubchenco in an interview, according to Washington Post.
Two organizations, NASA and NOAA will call on researchers as well as private companies to create software simulations that will illustrate the impact of sea level.
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