As a means of promoting "the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications",
[6] the AMS periodically publishes policy statements on issues related to its competence
[7] on subjects such as
drought,
[8] ozone[9] and
acid deposition.
[10]
In 2003, the AMS issued the position statement
Climate Change Research: Issues for the Atmospheric and Related Sciences:
Human activities have become a major source of environmental change. Of great urgency are the climate consequences of the increasing atmospheric abundance of
greenhouse gases... Because greenhouse gases continue to increase, we are, in effect, conducting a global climate experiment, neither planned nor controlled, the results of which may present unprecedented challenges to our wisdom and foresight as well as have significant impacts on our natural and societal systems.
[11]