Browsing by Author "United States National Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere"
Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
- Results Per Page
- Sort Options
Item Engineering in the Ocean: A Report for the Secretary of Commerce(United States Government Printing Office, 1974-11) United States National Advisory Committee on Oceans and AtmosphereModern technology is creating a dilemma for engineering by imposing on it precise demands for information on, and understanding of, complicated physical characteristics without relaxing the practical constraints of economics, schedule, and purpose. This dilemma poses especially difficult choices in the oceans where a harsh environment offers severe technical and economic limitations to gaining this technological information. The civilian effort in ocean engineering both public and private appears to be undersupported in view of the rapid expansion of activities in the ocean and little or no reserve of technology to provide the technical alternatives to meet the requirements which thus develop. Use of the oceans is expanding faster than is the knowledge being provided to support it. While the difference in rates of growth may be temporary, it exists now, and creates a gap. That is why the lack of a conscious effort to do something about it on a national scale is troublesome. Recognition of this gap is not new, of course, as many previous studies have testified, but almost all these reports suffered from a skeptical reception because the ocean engineering needs were defined so broadly they promised to be costly without promising any obvious results. The panel determined to avoid the general and look for the specific. It is our purpose in this brief memorandum report to state the task as we saw it, describe our approach, recount what we found, and recommend a course of action we propose be followed.Item A report to the President and the Congress - First Annual Report(United States Government Printing Office, 1972-06) United States National Advisory Committee on Oceans and AtmosphereCommon interest issues are prominent in three of the four sections of this Report. In "Some International Issues Related to Law of the Sea" they are central. Here NACOA reviews the developing controversies over freedom of passage, freedom for research, and the jurisdiction of fisheries, and proposes means for fostering their resolution while protecting U.S. interests. In a second section, NACOA notes the growing international awareness that fish can be harvested to extinction if not biologically managed and suggests how this awareness provides the opportunity to work at rehabilitating the U.S. fisheries. Thirdly, recognizing advances in the ability of some developed nations, including our own, to modify the weather both intentionally and inadvertently, NACOA advocates intensified national and international discussion and development of appropriate regulation. The fourth section of the Report, on coastal zone management, though specific to the United States, describes a situation demanding virtually unprecedented management efforts to weave together and rationalize the conflicting and at times imcompatible needs of the many different users of this resource. The coastal zone is not only complex naturally, it is also the focus for an unusual confluence of national, regional, state, and local interests. Which is David and which Goliath when it comes to the oil terminal or the bathing beach? the oyster or the dredge? Here again NACOA finds that the nation's science and technology can be more effectively used in support of management. It is on the means for promoting a more effective interaction between management and science that the discussion of the coastal zone centers. Finally, in a brief section titled "Moving Ahead" NACOA emphasizes the urgent need for action and for facing up to the pervasive impact on our society that appropriate action will have. The alternative, doing nothing, is in our view unthinkable. The days of the open ocean and limitless air are gone. The oceans and the atmosphere belong to all rather than to none, and it is in our common interest to enhance the use and decrease the abuse to which they are made subject.Item A report to the President and the Congress - Fourth Annual Report(United States Government Printing Office, 1975-06) United States National Advisory Committee on Oceans and AtmosphereNACOA, in its Fourth Annual Report, addresses three themes: rational management of an extended marine resources zone, making ready for tomorrow with ocean research and development today, and dealing effectively with weather, climate, and the ozone shield.Item A report to the President and the Congress - Second Annual Report(United States Government Printing Office, 1973-06) United States National Advisory Committee on Oceans and AtmosphereIn this, its second Annual Report, the National Advisory Committe on Oceans and Atmospher (NACOA) comments on a number of fast-moving if somewhat disputatious topics: resource management organization, energy, the coastal zone, atmospheric affairs, and fisheries. NACOA was chartered by P.L. 92-125 to report, both to the President and to the Congress, on national marine and atmospheric affairs, and to the Secretary of Commerce with respect to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administation (NOAA). It reports this year, as it did last, by treating a series of priority topics where it can do so with assurance. The intent