Common Questions about Climate Change, produced by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), addresses ten frequently-asked questions about climate change. This document and others, such as the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy's Climate Change: State of Knowledge and the US Global Change Research Program's Our Changing Planet, are among the dozens of publications that can be obtained free of charge either in hard copy or on-line on the World Wide Web from the US Global Change Research Information Office (GCRIO).

In 1990, Congress passed and the President signed Public Law 101-606, the Global Change Research Act of 1990. The Act required that a US Global Change Research Information Office be established. The GCRIO mission was to provide access to data and information on global change research, adaptation/mitigation strategies and technologies, and educational resources on behalf of the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) and its participating Federal Agencies.

To accomplish this mission, GCRIO acts as a clearinghouse for selected key documents and reports that are either generated or sponsored by the US Government or by specific Federal Agencies. GCRIO generates abstracts of these documents and places them into an on-line searchable bibliographic data base. Links to other relevant bibliographic systems are also maintained. GCRIO can respond to requests for copies of these documents either directly or indirectly by forwarding the request to the proper Agency contact. Selected documents are available on-line in their entirety.

The GCRIO Home Page provides access to selected bibliographic databases; web sites at the participating Federal Agencies; relevant environmental data, catalogs, and library systems; the 'Ask Dr. Global Change' column; and a special section that deals with environmental education. Brochures describing GCRIO's products and services are available in English, French, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, and Chinese.

GCRIO is operated by the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University. For more information, contact GCRIO User Services, P.O. Box 1000, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, New York 10964 USA; help@gcrio.org; telephone - (914) 365-8930; FAX - (914) 365-8922

- Bob Worrest, CIESIN