HONOLULU — The University of Hawaii is due to receive up to $210 million in federal funding over five years to lead a research institute aimed at better conserving and managing coastal and marine resources in the Hawaiian Islands and U.S.-affiliated Pacific islands.
HONOLULU — The University of Hawaii is due to receive up to $210 million in federal funding over five years to lead a research institute aimed at better conserving and managing coastal and marine resources in the Hawaiian Islands and U.S.-affiliated Pacific islands.
The school won the right to host the new Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research following an open, competitive evaluation, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Wednesday.
The institute will replace the existing Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, which has been operating at the university since 1977.
But this time more than double the money will be available from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which funded the old institute and will be funding the new one. The award comes with the potential for another five years if the university is successful.
NOAA said the new institute will conduct research aimed at understanding and predicting environmental changes in the Indo-Pacific region.
In a release, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz described the university as a recognized leader on climate and marine science in the region.
“NOAA’s investment in UH will help us better forecast natural hazards like hurricanes, king tides and tsunami; protect the health of our oceans and fisheries in the face of climate change; and maintain the U.S. leadership role in ocean and earth science in the region,” said Schatz, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Research will be conducted along eight themes: ecological forecasting, ecosystem monitoring, ecosystem-based management, protection and restoration of resources, oceanographic monitoring and forecasting, climate science and impacts, air-sea interactions, and tsunami and other long-period ocean waves.
Improving Hawai’i. That’s great. We can go against The Caribbean Islands. We can go against other areas of the globe for destination. This will make Hawai’i into a research area too. And not just aquatic life and sea life destination. World class destination.
I would rather the 210 million dollars be spent to actually DO something to restore our ecology rather than waste it on more scientific studies. The science is already clear. We need to eliminate all cesspools and replace them with septic systems. We need to eliminate all herbicide and insecticide testing, the runoff of which is poisoning our water and air. And finally, we need to eliminate all politicians who are opposed to making this a priority.