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Public Comment Period Annotation Climate Science Special Report (CSSR): Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume I Public Comment Period Annotation The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) released the draft CSSR for public comment from 15 December 2016 to 3 February 2017, concurrent with review by a special committee convened by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NAS, 21 December 2016 - 13 March 2017). The NAS panel evaluated the draft CSSR and published a document that captured consensus responses to questions posed within a carefully designed Statement of Task. The final report can be accessed here and an acknowledgment generated by USGCRP leadership here. This memo explains actions taken by the CSSR writing team to accommodate the expert judgment of the committee. A Federal Register Notice publicized the Public Comment Period and a web-based system collected input from the general public and external disciplinary experts. The tool also facilitated collection of author responses. Chapter writing teams considered each comment, noted edits and rationale within the web-based system, and revised the report. The Public Comment Period annotation can be accessed here. Three independent Review Editors evaluated author responses to both the NAS review and public comments, and the revised chapter drafts themselves, to confirm that the chapter writing teams had given due consideration to all review comments prior to submission for final agency clearance via USGCRP-participating agencies and departments of the U.S. Government, and ultimately by Federal officials comprising the Subcommittee of Global Change Research (SGCR) [Committee on the Environment, Natural Resources, and Sustainability (CENRS), a component of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC)]. Names and affiliations of participants in the CSSR Public Comment Period were withheld from the authors, review editors, science steering committee, and staff throughout review and revisions. Anonymity helped preserve integrity of the drafting process. During registration, all reviewers consented to have their names associated with relevant comments once the report was published. The full report underwent two additional rounds of review after these responses were generated and, therefore, edits may have been made that are not part of the attributed set of comments included on the following pages. 1 Figure/Table First Name Last Name Comment Type Chapter Start Page End Page Start Line End Line Comment Response No. Allison Crimmins Text Region Front Matter 1 1 10 10 Suggest not saying it allows NCA4 to focus elsewhere, but noting that the findings of the NCA4 will Agreed. Text revised. be based on the physical climate findings of this report Harold Tattershall Text Region Front Matter 1 11 In particular with regard to observed and projected risks: I feel that this statement is very misleading The first sentence in that paragraph states this is an assessment of the science. The NCA4 is intended and inaccurate; it needs qualifying. Having read the entire document I find that there are observed to provide the information this reviewer wants to see. The sentence in question has been revise for and projected risks discussed but in the vast majority of cases these assessments are directly related further clarity in this regard. to climatic or climate change events. Interconnected risks, specifically economic and those concerning societal disruptions, are hardly discussed, if at all. If climate change, in terms of cause and effect, posed no potential problems for society then why is any action to mitigate it required? Michael MacCracken Text Region Front Matter 1 1 12 13 What are "known" mitigation actions? What I would like to know about are the effects of a range of This was eliminated during other text changes. actions, from doing nothing to a range of increasingly aggressive actions by world community--a lot would be feasible were we really serious. Allison Crimmins Text Region Front Matter 1 1 14 15 Strongly suggest not calling readers of this report "savvy" (i.e., if you don't understand it, its your Text revised for better clarity but leaving the general statements of there being a difference in the fault and not the author's inability to write in accessible terms) and perhaps consider deleting both audiences for the main report and the Executive Summary. these lines or more clearly describing the difference between CSSR audience and NCA4 audience (the ES will be part of NCA4, so that falls in with that audience). Allison Crimmins Text Region Front Matter 1 1 18 18 In the entire 545 pages, you only use the acronym SSC twice (except for the glossary) and they both Agreed. Text revised. occur in this paragraph. Suggest not putting forth yet another acronym that is