Mainauer declarations
The Mainau Declarations are a series of socio-political appeals by Nobel Prize winners , which are submitted during the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings. The name is based on the fact that the declarations are always presented on the last day of the one-week Nobel Laureate Meeting on the island of Mainau in Lake Constance .
Mainau Declaration 1955
The first Mainau Declaration was an appeal against the use of nuclear weapons . The declaration was initiated by the two German Nobel Prize winners in physics, Otto Hahn and Max Born , and circulated during the 5th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting (July 11-15, 1955). The public presentation took place on July 15, 1955 on the island of Mainau. The declaration was initially signed by 18 Nobel Prize winners in attendance, but within a year the number of signatories rose to 52.
Original text
"We, the undersigned, are naturalists from different countries, different races, different beliefs, different political convictions. Outwardly, we are only united by the Nobel Prize that we were allowed to receive.
We have gladly put our lives at the service of science. We believe it is a way to a happier life for people. We see with horror that this very science gives mankind the means to destroy itself.
Full military use of the weapons possible today can contaminate the earth so much radioactively that entire peoples would be destroyed. This death can hit the neutrals as well as the belligerent.
If a war broke out between the great powers, who could guarantee that it would not develop into such a deadly battle? So a nation that embarks on total war brings about its own doom and endangers the whole world.
We do not deny that perhaps peace is maintained today precisely through fear of these deadly weapons. Nevertheless, we consider it a self-delusion if governments should believe that they can avoid war for a long time by being afraid of these weapons. Fear and tension have so often created war. Likewise, it seems to us a self-delusion to believe that minor conflicts can always be resolved by traditional weapons. In extreme danger, no nation will refuse to use any weapon that scientific technology can produce. All nations must decide to voluntarily renounce violence as a political last resort. If they are not ready, they will cease to exist.
Mainau / Bodensee, July 15, 1955 "
The 18 first signatories
The first signatories were:
- Kurt Alder
- Max Born
- Adolf Butenandt
- Arthur H. Compton
- Gerhard Domagk
- Hans von Euler-Chelpin
- Otto Hahn
- Werner Heisenberg
- George Hevesy
- Richard Kuhn
- Fritz Lipmann
- Hermann Joseph Muller
- Paul Hermann Müller
- Leopold Ružička
- Frederick Soddy
- Wendell M. Stanley
- Hermann Staudinger
- Hideki Yukawa
Mainau Declaration 2015 on Climate Change
The Mainau Declaration 2015 on Climate Change was presented on July 3, 2015, the last day of the 65th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting on the island of Mainau . In the document, the undersigned Nobel Prize winners warned of the consequences of climate change . The declaration was initially signed by 36 Nobel Prize winners attending the conference. By February 1, 2016, the number of signatories rose by a further 35 winners to a total of 71. The text of the declaration admits that more data must be collected and more research carried out, but describes the IPCC's climate report as the most reliable scientific assessment of anthropogenic climate change. The IPCC report should therefore form the basis on which political decision-makers should discuss countermeasures to global warming as quickly as possible.
Original text
"We, the undersigned scientists who have been awarded Nobel Prizes, have come to Lake Constance to share our findings with promising young researchers who, like us, come from all over the world. Almost 60 years ago there was a similar meeting here on the island of Mainau Nobel Laureates took place. They made a statement on the dangers of the newly discovered nuclear weapon technology - a technology created by advances in basic research. So far, we have avoided nuclear war when the threat is still there.
Subsequent generations of scientists have helped make the world more prosperous. This prosperity has been achieved at the expense of rapidly increasing raw material consumption around the world. If we do not counteract this, the earth will eventually no longer be able to meet the needs of humanity and meet our ever-increasing demand for food, water and energy. And this will lead to an all-out human tragedy. Climate researchers are already observing the negative effects of human activity.
In response to the possibility of man-made climate change, the United Nations created the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, to provide governments of the world with an overview of the current state of relevant scientific knowledge. While it is far from perfect, we believe the efforts that led to the latest Fifth Assessment Report by the IPCC have produced one of the best sources of information on today's knowledge of climate change. We do not claim this as experts in the field of climate change, but rather as a diverse group of scientists who respect and deeply understand the integrity of the scientific process.
Although there is still uncertainty about the exact extent of climate change, the conclusions of the scientific community contained in the latest IPCC report are alarming - especially in the context of the risks mentioned that the maintenance of human prosperity in the face of an increase in global Average temperature of more than 2 ° C. The report concludes that man-made greenhouse gas emissions are the likely cause of current global warming. Forecasts using climate models indicate that this warming will very likely lead to a temperature in the coming century that is more than 2 ° C above pre-industrial levels, provided that man-made greenhouse gas emissions are not drastically reduced in the coming decades.
According to the IPCC assessment, the world must make rapid progress in reducing current and future greenhouse gas emissions in order to minimize the major risks of climate change. We believe that the nations of the world must seize the opportunity of the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris in December 2015 and act decisively to limit future emissions worldwide. This goal will require the cooperation of all nations, whether developed or developing, and it must be sustained into the future in accordance with current scientific assessments. Inaction would mean putting future generations of humanity at unreasonable risk.
