Introduction - The Global Climate System: Patterns, Processes, and Teleconnections - page 23

problematic (i.e. troublesome) from a societal perspective because its
impacts can cause problems (or generate benefits) for human activities and
settlements.
As noted at the outset, climate can be viewed as a resource to be exploited,
a hazard to be avoided and even as a constraint to economic development.
There is yet another often overlooked aspect of climate - climate as
a scapegoat, meaning that climate anomalies provide decision-makers with
handy excuses for socioeconomic or political problems, regardless of whether
or not those anomalies really contributed to those adverse impacts.
Thus, it is really important to use all methods available to identify those
aspects of the impacts of a climate anomaly that can legitimately be linked
to climate and those that can be blamed on society. Only then can policy
makers take correct and appropriate action to prepare for or adapt to the
adverse impacts of climate on society and of society on climate. A failure to
correctly identify the linkages between climate processes and human
activities leads to policy responses that do not address the climate-related
problems at hand.
Our problem is not that we have to cope with a variable and changing
global climate but with the ways societies have chosen to develop their
economies with little regard to the impacts on climate. This brings to mind
the Pogo cartoon: ''I have met the enemy and he is us!'' It is time to start
recognizing problem societies as well as problem climates.
1.4 Examples of general climate websites
The Hadley Centre of the United Kingdom Met Office (www.metoffice.com/
research/hadleycentre/) is a fine source for European climate information.
Descriptions of the various research activities are provided.
The Bureau of Meteorology of the Commonwealth of Australia (www.bom.
gov.au/) has a varied content that provides satellite information and images and
basic physical climatology.
The National Center for Environmental Prediction is available through the
NOAA website (www.nws.noaa.gov). The site provides comprehensive infor-
mation concerning models and forecast systems.
The National Climate Data Center (www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/ncdc.html) is the
basic source of data and climatic information in the United States. The site
provides links to many international agencies.
The Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (www.mpimet.mpg.de/) describes
numerical models and their value in studying interacting components of the
Earth system.