Statistics on underrepresented minorities (URMs) show that in the class of 2004, African Americans and Hispanics earned only 2% and 4% of the bachelor degrees earned in the geosciences, respectively. In the same year, at the graduate level, African Americans earned 5 and Hispanics earned 10 out of a total of 804 Ph.D.s awarded in the geosciences; this was the lowest in all STEM areas. The confluence of a growing minority U.S. population, the declining level of geoscience Ph.D.s, the rise of complex environmental problems and globalization has made it more necessary than ever to use the potential of an otherwise untapped reserve of human capital in the U.S. The vast number of studies and reports on URMs usually provide statistics and several recommendations on increasing diversity. Unfortunately, a list of recommendations does not equate to a plan of action. In contrast to the usual list of recommendations that are typically given at the end of reports, numerical projections through modeling are provided to show the likely impacts and outcomes with respect to the number of Ph.D.s earned by URMs. The model shows that it is possible to bring the number of URMs in the atmospheric sciences into parity with U.S. population demographics. A long-term plan for solving the lack of diversity in the atmospheric sciences and quantitative projections are presented.