#90 Addressing Climate Change, and Partnering in Science and Technology

[스티븐스 대사]

Greetings, netizens.  I wonder if you, like me and many others, have been thinking about climate change recently.  In recent weeks virtually every part of the world has experienced severe weather events – the disasterous flooding in Pakistan, and heavy and destructive rains in many parts of the United States as well as Korea, particularly in Seoul.  On September 22 I ventured out on my bicycle to explore Seoul one day after history-making rainfall; I was glad to see the waters receding quickly, but still found my favorite biking trails along the Han River too deep to ford!  

Downstream from Dongjak Bridge on September 22.  When the water got above my waist on the bike trail, I turned back. This is not the Chuseok weather I remember!

The impact climate change is having on our planet, and the degree to which it is responsible for these dramatic weather events is something experts will continue to study and debate.  What is clear, though, is that, as President Obama said in a recent interview when he was asked whether he considered climate change to be the defining problem of the 21st century, "Climate change has the potential to have devastating effects on people around the globe, and we've got to do something about it.  In order to do something about it, we're going to have to mobilize domestically, and we're going to have to mobilize internationally."

In fact, the United States and Korea started mobilizing bilaterally to address climate change more than twenty years ago, with a joint collaborative project between the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Korea Center for Atmospheric Environment Research (KCAER) to collect and analyze air samples and satellite data for greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.  This project began twenty years ago, when few people or governments were thinking seriously about greenhouse gases or global climate change.  On Friday, October 1, I traveled to a rural site in Chungcheongbukdo to visit KCAER's deceptively modest facility, and to congratulate those from both countries involved in this important joint project.

Korea Center for Atmospheric and Environmental Research Director Chung Yong-seung provides a briefing on his organization’s 20 years of cooperation with NOAA, illustrating how their joint facility has gathered compelling evidence of global warming in the Chungcheong region.

Those of you who read this blog know that the importance I attach as the United States Ambassador to the Republic of Korea to expanding  our bilateral relationship and broadening the scope of the cooperative activities we undertake together.  Building on our military and security ties, we are creating a partnership to address the global problems of the 21^st century.  

Science and technology is a 21^st century domain where the U.S. and Korea are natural partners.  Of the many values our two countries share, the spirit of scientific inquiry is one that is fundamental to both of our democratic societies.

President Obama had this to say about achieving our goals:  "We [must] base our public policies on the soundest science…  That is how we will harness the power of science to achieve our goals – to preserve our environment and protect our national security; to create the jobs of the future, and live longer, healthier lives.”  

In June, Dr. John Holdren, the Director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, led a delegation of U.S. science policymakers to a Joint Committee Meeting on Science and Technological Cooperation in Seoul to lay out a roadmap for increasing U.S.-Korea science cooperation.  At the meeting, officials from our two countries signed an agreement to expand cooperation on nuclear fusion energy research and discussed several other potential cooperative research activities in fields as diverse as cancer, infertility, brain biochemistry, high energy particle physics, nanotechnology measurement standards, and advanced robotics.  

The 7^th Korea-U.S. Joint Committee Meeting on Scientific and Technological Cooperation

New discoveries in energy, medicine, space, and other technologies will fuel global progress in the 21^st century.  The fact that talented scientists from our two countries are working together on some of the most daunting scientific and technological challenges of our time convinces me not only that the most important days of the U.S.-Korea relationship are still ahead of us but that, working together, we will be able to address these challenges – including climate change – successfully.