RESPONSIBILITIES OF SCIENTISTS FOR THE FUTURE
Honorary President Yuan T. Lee (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1986)
"As
we entered the 21st century, we found the human society on earth is
undergoing two important phase transitions. Firstly, the earth which
used to be “infinite” or “unlimited” for mankind for thousands and
thousands of years has now become “finite” or “limited”, as the
population on earth has increased dramatically during the 20th century
and reached 6 billions, and human activities have been intensified with
excess consumption of natural resources, yet we are still following the
trajectories of the development of human society of the past when the
earth was practically “infinite” or “unlimited” both in terms of natural
resources available and the capacity of the earth to absorb or digest
the waste produced by human activities. Especially, in the usage of
energy and the impact on environment, we are heading toward a wrong
direction all together.
Secondly, although we have witnessed the
process of globalization of human society during the last two decades,
the globalization is only half-way through, and because of it we are
suffering from many consequences. Some of the human activities started
to become globalized, and are carried out beyond national boundaries,
especially in the areas of economy, science and arts, yet the
nation-state based competitions are as strong as ever. In the half
globalized world, only those people who use the entire world as their
stage for their activities have benefited enormously, and it is not
surprising that we will have to tackle such problems as the widening gap
between the rich and the poor, both among countries and people in a
country, and the threat to solve problems by military might. These
problems could be easily avoided if the entire world were to be
completely globalized, or if the entire world were to become “one
community”, or we make it into a reality that “Boundaries between
nations are merely lines on a map.”
(Speech 18 th SEPTEMBER 2005, INNSBRUCK)
Source: SCIENCE WITHOUT
BORDERS. Transactions of the International Academy of Science. Vol.2. 2005/2006, ICSD/IAS , Innsbruck, 2006, 16-20.