NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/sci/environm/13895

Text File | 1992-12-26 | 6.7 KB | 148 lines

Newsgroups: sci.environment
Path: sparky!uunet!think.com!spdcc!gnosys!gst
From: [e-mail] (Gary S. Trujillo)
Subject: Re: has anybody heard of this letter?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
References: <[e-mail]>
Date: Sat, 26 Dec 1992 07:50:53 GMT
Lines: 138

In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (steve small) writes:

> I read a very brief newspaper article a couple of weeks ago describing
> an open letter signed by about 200 prominent scientists from around the
> world (a number of them Nobel winners) which was soon to be sent to world
> political leaders.  Apparently the letter predicts catastrophic consequences
> in a few decades at most if fundamental changes in environmental policy are
> not made soon.

> Does anybody have available the text of this letter or know where it can
> be obtained?  Is it worth posting?

Here is an article on the letter posted to sci.environment a few weeks ago,
which some may have missed:

From: [e-mail] (Tom Gray)
Newsgroups: sci.environment
Subject: ENVIRONMENT: Leading scientists issue "warning to humanity"
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 1 Dec 92 16:17:00 GMT

/* Written 12:10 am  Nov 21, 1992 by [e-mail] in ips.englibrary */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

washington, nov 18 (ips) -- more than 1,500 of the world's leading
scientists issued a ''warning to humanity'' here wednesday calling
for ''fundamental changes'' in human stewardship of the earth.

the 1,580 scientists, from 70 developing and developed
countries, called for all nations to divert the funds they now
devote to their military establishments -- more than one trillion
dollars annually -- to tackling global environmental crises.

industrialised countries ''must greatly reduce their over-
consumption'' of global resources, according to the warning, which
also called on the north to supply more aid and support to third
world nations.

at the same time, developing countries ''must realise that
environmental damage is one of the gravest threats they face, and
that attempts to blunt it will be overwhelmed if their populations
go unchecked'', said the warning which was sponsored by the union
of concerned scientists (ucs) here and sent to 160 heads of state.

''we are fast approaching many of the earth's limits,''
according to scientists who included 99 of the 196 living nobel
prize science laureates.  ''no more than a few decades remain
before the chance to avert the threats we now confront will be
lost and the prospects for humanity immeasurably diminished.''

on hand here for the formal publication of the warning was sir
martin john rees of the royal society in london, madhav gadgil of
the indian institute of science in new delhi, johanna dobereiner,
of the brazilian academy of sciences, and e.o. wilson of harvard
university, this country's top expert on biodiversity.

issued just a few months after june's u.n. conference on
environment and development (unced) in rio de janeiro, the warning
says ''current economic practices which damage the environment, in
both developed and underdeveloped nations, cannot be continued
without the risk that vital global systems will be damaged beyond
repair''.

''our massive tampering with the world's interdependent web of
life -- coupled with the environmental damage inflicted by
deforestation, species loss, and climate change -- could trigger
widespread adverse effects, including unpredictable collapses of
critical biological systems whose interactions and dynamics we
only imperfectly understand.'' (more/ips)

environment: leading scientists issue ''warning to humanity''(2-e)

environment: leading scientists (2)

''uncertainty over the extent of these effects cannot excuse
complacency or delay in facing the threats,'' the scientists said
in an indirect attack on the positions taken by the current u.s.
administration. washington has long argued for delay in taking
strong action to protect the environment until scientific
''certainty'' about the dangers is achieved.

harvard economist james tobin, a co-signer of the warning and a
nobel laureate himself, said reliance on market mechanisms to deal
with environmental problems -- a favourite recipe of the last two
u.s. republican administrations -- was mistaken.

''there are aspects of economic life that the market by itself
cannot solve.  one can't expect the market to give proper signals
on the environmental effects of economic activity,'' he said,
adding that ''government regulation'' was required.

henry kendall, ucs president and a nobel laureate in physics,
said in a letter to u.s. president-elect bill clinton that the
warning ''reflects an exceptional degree of consensus within the
international scientific community.''

he also said the 1994 u.n. conference on population and
development must address the linkages between population, resource
consumption, and environmental degradation -- the subject of an
unprecedented joint statement by the heads of the u.s. academy of
sciences and the royal institute this year.

population issues were for the most part ignored at the unced
summit in rio, largely at the insistence of the holy see which was
reportedly backed by the united states and argentina.

all aspects of the world environment are currently threatened
by human activity, according to the warning, which cited dangers
posed by air pollution and stratospheric ozone depletion, water
pollution and overuse of the world's water supply, ocean pollution
and overfishing, and soil loss and degradation.

it also noted that tropical and temperate forests are being
destroyed at rapid rates endangering large numbers of plant and
animal species and depriving future generations of the world's
genetic diversity.  wilson told reporters that species loss in
tropical rain forests is currently estimated at 0.5 percent per
year.

environmental destruction could well lead to ''mass migrations
with incalculable consequences,'' according to the warning, which
added, ''no nation can escape from conflicts over increasingly
scarce resources.''

to deal with these challenges, the world must tackle five
''inextricably linked'' areas, including seeking greater
efficiency in the use of natural resources, moving away from
fossil fuels, stabilising population, reducing and eventually
eliminating poverty, and promoting sexual equality.

it also called for the international community to make a
priority of developing energy sources ''matched to third world
needs -- small scale and relatively easy to
implement.''(end/ips/jl/yjc/92)
--
    Gary S. Trujillo                            [e-mail]
Somerville, Massachusetts              {wjh12,bu.edu,spdcc,ima,cdp}!gnosys!gst