Introduction 
The ability to sustain our economy in the face of the fuel shortage this 
last winter, with only minor discomforts as a nation, was due largely to 
a spell of warm winter weather in the United States. What luck next time? 
NACOA wishes to focus attention on the essential role occupied by the 
ocean-atmosphere interaction in short- and long-range aspects of climate 
prediction and energy use and development. The adverse effects of weather 
on world food production in recent years have largely occurred elsewhere. 
But the natural variability of climate and weather is such that deviations 
from the expected norm could have a strong effect both on energy con- 
sumption and on the production of food here at home. We need increased 
emphasis on planning so as to strengthen our capabilities and make ready 
for these effects. 
Doing the best we can about climate prediction is not good enough. 
But we can, at least, take advantage of what we do know to estimate risk 
and plan accordingly. We must also intensify the effort to understand better 
the natural variations in climate and begin some sustained and well- 
supported efforts to estimate the effect man’s activities have upon it in 
the long as well as the short term. 
NACOA has not strained to reach this problem. It forced itself upon us 
because its proper consideration rests heavily on a linkage between the 
oceans and the atmosphere which is inadequately reflected in national 
organization. This, in turn, leads to neglect. 
Presently, the connection between the oceans and the atmosphere 
is traced largely by title rather than by function. While the National 
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and ourselves, the 
National Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere (NACOA), 
were created in recognition of the link, the ocean missions of NOAA have 
been too restricted, inadequately defined, and inadequately supported. An 
eight-foot chain cannot cover a ten-foot gap. 
