The world's first international institute designed specifically to address creeping environmental problems was set up Monday in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu Province.

The major purpose of the institute is to provide comprehensive assessment on environment for policy and decision makers, giving them the information needed to address the problems, said Michael H. Glantz, a meteorologist from the National Center for Atmospheric Research of the United States, who brought forward the concept of creeping environmental problems in 1999.

"People seldom pay attention to the slow changes taking place under our feet or above our head until they become hazardous one day," said Dr. Glantz, who came to attend the international symposium on arid climate change and sustainable development that opened Monday in Lanzhou.

"Our study helps the government to make preparations and early warnings to reduce or avoid losses brought by environmental crisis or natural disasters,” said Dr. Glantz, who is also the director of the capacity building center under the institute.

Besides Dr. Glantz, the institute also will gather more than 20 other scientists on hydrology, geography, social science and economics to study slow-developing environmental problems, said Ye Qian, assistant president of the Chinese Meteorological Sciences Academy, also one of the initiators of the institute.

The institute will also submit its study result to different governments, said Ye.

"China suffers a lot from creeping environmental problems and the establishment of the institute shows the great concern of the Chinese government," said Ye.

"After all, to enhance research and take decisive actions are the basic way for governments of different nations, especially in the developing countries, to tackle the creeping environmental problems," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 24, 2005)