Global problems warrant global solutions: US scientist

Panaji: Global problems, including those related to climate and ocean sciences, warrant global solutions, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) chief scientist Craig McLean said here on Monday.

“The citizens of India benefit from the forecast because of the work we (India and the US) do together in the Indian Ocean,” McLean said at the second India-US colloquium on Earth Observations and Sciences for Society and Economy while calling for a greater collaboration between Indian and US scientists.

“The measurements, the deployments, the models and the work that we have to discuss here on fishing and eco-system management, these are global challenges that only a global community can master, accommodate and develop solutions,” McLean added.

“St. Louis in Missouri, the US, benefits because of the measurements we are making with you in the Indian Ocean,” he said while explaining the significance and the reach of the work being carried out jointly by the scientific communities from both the countries.

The colloquium is expected to provide a forum to establish the foundation for the next decade of ocean-climate collaborations between the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Indian Ministry of Earth Sciences.

As part of the event, NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown, the organisation’s largest research vessel, will dock in the Mormugao Port in Goa.

The vessel is currently conducting a round-the-world science mission to improve ocean and atmospheric observations used for the US and global weather and climate prediction.

Indian scientists will also join with US scientists on board the NOAA ship to launch new high-tech observation buoys in the Arabian Sea.

These observation buoys will strengthen the Research Moored Array for African-Asian-Australian Monsoon Analysis (RAMA), the world’s key tool for predicting monsoon, which drive rainfall affecting agriculture and the economies of a third of the world’s population.

IANS