The National Research Council of the USA is the working arm of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, carrying out most of the studies done in their names. The Research Council is not a membership organization. It was organized in 1916 in response to the increased need for scientific and technical services caused by World War I. The Research Council is administered jointly by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine, and its work is overseen by a Governing Board and an Executive Committee. The president of the National Academy of Sciences is the chair of both the Governing Board and Executive Committee; the president of the National Academy of Engineering is vice chair.

Climate trends

In 2000, the NRC released a report confirming that the warming of the Earth's surface is "undoubtedly real," and that surface temperatures in the past two decades have risen at a rate substantially greater than average for the past 100 years.

It also said: "Climate models generally predict that temperatures should increase in the upper air as well as at the surface if increased concentrations of greenhouse gases are causing the warming." [1] (http://www4.nationalacademies.org/news.nsf/isbn/0309068916?OpenDocument). Upper-air temperatures are indeed warming - see satellite temperature record.

External link

• The National Academies (http://www.nationalacademies.org/) - official site
• New Evidence Helps Reconcile Global Warming Discrepancies; Confirms That Earth's Surface Temperature Is Rising (http://www4.nationalacademies.org/news.nsf/isbn/0309068916?OpenDocument) - press release

[National Research Council ratings for Chicago, Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, Stanford and MIT (http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/95/951010.nrc.univ.rankings.shtml) (Sources of national top 10 academic programs) ]