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The answers are not yet known. But such questions, in recent years, have become an important part of our research at the High Alti- tude Observatory as clues have come to suggest that the changing acti- vity of the sun is indeed one of the factors in climate change. And study of the sun, both from our high altitude station at Climax and our research center at the University of Colorado, has been our tra- ditional field of special knowledge. I "My own personal convicUon is that the problem of h<;>w we, as a: nation, manage our dwindling water reserves is our most 'tmpoi'tant long-range economic and social problem. 11 For us here in the West it is easy to understand the significance of water. But it will be only a .. few years before other parts of the nation are also made acJ.tely aware of this. My conviction about the central importance of water conServa- tion lies behind my determination that we at the Observatory will push all possible constructive effort into the problem of understanding the causes of large scale weather changes, either of drought or of flood. I believe, moreover, that major clues to these changing weather and climate trends will be found in studies of the way the sun's changes affect the earth's upper utmosphere. There are, however, manyex- perts in meteorological sciences who disagree with me. Many other research teams are at work on problems of long term weather and climate changes. I shall try to outline, below, some of the important steps that must be undertaken if these various groups are to succeed in making sound overall research progress. Many seemingly disparate and divergent modes of attack to the problem are being simultaneously undertaken. And I think this highly proper. It is perhaps the touchstone of American scientific inventiveness, our peculiar national genius in creative research, that we approach pro- blems from a diversity of viewpoints and of methods. This is a far surer way to success than single-minded, single-mastered research efforts, even when these are of considerably grander scale. And it is a less costly way, in the long run. WATER DEMAND PROBLEMS. Acute national problems of growing demand for water in an ex- panding economy face us in the years immediately ahead. For those who I ive in the semi-arid "rain shadow" just east of the Rocky Moun- tains and in fact, all of us throughout the Southwest, the problem is enormously intensified. Not only are we in a region of greater than average population growth, but we are in a region of greater than aver- age rainfall fluctuation from an already marginal "normal". 2-