Molly Corbett Broad, President of the University of North Carolina, officially inaugurated the North Carolina Environment and Climate Observing Network (NC ECONet). Some excerpts from her presentation are included below.
We are here because of the "commitment to the kind of public service linked to education and research that is so central to the mission of the entire University of North Carolina." 
Listen [1]
"The mission is to provide increased service to North Carolina and our citizens about the [weather and] climate and the environment and how they will impact people." Listen [2]
ECONet is "an important new tool of the digital world. It will make it possible for North Carolina to plan for, to recover from, and to mitigate the impacts of natural disasters and technological disasters." Listen [3]
ECONet "will provide valuable information about agriculture, water resources, utilities, and many other environmental-related topics." Listen [4]
We hope to add "75 more [weather observing] stations so that [ECONet] will have a presence in all 100 counties of North Carolina." Listen [5]
"The capital investment is not that substantial - it ought not be mission impossible for [complete ECONet] to be accomplished." Listen [6]
"Imagine the potential advantages, not only on the economic development side but on the disaster preparedness side, if we had networks that linked information from along the coastline with information from across the entire state of North Carolina." Listen [7]
Saving will come from "better agricultural practices, more efficient water management systems, better disaster management, improved efforts to locate industries, and increased tourism." Listen [8]
Click here [9] to download and listen to the President's entire speech in MP3 format.
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