IBP Biome Studies: As this syndicated US newspaper cartoon strip from 1970 shows, the use of field data for mathematical computer models of ecosystems was anticipated early on in the life of the IBP Biome Programs. However, is it only now that personal computing power and the availability of ecological data on the Internet is making it possible to use ecological modeling to advise policy-makers. For example, improved carbon cycle models, validated with field estimates of NPP, will help governments to formulate policy agreements with the advice of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). (Newspaper clipping contributed by Dr. S. Auerbach, Former Director, Environmental Sciences Division, ORNL. Dr. A. Spilhaus, formerly Dean of the University of Minnesota Institute of Technology, wrote a daily newspaper strip entitled "Our New Age" in the early 1970s).