Note from Jan: I just found a very good article by John Polanyi, one of the
Nobel Laureates who worked on the statement below. I'll add it to this
posting as well.
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From: "Brian" <•••@••.•••>
Sent: Friday, December 07, 2001 5:10 PM
Subject: 100 Nobel Laureates Issue Statement
Friday, December 07, 2001
From the Best Minds in the World
OSLO, Norway-December 7, 2001 (OTVNewswire)--At the Nobel Peace Prize
Centennial Symposium here yesterday celebrating the 100th anniversary of the
Nobel prize, 100 Nobel laureates have issued a brief but dire warning of the
"profound dangers" facing the world. Their statement predicts that our
security depends on immediate environmental and social reform. The
following is the text of their statement:
THE STATEMENT
The most profound danger to world peace in the coming years will stem not
from the irrational acts of states or individuals but from the legitimate
demands of the world's dispossessed. Of these poor and disenfranchised, the
majority live a marginal existence in equatorial climates. Global warming,
not of their making but originating with the wealthy few, will affect their
fragile ecologies most. Their situation will be desperate and manifestly unjust.
It cannot be expected, therefore, that in all cases they will be content to
await the beneficence of the rich. If then we permit the devastating power
of modern weaponry to spread through this combustible human landscape, we
invite a conflagration that can engulf both rich and poor. The only hope for
the future lies in co-operative international action, legitimized by democracy.
It is time to turn our backs on the unilateral search for security, in
which we seek to shelter behind walls. Instead, we must persist in the quest
for united action to counter both global warming and a weaponized world.
These twin goals will constitute vital components of stability as we move
toward the wider degree of social justice that alone gives hope of peace.
Some of the needed legal instruments are already at hand, such as the
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the Convention on Climate Change, the
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. As
concerned citizens, we urge all governments to commit to these goals that
constitute steps on the way to replacement of war by law.
To survive in the world we have transformed, we must learn to think in a
new way. As never before, the future of each depends on the good of all.
[See list of signatories below.]
###
Stupidity is the enemy; idealism is our only hope
Canadian laureate JOHN POLANYI tells why he and his colleagues have issued
their challenge
By JOHN POLANYI
The Globe and Mail - Toronto
Friday, December 7, 2001 – Page A21
Nobel Prize winners are presumed to be intelligent. But why pay attention to
the views of the 100 who have supported the statement above, issued to
coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prize? Because one's
perception of truth comes not from intelligence but from a sense of values.
Scholarship embodies values: This was evident to Alfred Nobel, the Swedish
tycoon and explosives manufacturer. In his will, he stipulated that his
prizes recognize idealisk riktning -- idealistic tendencies.
And what led to the Nobel Prize winners' statement? Not a sense of oracular
wisdom but of obligation. Individuals who had shared the experience of
discovery would likely be able to agree on a great deal more. Alfred Nobel
was right; science engenders "idealistic tendencies."
Why? Because the pursuit of discovery shot through with idealism. Discovery
originates in the unsupported belief that the book of creation is open to
being read. So deep is this idealism that many are willing to devote the
best years of their lives to the quest for discovery, though the odds
against success are huge.
Idealism must also triumph over the painful fact that the first to read
nature's story may well be someone other than oneself. But the truth must be
acknowledged whatever the hands that uncover it. Christian truth cannot be
elevated over Muslim truth. Nor can accepted truth, backed by the massed
armies of orthodoxy, be protected against the claims of upstart facts. One
can trace the sense of "Nobel-esse oblige" to these idealistic origins.
What, then, do these 100 voices say? The opening sentence is bold enough to
claim that the dominant forces shaping history are rational. This was
contentious when written in early July, and appeared still more so following
Sept. 11. The ferocity of that attack led Americans to believe that the
attackers were insane. But it came to be recognized that the sustained
terrorism has its causes and purposes.
The question is important, because what lies (to a large extent) within the
realm of reason can (to a large extent) be countered by policies grounded in
reason.
Of course, the statement is as much about threats from states as from
non-state groups, and about threats of mass destruction as about
conventional threats. The dominant setting for conflict in each case, it
claims, is a world in which the rich and the poor live in full sight of one
another.
If, in addition, the poor are voiceless, they may well be induced to speak
through violence. Particularly so if their predicament is aggravated by the
environmental carelessness of the rich.
It is a peculiar folly, under these circumstances, for the rich to seek
greater riches by selling weapons to the poor. Even without this, the
prosperous grow ever more vulnerable. Advanced societies are complex and
fragile. They operate efficiently by being open, not guarded. Like any
complex mechanism, they are, therefore, vulnerable to the wrecker's ball.
To avoid a tragic outcome, the statement says, we shall be forced to do what
we should have done previously. That is to recognize abroad what we have
long recognized domestically: the right of all to food, shelter, education
and freedom of expression. This is a revolution in thinking that is already
under way. What is lacking, in this country as elsewhere, is a sense of urgency.
A Chinese leader, asked whether the French Revolution was a success,
reportedly replied that it was too soon to tell. But it's not too early to
identify its origins: the willful blindness of the French ruling class of
the 18th century. Possessed of wealth and power, they offered only promises
to the poor.
Unless we recognize that the future of each depends on the good of all, the
coming years will bring escalating conflict. One need not be a rocket
scientist to see that.
