Scientists make pledge for the 21st Century

The world’s scientists, science journalists, policy makers and bureaucrats converged on Budapest in June to take stock of science in the 20th Century and make commitments for the 21st.

Murdoch Professor of Chemistry JOHN WEBB was one of the 10-strong Australian delegation to the first UNESCO World Conference on Science.

More than 2000 delegates from around the world gathered at the invitation of UNESCO and the International Council of Science (ICSU), representing the inter-governmental and non-governmental scientific communities.

This first world gathering developed into a stirring challenge for science as the new century approached. The Millennium view was not in vogue we all recalled how predictions at the end of last century were so horribly wrong and incomplete. The anticipated time of profound peace for the 20th Century seems to have escaped us and no one foresaw the realities of inter-planetary exploration, cyberspace or lasers.

As one of the Australian delegation, I was part of intense and wide-ranging discussions seeking to shape the future of science, even as we knew we could not predict it.

In the latter days of the conference, each delegation presented its considered statement. The Australian statement had developed through the consultations at the Asia Pacific Science Conference held in Sydney last December.

The statement was presented by Gareth Evans, former Foreign Minister and now a serious contender (among 10) for the post of Director-General of UNESCO. His candidacy lent a certain piquancy to Australian discussions with delegates from other countries.

The Australian statement captured much of the general consensus of the conference as expressed in the Declaration on Science and the Use of Scientific Knowledge as well as the Science AgendaFramework for Action. We called for a new global contract between science and society:

• a contract based on new and higher levels of trust and mutual understanding between science and society; and
• a contract in which, in return for community support, science and scientists accept some clearly defined obligations.

The contract implies five key obligations:

1. The obligation to communicate (fundamental science must be seen as an international public good, with a much broader commitment to the free flow of scientific data and information, not least on the state of the global environment);
2. the obligation to educate through science education initiatives, both formal and informal;
3. the obligation to cooperate at global, regional and national levels, especially for developing countries to benefit more equally.
4. the obligation to be inclusive, with women included as fully as men in the scientific enterprise (the young, indigenous peoples and people in developing countries also have particular claims);
5. the obligation to be responsible, with scientists squarely confronting their ethical responsibilities to humankind, as through a Hippocratic oath on science's ethical values.

Sustainable development provided the broad background to these discussions. The actions emerging from the Conference are many and varied. One particularly pleasing one is the commitment to establish, at Murdoch, a UNESCO Centre for Sustainable Development, supporting Murdoch's existing activities and developing new ones.