What Are the Different Think Tank Jobs?

Introduction

Climate Change Think Tank

China is faced with an international struggle against climate issues. As a high-level decision-maker on climate issues

Deputy Director of the Office of the Expert Committee on Climate Change, Deputy Director of the Science and Technology Development Department of China Meteorological Administration

In 2003, the US Department of Defense submitted a "secret report" to the Bush administration. The report points out that the continuous global warming process will cause a sudden change in the global climate around 2010. The following year, the British "Observer" disclosed the contents of this "secret report": "Climatic changes in the scenario and its significance to US national security." In the same year, David King, the British government's chief scientific adviser, wrote in Science that climate change is the most serious problem facing us today, even more serious than terrorism.

Since then, the United Kingdom, Canada, South Korea, etc. have established the highest-level scientific consultants or advisory groups, which provide the scientific basis and decision-making basis for the government to formulate strategies and measures to address climate change. In early 2007, the United States established a Climate Change Think Tank funded by the Department of Defense, consisting of 11 senior retired officers, including the former US Central Command commander in charge of the Middle East.

In 2005, then Academician Qin Dahe, the then director of the China Meteorological Administration, co-named eight other academicians and suggested to the central government the establishment of a think tank for climate change in China. In early 2007, China's National Climate Change Expert Committee was also announced. The committee is composed of 12 experts, including 8 academicians, known as the central "climate change think tank". Among them, Academician Sun Honglie, former vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is the chairman, and Prof. Ding Yihui, special consultant for climate change of the China Meteorological Administration, and Professor He Jiankun, former vice president of Tsinghua University, are vice chairman. ^[1]

The Chinese government has always attached great importance to climate change. In 1990, the Chinese government established the National Climate Change Coordination Group under the then State Council Environmental Protection Committee.

In 1998, during the reform of the central state organs, a national climate change coordination group was established. The National Climate Change Coordination Group is the inter-departmental coordinating body of the Chinese government on climate change. Its main duties are to discuss major issues related to climate change, coordinate policies and activities of various departments on climate change, organize external negotiations, and Decisions on general cross-sectoral issues related to climate change.

In October 2003,

Members of the China Climate Change Think Tank

Qin Dahe, deputy leader of the National Climate Change Coordination Group, director of the National Climate Commission, and director of the China Meteorological Administration, said that the main task of the expert committee is to provide scientific advice and policies for the Chinese government to formulate relevant strategic guidelines, policies, regulations and measures to address climate change. Suggest. "Many countries have taken climate change to the height of national security."

Sun Honglie: 75-year-old climbed Everest to visit the glacier

In 2007, Sun Honglie, 74, accepted the invitation of his old colleague Qin Dahe as director of the Climate Change Think Tank. Since then, he has shifted his research focus to topics such as glacial melting on the Tibetan Plateau. "I am the director of the think tank and the leader of the second working group of the think tank. The task of our group is to study the impact of climate change on humankind and China's response." On October 26th, Sun Honglie in Beijing, "Science Times" The academician's office upstairs was interviewed by this newspaper.

The day before, he had just finished his expedition to the Kilimanjaro Glacier, the first peak in North Africa, and returned from Kenya by plane. The 76-year-old man in front of the reporter has a straight suit and straight hair. His waist plate is straight and looks much younger than his actual age. One year earlier, he was 75 years old to visit Everest.

In the opinion of Academician Sun Honglie, climbing the snow mountain and inspecting the glacier are only part of his usual work. Sun Honglie is a well-known scientist in soil geography and land resources in China. In 1983, he was appointed vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He told reporters: "Scientific research like us, in order to find a clear answer, the best way is to conduct on-site investigations, and not just understand the national conditions from books and theories."

Since serving as director of the Climate Change Think Tank, Sun Honglie has visited Sanjiangyuan twice and Tibet twice, witnessing firsthand the huge negative impact on local residents and vegetation after global warming has caused the melting of glaciers. Previously, the end of the Himalaya Glacier was about 4,000 meters above sea level and has risen to 4500 meters. A large number of melting glaciers have flowed into the local inland river and entered small lakes, causing the lake to rise and flooding the grassland around the lake. In Tibet, lakeside grasslands, also known as "winter and spring grasslands", are extremely precious grassland resources. The area originally occupied only 1/10 of the summer and autumn grasslands. Today, the winter and spring grasslands are submerged. Even worse.

In the spring of 2007, Sun Honglie inspected the Himalayas. When he reached the foot of the 5400-meter Rongbu Glacier, he discovered a more terrible phenomenon. Here was originally the end of the Rongbu Glacier. After thousands of years of melting, the Rongbu Glacier has gathered here, and the stones in the glacier have also been deposited here, forming a thick dam. Now more and more lakes are rushing towards the dam. "Once the dam collapses, it may cause a large flood and even rush to India at once." Sun Honglie said.

After returning from the inspection, Sun Honglie wrote a proposal to the national leader as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He proposed three points in the proposal: strengthen the detection of glaciers on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau; carry out artificial drainage of dangerous lakes to reduce the possibility of floods; strengthen the construction of artificial pastures in Qinghai-Tibet areas and save the local animal husbandry.

"At present, the central issue of climate change that the central government cares about is emissions reduction, and my proposal has not been responded to. However, I believe that after the Copenhagen conference, people s attention to the impact and adaptation of climate change will definitely increase. Tell reporters that as long as physical conditions allow, he will still go to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau for investigation.

As a pioneer of the Qinghai-Tibet expedition, Sun Honglie's scientific research on Qinghai-Tibet began in the 1970s. He recalled that the difficulty of the scientific examination at that time was unthinkable by ordinary people. Alpine hypoxia, simple equipment. Team members spend half a year each year under these conditions. "The plateau is hypoxic, and you have to stop and take a few breaths every few steps while climbing. You have a bad headache almost every night and it takes a long time to fall asleep. Even in summer it is very cold, and the river freezes in the morning. We only He could smash a hole in the ice, scoop up the ice water to wash and cook. "Sun Honglie recalled:" The food at the time was also very poor. I couldn't eat fresh vegetables a few times in half a year, and only one or two compressed biscuits were washed with cold water at noon .After years of hard field work, some comrades lost their hair, some comrades lost their teeth, some comrades got heart disease, stomach problems, and some even gave their lives. " ^[1]