But the recognition that science has thrived on change could persuade us to
behave more like rocket scientists. We might even come to realize that
idealism is the highest form of realism.
Nobel laureate John Polanyi, a University of Toronto chemistry professor,
was involved in framing the Nobel statement above.
THE SIGNATORIES
Zhohres I. Alferov Physics, 2000
Sidney Altman Chemistry, 1989
Philip W. Anderson Physics, 1977
Oscar Arias Sanchez Peace, 1987
J. Georg Bednorz Physics, 1987
Bishop Carlos F.X. Belo Peace, 1996
Baruj Benacerraf Physiology/Medicine, 1980
Hans A. Bethe Physics, 1967
James W. Black Physiology/Medicine, 1988
Guenter Blobel Physiology/Medicine, 1999
Nicolaas Bloembergen Physics, 1981
Norman E. Boriaug Peace, 1970
Paul D. Boyer Chemistry, 1997
Bertram N. Brockhouse Physic, 1994
Herbert C. Brown Chemistry, 1979
Georges Charpak Physics, 1992
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji Physics, 1997
John W. Cornforth Chemistry, 1975
Francis H. Crick Physiology/Medicine, 1962
James W. Cronin Physics, 1980
Paul J. Crutzen Chemistry, 1995
Robert F. Curl Chemistry, 1996
His Holiness The Dalai Lama Peace, 1989
Johann Deisenhofer Chemistry, 1988
Peter C. Doherty Physiology/Medicine, 1996
Manfred Eigen Chemistry, 1967
Richard R. Ernst Chemistry, 1991
Leo Esaki Physics, 1973
Edmond H. Fischer Physiology/Medicine, 1992
Val L. Fitch Physics, 1980
Dario Fo Literature, 1997
Robert F. Furchgott Physiology/Medicine, 1998
Walter Gilbert Chemistry, 1980
Sheldon L. Glashow Physics, 1979
Mikhail S. Gorbachev Peace, 1990
Nadine Gordimer Literature, 1991
Paul Greengard Physiology/Medicine, 2000
Roger Guillemin Physiology/Medicine, 1977
Herbert A. Hauptman Chemistry, 1985
Dudley R. Herschbach Chemistry, 1986
Antony Hewish Physics, 1974
Roald Hoffman Chemistry, 1981
Gerardus 't Hooft Physics, 1999
David H. Hubel Physiology/Medicine, 1981
Robert Huber Chemistry, 1988
Francois Jacob Physiology/Medicine, 1975
Brian D. Josephson Physics, 1973
Jerome Karle Chemistry, 1985
Wolfgang Ketterle Physics, 2001
H. Gobind Khorana Physiology/Medicine, 1968
Lawrence R. Klein Economics, 1980
Klaus von Klitzing Physics, 1985
Aaron Klug Chemistry, 1982
Walter Kohn Chemistry, 1998
Herbert Kroemer Physics, 2000
Harold Kroto Chemistry, 1996
Willis E. Lamb Physics, 1955
Leon M. Lederman Physics, 1988
Yuan T. Lee Chemistry, 1986
Jean-Marie Lehn Chemistry, 1987
Rita Levi-Montalcini Physiology/Medicine, 1986
William N. Lipscomb Chemistry, 1976
Alan G. MacDiarmid Chemistry, 2000
Daniel L. McFadden Economics, 2000
César Milstein Physiology/Medicine, 1984
Franco Modigliani Economics, 1985
Rudolf L. Moessbauer Physics, 1961
Mario J. Molina Chemistry, 1995
Ben R. Mottelson Physics, 1975
Ferid Murad Physiology/Medicine, 1998
Erwin Neher Physiology/Medicine, 1991
Marshall W. Nirenberg Physiology/Medicine, 1968
Joseph E. Murray Physiology/Medicine, 1990
Paul M. Nurse Physiology/Medicine, 2001
Max F. Perutz Chemistry, 1962
William D. Phillips Physics, 1997
John C. Polanyi Chemistry, 1986
Ilya Prigogine Chemistry, 1977
Burton Richter Physics, 1976
Heinrich Rohrer Physics, 1987
Joseph Rotblat Peace, 1995
Carlo Rubbia Physics, 1984
Bert Sakmann Physiology/Medicine, 1991
Frederick Sanger Chemistry, 1958; 1980
José Saramago Literature, 1998
J. Robert Schrieffer Physics, 1972
Melvin Schwartz Physics, 1988
K. Barry Sharpless Chemistry, 2001
Richard E. Smalley Chemistry, 1996
Jack Steinberger Physics, 1988
Joseph E. Stiglitz Economics, 2001
Horst L. Stormer Physics, 1998
Henry Taube Chemistry, 1983
Joseph H. Taylor Jr. Physics, 1993
Susumu Tonegawa Physiology/Medicine, 1997
Charles H. Townes Physics, 1964
Daniel T. Tsui Physics, 1998
Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu Peace, 1984
John Vane Physiology/Medicine, 1982
John E. Walker Chemistry, 1997
Eric F. Wieschaus Physiology/Medicine, 1982
Jody Williams Peace, 1997
Robert W. Wilson Physics, 1978
Ahmed H. Zewail Chemistry, 1999
