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 The hubs will act as information centers and aim to help farmers
and ranchers handle risks, including fires, pests, floods and
droughts, that are exacerbated by global warming.
The hubs will be located in Ames, Iowa; Durham, New Hampshire;
Raleigh, North Carolina; Fort Collins, Colorado; El Reno, Oklahoma;
Corvallis, Oregon; and Las Cruces, New Mexico, the official said.
Additional "sub hubs" will be set up in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico;
Davis, California; and Houghton, Michigan.
The hubs are an example of executive actions Obama has promised to
take to fight climate change.
The president has made the issue a top priority for 2014 and has the
authority to take many measures that address it without
congressional approval.
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack will make the announcement of
the "Regional Hubs for Risk Adaptation and Mitigation to Climate
Change" at a White House briefing, the official said.
"For generations, America's farmers, ranchers and forest landowners
have innovated and adapted to challenges," Vilsack said in a
statement.
"Today, they face a new and more complex threat in the form of a
changing and shifting climate, which impacts both our nation's
forests and our farmers' bottom lines," he said.
Environmentalists want big economies such as the United States and
China to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and other
greenhouse gases that scientists blame for heating the planet, but
they have urged policy makers around the world to take action as
well to help communities adapt to rising temperatures now.
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the effects of climate
change have led to a longer crop growing season in the Midwest, a
fire season that is 60 days longer than it was three decades ago,
and droughts that cost the United States $50 billion from 2011-2013.
The Obama administration is expected to announce new rules later
this year limiting carbon emissions from existing U.S. power plants,
a major polluter. The president is also under pressure from
environmentalists to reject the Keystone XL pipeline, which would
transport crude oil from Canadian oil sands in Alberta to refineries
on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Climate activists argue the project would exacerbate global warming
because of the carbon emissions involved in extracting the oil.
Proponents say the project would create jobs and boost U.S. energy
security. A State Department report released last week played down
the project's impact on climate change.
(Editing by Ken Wills)
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