The Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES) is a bureau within the United States Department of State. It coordinates a portfolio of issues related to the world's oceans, environment, science and technology, and health.
The Bureau is headed by the Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. As of August 20, 2009, it is headed by Assistant Secretary Kerri-Ann Jones. Judith Garber is the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary.
The Oceans and Fisheries Directorate has two offices dedicated to international oceans issues. The Office of Marine Conservation focuses on international fisheries matters and related problems and the Office of Oceans and Polar Affairs has primary responsibility for international ocean law and policy, marine pollution, marine mammals, polar affairs, maritime boundaries, and marine science. As of 2005, it is headed by Deputy Assistant Secretary David A. Balton.
The Environment Directorate deals with environmental issues including environmental aspects of international trade and safeguarding hazardous materials requiring multilateral agreements within the Office of Environmental Policy. The Office of Ecology & Natural Resource Conservation develops U.S. foreign policy approaches to conserving and managing the world ecosystems.
The Health, Space and Science Directorate includes the Office of International Health Affairs which works with U.S. Government agencies to facilitate policy-making regarding international bioterrorism, infectious disease, surveillance and response, environmental health, and health in post-conflict situations. The Office of Space and Advanced Technology handles issues arising from our exploration of space to assure global security regarding this new frontier, and the Office of Science & Technology (S&T) Cooperation promotes the interests of the U.S. science and technology communities in the international policy arena, negotiates framework and other S&T agreements, manages the Department's Embassy Science fellows program, and takes a leading role in representing U.S. science and technology in multilateral international organizations, such as UNESCO and other UN organizations, APEC, OECD and others. The Health, Space and Science Directorate is headed by Deputy Assistant Secretary Jeff Miotke.
Famous quotes containing the words bureau of, bureau, oceans, scientific and/or affairs:
“We know what the animals do, what are the needs of the beaver, the bear, the salmon, and other creatures, because long ago men married them and acquired this knowledge from their animal wives. Today the priests say we lie, but we know better.”
—native American belief, quoted by D. Jenness in “The Carrier Indians of the Bulkley River,” Bulletin no. 133, Bureau of American Ethnology (1943)
“If this bureau had a prayer for use around horse parks, it would go something like this: Lead us not among bleeding-hearts to whom horses are cute or sweet or adorable, and deliver us from horse-lovers. Amen.... With that established, let’s talk about the death of Seabiscuit the other night. It isn’t mawkish to say, there was a racehorse, a horse that gave race fans as much pleasure as any that ever lived and one that will be remembered as long and as warmly.”
—Walter Wellesley (Red)
“You there, I here,
With just the door ajar
That oceans are,
And prayer,
And that pale sustenance,
Despair!”
—Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)
“To develop an empiricist account of science is to depict it as involving a search for truth only about the empirical world, about what is actual and observable.... It must involve throughout a resolute rejection of the demand for an explanation of the regularities in the observable course of nature, by means of truths concerning a reality beyond what is actual and observable, as a demand which plays no role in the scientific enterprise.”
—Bas Van Fraassen (b. 1941)
“Love has its name borrowed by a great number of dealings and affairs that are attributed to it—in which it has no greater part than the Doge in what is done at Venice.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)