Negotiations Begin Tomorrow On Global Environment Monitoring System

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TOKYO — Nations are near agreement on the blueprint of a global climate monitoring system that would help forecast environmental threats such as rising sea levels or drought, but negotiating the details won't be easy, U.S. officials said Friday.

Officials from 47 nations and more than two dozen international organizations are meeting in Tokyo this week to decide what the climate watch system should look like, who will run it and how open it should be. They are expected to announce on Sunday a plan for the next decade through 2015.

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The United States, whose environmental policy has often riled other countries, has led the debate, which was initiated by the Group of Eight richest nations last year. Details of the system aren't expected to emerge until early next year, after a follow-up meeting in Brussels, Belgium. It's also not clear how much it will cost.

Nations already have technology — such as satellites, ocean buoys, fixed weather stations and balloons — to monitor the oceans, forests and atmosphere and collect data about the world's weather patterns and other threats such as El Nino."

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Great, 16 years after James Hansen's first testimony to Congress, we're ready to BEGIN discussing a global information system. Better late than never, I suppose, but jeez . . .