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Vice Admiral
Wed Dec 10, 2003
Listen in RealAudio 
NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is the government agency
responsible for everything to do with the seas and the air. Vice Admiral Conrad Lautenbacher
is the man in charge.
BRYAN: NOAA is such a huge organization. How does one person pull that all together?
CONRAD: Well, it's a difficult challenge, but what we have is an organization, a counsel
organization and a number of folks who set up matrix programs to cut across each of our
stovepipes so - such as climate.
Lautenbacher has defined these "stovepipes" as "islands of focus."
CONRAD: Climate involves all of our stovepipes, as I've said, and we have a program manager
who has authority across the components of each one of those branches.
BRYAN: When you came to NOAA, what were some of your goals, the things you wanted to
accomplish with the agency?
CONRAD: I think we have some incredible challenges. When you look at the increase of
population in the world, we're at 6 billion people now, and we're going to go to something
like 12 to 20 billion people. We have incredible need to manage our environment and our
resources in a conservative way so that the quality of life for our grandchildren will remain
at the same as it is today or better, if possible.
BRYAN: So you have to look at a worldwide picture, not just what's happening in the
U.S.?
CONRAD: Absolutely. The oceans and the atmosphere know no boundaries - no state boundaries or
international boundaries. I spend a good bit of my time trying to build international support
for the types of observation systems, warning systems and prediction systems that will help
policymakers make the right decisions.
The Weather Notebook is a program of the Mount Washington Observatory, and is funded by The
National Science Foundation, and Subaru of America.
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