Premi Nobel criticano politica USA su clima e difesa

["=?utf-8?Q?AlessandroGimona?=" <agimona@libero.it>]

 http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011207/sc/nobel_appeal_dc_1.html
Nobel Winners Slam U.S. on Climate, Missile Shield
By Eva Sohlman

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - More than 100 Nobel laureates have signed an
appeal criticizing the climate change and missile defense policies of
the United States under President Bush (news - web sites).

The appeal, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters on Friday, said the
most profound danger to world peace in coming years would stem from
legitimate demands of the world's poor and disenfranchised majority.

``It is time for the industrialized world to take responsibility for
being a member of the world community and stop thinking in terms of
nations,'' Canadian John Polanyi, who won the 1986 Nobel Prize in
Chemistry and initiated the appeal, told Reuters.

Thousands of the world's dispossessed, some with access to weapons --
including chemical and nuclear ones -- posed the greatest threat to
world peace, he said.

Concern that grievances such as poverty in developing countries, if
neglected, could create new conflicts embroiling industrialized
countries has been growing since the September 11 attacks on the United
States.

Among the appeal's signatories are exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the
Dalai Lama, South African bishop Desmond Tutu and Mikhail Gorbachev, the
last leader of the former Soviet Union. Several U.S. winners also
signed.

Almost 200 of the world's 225 living winners of the Nobel prizes, first
awarded 1901, are gathering in Stockholm and Oslo for ceremonies
commemorating the centenary of the accolades bestowed upon people of
merit in medicine, physics, chemistry, economics, literature and peace.

``We must persist in the quest for united action to counter both global
warming and a weaponized world,'' said the appeal, adding that the 105
signatories supported international agreements including the
Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty and the so-called Kyoto Convention
on Climate Change.

In an indirect reference to the national missile defense (NMD) system
planned by the United States as a shield against attacks from what it
has called rogue states, the appeal said it was time to ``turn our backs
on the unilateral search for security in which we seek shelter behind
walls.''

Implementing NMD would violate the ABM treaty. Polyani said the
September 11 attacks on the United States had shown that national
missile shields could not offer complete protection.

Bush has rejected the Kyoto protocol intended to curb industrialized
countries' emissions of so-called greenhouse gases, which some
scientists say are the main factor behind global warming.


Alessandro Gimona
agimona@libero.it