Taxed by increasingly complex requests for climate modeling, the National Center for Atmospheric Research will build a new supercomputer — but house it in Wyoming, not Boulder. While climate-change modeling once dealt with global scenarios, the typical request now is more complex: ” ‘Where are the impacts?’ ‘How fast is it coming?’ and ‘What does it mean on a regional scale?’ ” Those who request models include utilities in major Western cities, insurance companies, an international bank and a ski area. All want to plug unique variables into computer models for climate change to anticipate how people can prepare and adapt.
A journalist and lawyer, Bruce Finley has investigated local, national and international issues with on-site reporting in more than 40 countries. In his position as a staff writer for the Denver Post, he is focusing on environment-related news including water challenges, the oil and gas boom and wildfire.