Mainau Island, Germany 3 July 2015 "
Signatories and supporters
Mainauer Declaration 2016 on green genetic engineering
Of the nearly 300 Nobel Prize winners currently living, 134 support the use of genetic engineering in agriculture in a joint declaration . The declaration is addressed to the “governments of the world” and to the UN . Using the example of the rice variety Golden Rice , she describes the potential of genetic engineering, especially for the benefit of the poorest sections of the population in Africa and Southeast Asia. The undersigned believe that biotechnology is just as safe, "if not safer", than traditional methods.
Almost more than the plea in favor of genetic engineering, the declaration reads as a letter of protest against Greenpeace and asks whether some opponents of genetic engineering are guilty of a crime against humanity .
Original text
"Letter from the Nobel Prize Winners in Support of Precision Agriculture (Genetically Modified Organisms, GMOs)
To the decision-makers at Greenpeace, the United Nations and the governments of the world
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization determined that global production of food, animal feed and natural fiber must double by around 2050 in order to meet the needs of the growing world population. Organizations that oppose modern seed cultivation, especially Greenpeace, have repeatedly denied this fact and acted against biotechnological innovations in agriculture. They distorted their risks, benefits and effects and supported the criminal destruction of officially approved field studies and scientific projects.
We call on Greenpeace and its supporters to re-examine the experiences of farmers and consumers around the world with biotechnologically improved crops and other foods. We demand that research results from recognized scientific institutions and supervisory authorities be taken into account. We urge that the campaigns against 'GMOs' in general and against golden rice in particular be stopped.
Scientific institutions and regulators around the world have consistently and repeatedly found that crops and foods modified by biotechnology are just as safe, if not safer, than plants made by conventional production methods. There has not been a single confirmed case of harmful human or animal health effects from the consumption of GMOs. Their effects on the environment have repeatedly shown themselves to be less damaging and beneficial to global biodiversity.
Greenpeace is at the forefront of the resistance against the golden rice, which has the potential to eliminate the consequences of vitamin A deficiency. These include blindness and other fatal ailments that hit the poorest people hardest in Africa and Southeast Asia.
The World Health Organization estimates that around 250 million people are vitamin A deficient, including up to 40% children under 5 in developing countries. According to UNICEF statistics, vitamin A deficiency is responsible for around one to two million preventable deaths every year, as it weakens the immune system and thus exposes children and newborns in particular to great danger. Vitamin A deficiency itself is the leading cause of child blindness, affecting 250,000–500,000 children annually worldwide. Half of these children will die within 12 months from loss of vision.
WE CALL ON GREENPEACE to stop their campaign against golden rice in particular, and against biotechnologically improved crops and food in general, and to take no further action to this end;
WE CALL ON THE GOVERNMENTS OF THE WORLD to reject Greenpeace's campaign against golden rice in particular, and against bioengineered crops and food in general; and do everything in your power to oppose Greenpeace's actions and accelerate farmers' access to all resources of modern biology, especially access to biotechnologically enhanced seeds. Opposition based on emotions and dogma that contradicts the available data must be prevented.
How many people in poverty in the world will have to die before we recognize this as a 'crime against humanity'?
Sincerely,
Click here for a full list of signatories "
Individual evidence
- ↑ Burmester, Ralph (2015). First-hand science, 65 years of Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings. Germany: Deutsches Museum Bonn. pp. 48ff
- ↑ Burmester, Ralph (2015). First-hand science, 65 years of Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings. Germany: Deutsches Museum Bonn. pp. 48/49
- ↑ Burmester, Ralph (2015). First-hand science, 65 years of Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings. Germany: Deutsches Museum Bonn. pp. 48/49
- ↑ http://www.MainauDeclaration.org , official website, accessed on November 24, 2015
- ↑ http://www.MainauDeclaration.org , official website, accessed on November 24, 2015
- ↑ 109 Laureates Supporting Precision Agriculture (GMOs) , List of Signatories, Support Precision Agriculture
- ↑ Open letter to Greenpeace: 107 Nobel Prize winners call for an end to the anti-genetic engineering campaign , trends of the future,
- ^ Nobel laureates call for the use of genetic engineering in agriculture , Der Standard, June 30, 2016
- ↑ Nobel Prize winners shoot against Greenpeace , NZZ, June 30, 2016
- ^ Laureates Letter Supporting Precision Agriculture (GMOs) , wording of the declaration, Support Precision Agriculture
- ↑ Nobel Prize winners urge Greenpeace to rethink , Spectrum of Science, June 30, 2016
- ^ Nobel laureates strongly criticize Greenpeace , by Daniel Lingenhöhl, Handelsblatt, June 30, 2016
- ^ Nobel laureates call for genetic engineering in agriculture , by Christoph Behrens, Süddeutsche Zeitung, June 29, 2016