meaningless to readers. May also want to spell out NASA and DOE in line 19 since it is the first time using the acronyms and the #2 footnote comes later/ doesn't have acronyms listed. Michael MacCracken Text Region Front Matter 1 1 18 20 No one from NSF representing the integrated views across the academic community it supports. D. Wuebbles represented NSF while a CLA. Rather surprising? Michael MacCracken Text Region Front Matter 1 1 18 18 Regarding SSC and footnote 1--they seem incompatible. If they are Federal employees (for one, is an The SSC is a FAC but the full author team does not directly constitute a FACA committee (this was IPA really considered a "Federal employee"?), why is the group a federal advisory committee? That carefully dealt with by NOAA). An IPA is a Fed. Authors are not part of SSC. No change to the text. makes no sense as Federal advisory committee is composed mainly of non-government employees. If all the selected authors are also members of the SSC so they can meet together, then the text through line 24 needs to be clarified and it that there were notices of their meetings, etc., should be stated. Allison Crimmins Text Region Front Matter 1 1 23 24 You may want more detail on the process and criteria for selecting contributing authors and Text revised towards handling this concern. No contracts were made; the Contributing Authors were whether they were brought in via contracts, etc., to avoid FACA complaints. asked to provide their expertise for specific issues to the Lead Authors in cases where we had insufficient expertise on the author team. Allison Crimmins Text Region Front Matter 2 2 1 4 Not sure why the language here is throwing other sustained assessment products under the bus. Good point--certainly not the intended consequence. Text revised. Suggest dropping "Relative to other analyses" and "more comprehensive" and just say it is a comprehensive assessment of the science. Allison Crimmins Text Region Front Matter 2 2 10 10 Spell out IQA. May also want to point readers to an appendix that will explain this and the process Text revised. for literature review in more detail. Michael MacCracken Text Region Front Matter 2 2 10 10 This should define IQA, and it should also indicate compliance with the OMB guidelines for the Text revised. Federal Data Quality Act, etc. -- both for references and process. Kathy Jacobs Text Region Front Matter 2 2 10 11 Need to define IQA if this explanation is provided - not clear that people need to know this but Good point. Text revised. perhaps link to the guidance itself if they do. Michael MacCracken Text Region Front Matter 2 2 13 13 IPCC should be defined--and in this case making it clear it is an international assessment process Good point. Text revised. with very rigorous review, etc.--you actually wait to page 5 to do this, quite strange. Michael MacCracken Text Region Front Matter 3 3 2 2 "The following" what? To be really clear, say following subsections describe the general content of Agreed. Text revised. the major sections of the report or something or this could refer to the whole report. Dangling participle. Allison Crimmins Text Region Front Matter 3 3 8 8 Again, maybe be careful about how you're characterizing the audience. "Non-expert" sounds judge- Text revised. Note that the Executive Summary will not be directly in NCA4; it is the starting point for y. You can just say that it is written to be accessible to a wide range of audiences (especially since it writing the chapter that will appear in NCA4. will be in the NCA and therefore is in accordance with the NCA guidelines). Michael MacCracken Text Region Front Matter 3 3 8 8 Saying "non-expert" is really demeaning as it categorizes a person rather than indicating level of Agreed. Text revised. knowledge of a person. So, it is written for, for example, readers with interest in the subject, but only a general knowledge of the workings and physical, and biogeochemical interactions among the atmosphere, oceans, glaciers, ice sheets, and land surface. Michael MacCracken Text Region Front Matter 3 3 11 11 So, are the authors the SSC? Do they include those identified as the SSC at the start of the section, The SSC are those identified on page 1. The authors are not the SSC, and not all SSC are authors. etc.? Michael MacCracken Text Region Front Matter 3 3 13 13 Delete "be" Agreed. Text revised. Michael MacCracken Text Region Front Matter 4 4 6 10 This seems to be a separate thought and paragraph, and it would seem it should be placed in a more Good point. These sentences moved to About This Report, page 1. prominent location. Kathy Jacobs Text Region Front Matter 4 4 11 12 Since the public is not familiar with American and International units, recommend including degrees That is what the sentence says, but am including examples for clarification.
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