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Questions for Clyde Briant: What Does the Fiscal Cliff Mean for Research?

By Guest PostDecember 15, 2012Economy, Scienceautomatic, automatic cuts, brain science, brown, brown institute, clyde briant, department of defense, economic development, economic impact, federal government, federal grants, federal spending cuts, fiscal cliff, income tax rates, increase, kevin stacey, million dollars, NASA, policy analysts, research, rhode island, sequestration, treat cancer

The so-called “fiscal cliff” — an increase in income tax rates, expiration of many tax benefits and automatic federal spending cuts known collectively as sequestration — still looms as a possibility come January 2. Unless a deal is reached, universities across the country will face unprecedented cuts in federal funding, including cuts to research and development funding. Kevin Stacey spoke with Clyde Briant, vice president for University research, about the implications of the fiscal cliff.

If no deal is reached, how would the fiscal cliff affect federal research funding?

It could trigger sweeping cuts to agencies across the federal government, including agencies like the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and others that provide the vast majority of the nation’s research and development funding. These are considerable, across-the-board cuts. The American Association for the Advancement of Science estimates that federal research and development spending nationwide could be cut by at least $50 billion over five years. Research universities all depend on those funds to support faculty, staff, postdocs, and graduate students, as well as to provide for equipment and facilities. If the level of support drops as dramatically as is called for under sequestration, it would profoundly change the way in which universities have to approach their research endeavors. (more…)

Elevated Indoor Carbon Dioxide Impairs Decision-Making Performance

By Guest PostOctober 28, 2012Environmentberkeley lab, brain injury, building, carbon dioxide, CO2, cognitive function, concentration, decline, dimension, dysfunctional, economic consequence, economic impact, energy consumption, energy-efficient, human, indoor, mark mendell, new york, pharmaceutical, pollutant, ppm, primary source, rate, reduction, scenarios, sms, state university, suny, upstate medical university, usha satish, ventilation, william fisk

Berkeley Lab scientists surprised to find significant adverse effects of CO2 on human decision-making performance.

Overturning decades of conventional wisdom, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have found that moderately high indoor concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO₂) can significantly impair people’s decision-making performance. The results were unexpected and may have particular implications for schools and other spaces with high occupant density.

“In our field we have always had a dogma that CO₂ itself, at the levels we find in buildings, is just not important and doesn’t have any direct impacts on people,” said Berkeley Lab scientist William Fisk, a co-author of the study, which was published in Environmental Health Perspectives online last month. “So these results, which were quite unambiguous, were surprising.” The study was conducted with researchers from State University of New York (SUNY) Upstate Medical University. (more…)

Economic Cost of Weather May Total $485 Billion in U.S.

By Guest PostJune 25, 2011Environmentaverage precipitation, changes in the weather, cooler than average days, drought, economic impact, economic model, Economy, geographic pattern, hurricanes, impacts of climate change, jeff lazo, national center for atmospheric research, national oceanic and atmospheric administration, national science foundation, ncar, new york, noaa, nsf, precipitation, rain, sarah ruth, stratford, summer thunderstorms, temperature, tennessee, texas, tornado outbreaks, tornadoes, u.s economy, united states, variations in temperature, weather events, weather sensitivity, weather variations

*Routine weather events can add up to huge annual economic impact*

Everything has its price, even the weather.

New research indicates that routine weather events such as rain and cooler-than-average days can add up to an annual economic impact of as much as $485 billon in the United States.

The study, led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), found that finance, manufacturing, agriculture and every other sector of the economy is sensitive to changes in the weather. The impacts can be felt in every state. (more…)

Tag Archives: economic impact

Questions for Clyde Briant: What Does the Fiscal Cliff Mean for Research?

Elevated Indoor Carbon Dioxide Impairs Decision-Making Performance

Economic Cost of Weather May Total $485 Billion in U.S.