Time for a Nobel Prize for Environmentalism
By V. Thomas
EVERY October a new list of Nobel Prize winners is heralded to an eagerly awaiting international audience, and to the winners and their countries it is a great cause for celebration as the prize is regarded worldwide as the ultimate recognition.
As usual the winners are mainly from the West and only seldom does anyone from the developing nations win the prize especially in physics, chemistry, medicine and economics.
The developing nations appear to have more luck in winning prizes for literature and peace. On this count the apparent 'unfairness' cannot be disputed as the West, due to its long-standing intellectual and scientific tradition, has an enviably broad base to undertake research in practically every field.
However, the developing countries are not giving up and are equally lured by the coveted prize.
In this respect, the Pacific Rim nations; India, Pakistan, the Middle East and Latin America could provide serious competition to the western domination in the not too distant future.
Eastern Europe, too, could figure prominently as the scientific research of its leading scientists get better international exposure.
The exclusion of communist Eastern Europe in the past allowed the West an unfair domination in the Nobel Prize awards.
Despite all this, there is no doubt that the Nobel Prize has contributed much for the progress of mankind as was the aim of the initiator Alfred Nobel.
Initially, prizes were awarded for physics, chemistry, literature and medicine. Economics was included in the 1970s when the Nobel Prize committee began to realise the prominent role played by economists, on whom the well-being and stability of nations depended as much as on politicians.
The prize has also stimulated research and given economists an enhanced prominence in the administration of the country.
The Peace Prize was included to honour diplomats and pacifists who were dedicated to bringing peace to warring factions in an increasingly troubled world. The Nobel Prize Foundation, although conservative like other long-established European institutions, has also shown that it is attentive to the progressive needs of the world. It is on this progressive need that the Nobel Prize committee should introduce the Nobel Prize for Environmentalism, the pressing need of the present-day world.
Today, no other issue is so much a cause for concern to the ordinary man as well as to politicians, premiers and presidents as the danger to the environment from pollution and depletion of natural resources.
The dilemma facing mankind today is either environmental co-existence or co-extinction. The Nobel Prize could be a boost to environmentalists as they are finding it increasingly difficult to make inroads into the domination of the multinationals and other vested interests.
It would also be fitting honour to the dedicated individuals and groups who have taken up the cause of saving endangered flora and fauna and wildlife from extinction at the hands of man, and highlighting the need for conservation and sustainable economic development.
Some environmentalists have even given their lives for the cause as was the case of 'Chico' Mendez of Brazil. The threat of an environmental Armageddon is greater now than that of nuclear war and unless more conservationist measures are introduced in every country, mankind is headed for disaster.
Even in the so-called liberal democracies of the West, environmentalists have had an uphill battle against vested interests but, fortunately, they prevailed and their cause has now become a worldwide crusade. To be fair, bona fide western environmentalist groups have been as much critical of western consumerism, which is blamed for the pollution and ecological depletion of today, as they have been of nations in the South who have been blindly catering to the greedy demands of the West.
The Nobel Prize would also enhance the image of environmentalists who, more often than not, are regarded as trouble makers and being anti-development and it could also enable governments, universities and the private sector to conduct more research into environmental problems — recycling, population control, sustainable economic production and anti-pollution measures. Needless to say the prize would also give the South a fairer share of winners as many of the eminent environmentalists are from the developing nations.
It is time the Nobel Prize committee honour and recognise the dedicated environmentalists in every country.
Who, more than the contributions of the physicists, chemists, economists and medical scientists, fight the seemingly unpopular battle to ensure the survival of man and prevent him from hastily following in the footsteps of the historic exit of the dodo and the dinosaur!
Source : The Star, October 23, 1993
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