American Geophysical Union Article Index for
American
Website Links For
American
 

Information About

American Geophysical Union




The mission of the AGU is
  • to promote the scientific study of Earth and its environment in Space and to disseminate the results to the public,

  • to promote cooperation among scientific organizations involved in Geophysics and related disciplines,

  • to initiate and participate in geophysical research programs,

  • to advance the various geophysical disciplines through scientific discussion, publication, and dissemination of information.



HISTORY


The AGU was established in 1919 by the National Research Council and for more than 50 years operated as an unincorporated affiliate of the National Academy Of Sciences . In 1972 AGU was incorporated in the District Of Columbia and membership was opened to scientists and students worldwide.


PUBLICATIONS


AGU is the publisher of several scientific periodicals, including the weekly '' Eos '' newspaper and eighteen peer reviewed research journals, notably the '' Journal Of Geophysical Research '' and '' Geophysical Research Letters ''.


MEETINGS


AGU holds an annual meeting in San Francisco every December (known as the Fall meeting) and a joint assembly co-sponsored with other societies such as the Geochemical Society , the Mineralogical Society Of America , the Canadian Geophysical Union , and the European Geosciences Union every Spring (April through May) in various locations throughout the world. The latter grew out of AGU's annual Spring meeting, which had, for many years, been held in Baltimore, until declining interest caused AGU to move the meeting in different locations, starting with Boston in 1998. With the meeting in Nice, France, in 2003, it became known as the Joint Assembly. In addition to these meetings, which cover all areas of the geophysical sciences, AGU also sponsors many specialized meetings that are intended to serve the needs of particular scientific disciplines or geographical areas, including the Ocean Sciences Meetings and Western Pacific Geophysical Meetings which are held in even numbered years. Small, highly focussed meetings are offered through the Chapman Conferences.


POSITION STATEMENT ON CLIMATE CHANGE


The AGU issued a position statement on Climate Change in December 2003 {Link without Title} . The statement concludes that:

: ''Human activities are increasingly altering Earth's climate, and that natural influences alone cannot explain the rapid increase in surface temperatures observed during the second half of the 20th century.''

The statement was drafted by Marvin Geller , John Christy and Ellen Druffel .


SEE ALSO



EXTERNAL LINKS