Editing National Climate Assessment (section)

==National Assessment Synthesis Team (NAST)==
In 1998, the first [[National Assessment Synthesis Team]] (NAST) was formed under the auspices of the Subcommittee on Global Change Research (SGCR), through the [[Committee on Environmental and Natural Resources]] (CENR) and the [[National Science and Technology Council]] (NSTC) with members from "government, academia, and private enterprise." Its mandate was to broadly "design and conduct" "national efforts to assess the consequences of climate variability and climate change for the United States."<ref>{{citation|url=http://www.usgcrp.gov/usgcrp/nacc/background/organization/charge-nast.html|title=US National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change Charge for the National Assessment Synthesis Team |date=January 27, 1998|access-date=May 8, 2014|publisher=USCCRP|location=Washington, DC}}</ref> NAST is an advisory committee chartered under the [[Federal Advisory Committee Act]] to help the US Global Change Research Program fulfill its legal mandate under the Global Change Research Act of 1990. The NSTC forwarded the report to the President and Congress for their consideration as required by the Global Change Research Act. Administrative support for the US Global Change Research Program was provided by the [[University Corporation for Atmospheric Research]], which was sponsored by the [[National Science Foundation]]."<ref name="NCA_2000"/>  In their 2001 assessment, the NAST concluded in the United States, "natural [[ecosystem]]s appear to be the most vulnerable to the harmful effects of climate change."<ref name=NAST_2001 /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.usgcrp.gov/usgcrp/Library/nationalassessment/overview.htm|title=GlobalChange.gov|website=GlobalChange.gov|access-date=12 April 2018}}</ref> In their 2001 report they also described long-term major trends in climate change in the twenty-first century.<ref name=NAST_2001>{{citation|url=http://www.fs.fed.us/ccrc/topics/assessments.shtml|title=Climate Change Assessments|year=2008|publisher=[[United States Forest Service]]/Climate Change Resource Center (CCRC) |editor-first=Linda |editor-last=Joyce|location=Fort Collins, CO.|access-date=May 9, 2014}}</ref> The first NAST co-chairs were Dr. Jerry M. Melillo<ref name=NAST_2001_chairs>{{citation|chapter-url=http://www.gcrio.org/NationalAssessment/overpdf/Bios.pdf|access-date=May 9, 2014|date=n.d.|chapter=Appendix I - Biographical Sketches of NAST Members|title=National Assessment|publisher=GCRIO|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101204073303/http://gcrio.org/NationalAssessment/overpdf/Bios.pdf|archive-date=December 4, 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> of the [[Marine Biological Laboratory]] in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, Tony Janetos, and Thomas Karl.