is to deal with the leading edges of marine and atmospheric affairs rather than to review the whole array of programs. And, once again, there were several fundamental and pressing issues which NACOA wanted to include but did not, largely because preparation could not be adequate. The theme of this report - which we treat in more detail in the Introduction - is the need for improved management of programs in both the oceans and the atmosphere to counter the dispersive tendencies which seem to be occurring in the shadow of jurisdictional frictions and in the absence of resource leadership. While NACOA believes there is no single way to accomplish this, it does offer suggestions and recommendations, both general and specific, by which improvemenets could take place.Item A report to the President and the Congress - Third Annual Report(United States Government Printing Office, 1974-06) United States National Advisory Committee on Oceans and AtmosphereThis year, NACOA worked with the consciousness that our society may well be on the threshold of a major discontinuity in human history. From a world in which natural resources such as food, energy, fresh water, minerals, protein from the oceans, and the regenerative capacity of forests and plains seemed to exceed effective demands, we appear to be moving toward a state of affairs in which consumption and utilization of vital resources, such as energy and food, are generating new stresses and strains at home and abroad. To contain the resultant instabilities, we must respond to unprecedents demands on our capabilities to manage national resources. These demands, in turn, aggregate into new imperatives to understand the behavior of the oceans and the atmosphere and the linkages which connect them, and to relate them, through climate, to the productivity of our agricultural enterprise, and to the capacity to absorb waste heat and materials from our industrial enterprise. NACOA is pursuaded that if we, as a nation, are to cope successfully with the needs for energy, food, and materials that will confront us with ever-increasing insistence and urgency over the balance of this century, we must deepen our understanding of the combined influences of ocean and atmosphere on climate, we must strengthen the mechanism by which we convert technological dexterity into effective utilization of the mineral and protein resources of the oceans, and we must marshal and husband the resources of our governmental agencies to do this. The diversity and combined strengths of our governmental agencies, and their ability to complement each other, are so great we do not believe major new investment is required. Some increased funding will be needed in certain areas; reorientation of effort should suffice in others. While we are not in a position to recommend precise action on program details, we are in a position, and in fact have the responsibility, to recommend how our sights should be set.Item A report to the President and the Congress by the National Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere - Fifth Annual Report(United States Government Printing Office, 1976-06-30) United States National Advisory Committee on Oceans and AtmosphereThis Report is intended as the beginning of an action process. The legislation establishing NACOA requires the Secretary of Commerce to prepare a response on behalf of the Federal agencies to accompany the Report as it is forwarded to the President and the Congress. NACOA is fortunate in having comment on its Annual Reports mandated. The arrangement stimulates an exchange on findings and recommendations and provides a perspective for action which neither document alone do. Some topics appear in a NACOA Report for the first time (Energy Research, Development, and Demonstration; Air Pollution Research and Development; Weather and Air Safety; Diving Safety). Sime have been touched on in previous Annual Reports (Policy and Planning for Marine Affairs; Energy from Offshore Sources; Defense Oceanography; Climate Change; Weather Modification). The Chapter on Sea Grant is a brief account of a special report to be published later this year. The Committee has come to be called on more frequently than before for testimony and for advice and finds more occasion to offer advice on its own volition. NACOA normally meets once a month during the year to be briefed on a host of subjects bearing on marine and atmospheric affairs and to prepare for this Annual Report. In addition, it forms ad hoc panels, which develop specific subjects in greater depth than can be done in plenary sessions, for subsequent discussion and action by the parent Committee. This work, where appropriate, forms the basis for chapters in these reports. During this past year, several important marine issues arose which required NACOA to comment prior to this Annual Report. One such problem is the tragic possibility that GLOMAR EXPLORER, a unique ocean engineering instrument, may be scrapped. A second was the relation of the developing National Fisheries Plan to the significant fisheries legislation extending jurisdiction in U.S. coastal waters oout to 200 miles. NACOA will be following with great interest and full attention the ways in which the 200-mile extended fisheries jurisdiction legislation is put into practice and how it influences the well-being of the United States coastal fisheries. We will report briefly on the NACOA actions undertaken on these two items, among others, at the end of this Report.