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With a vision that helps overcome disability

The disabled need support and opportunities to take risks, scientist at Laboratory for Science of Climate and Environment of Paris P.J. Peter Rayner tells Chitra V. Ramani

"Working as a blind person in science is difficult. We just have to present the results a bit differently," said P.J. Peter Rayner, a scientist at Le Laboratoire des Science du Climate et de l'Environement (Laboratory for Science of Climate and Environment), Paris.

He was in the city to participate in a workshop on "Inverse atmospheric models" at the Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation.

Climate change

Dr. Rayner is an environmental scientist working to find an adaptable solution to achieve the objectives of the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol, framed in 1997, to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an amendment to the international treaty on climate change and it assigns targets for reduction of greenhouse gases.

Greenhouse effect

Dr. Rayner has developed a model, very similar to the ones used for weather prediction, to measure the greenhouse effect.

"A group of us got active in the 1990s and realised that we could make a strong contribution if we combined the two models — movement of gases and mathematical procedure to match the input and output. We had to put in decades of work in developing the model," he said. Since weather predictions were not an exact science, the models were not exact either.

Tough job

It was difficult in the beginning as computer technology was not that advanced, he said. "It is much simpler now. Everything is computerised." On his being able to do things such as write codes for the models, as a normal person would do, he said that it is easy to think of someone who is doing unusual things as kind of an exception. That is not true always.

"Most of the disabled people do not get to try things, not because they cannot, but because of people do not always let them," Dr. Rayner said.

Circumstances

Circumstances, often economic, family or personal matters, make things difficult for the disabled.

"If I were to make one plea on behalf of the disabled, it would be not just for increased support or help, which is needed, but for increased opportunity, increased ability to take risks and try new things. That is the luck I have had. I was allowed to try new things and people were willing to give me a chance. The hardest part, however, to get around is people's expectations," he said.

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