Thailand and China to jointly study climatic changes

The weather in Southeast Asia is becoming increasingly unpredictable and severe and experts believe that global warming is the culprit behind it. The two annual monsoons in Thailand have increasingly brought floods and droughts to the kingdom. At least 16 people were killed in Thailand this month after monsoon rain waters swept away thousands of homes.

Now, Thailand and China are about to sign an agreement to launch a three-year study of climatic changes in the Andaman Sea so they can better predict monsoon patterns. The memorandum of understanding will be signed between Marine Biological Centre in Thailand’s southern Phuket island and China’s First Institute of Oceanography in Beijing.

“The aim is to understand the changing of monsoons,” said Somkiat Khokiattiwong, a researcher at the Marine Biological Centre in Thailand’s southern Phuket island.

“The Andaman is the birthplace of the monsoon. The study may also be able to help us understand cyclone patterns,” he told AFP from Phuket.

China will finance the deployment of buoys off the Andaman coast to collect data that will be analysed by scientists from both countries, Somkiat said.