UNESCO Courier articles from May 1998

UNESCO Courier archives from May 1998

Science and social responsibility: the ethical implications of scientific progress concern everyone.
May 1, 1998... Today there is a certain degree of disillusionment about science, especially in the industrially developed countries. Science and scientific progress are indeed raising urgent questions, for example in the field of genetics. Who should determine...

Energy: a fair deal for all.
May 1, 1998... Both the supply of energy and the demand for it have spiralled in modern societies, where everyday life and changes to the environment, global as well as local, are conditioned by energy production and use. At the same time, there are more than a...

The right to know. (legal and ethical responsibilities of businesses)
May 1, 1998... What are the legal and ethical responsibilities of industrial enterprises when communities and workers are at risk from the sudden and accidental releases of toxic and/or radioactive substances into the atmosphere? Well-known examples of such...

The natural world: the creation of protected natural areas raises a host of dilemmas.(The Ethics of Conservation)
May 1, 1998... Nature is in a state of constant flux. It is shaped over time by dynamic natural processes such as flooding, fire, wind, volcanoes and climate, and in response to these forces some physiographic features, species and ecosystems have disappeared...

The cultural heritage: a Canadian approach to cultural resource management.(The Ethics of Conservation)
May 1, 1998... In the late 1980s, Parks Canada, the agency responsible for the conservation of Canada's cultural and natural heritage, began to develop a cultural resource management policy, partly to synthesize good work that had been done elsewhere, but also...

How predictable is nature?
May 1, 1998... In spite of progress in mathematical modeling, natural phenomena still defy precise forecasting The future of science is not what it used to be. The optimistic public perception that scientific insights and technological advances would provide...

Genetic testing and discrimination: the development of genetic testing confronts humanity with urgent challenges.
May 1, 1998... At the heart of adverse discrimination lies difference. Many people only feel comfortable with others who appear exactly the same as themselves. Inject an element of differentiation and such people may feel entitled to act in prejudicial and even...

A shared future or no future. (importance of globalization)
May 1, 1998... Day by day our planet is shrinking. Today it is smaller and more fragile than yesterday. And yet are we really any "closer" to each other? The interdependence of the peoples and nations making up our world has become self-evident. No country,...

Renewable energy: winds of change. (includes related article on the plans of France's renewable energy group)
May 1, 1998... While the planet is being stifled by atmospheric pollution from the gases given off by fossil fuels such as oil - 64 million barrels of which are consumed every day - and coal, alternative sources of "clean", renewable energy are there for the...

The monastery of Haghpat. (Armenia)
May 1, 1998... A masterpiece of religious architecture and a major centre of Learning in the Middle Ages, Armenia's Haghpat Monastery was placed on UNESCO'S World Heritage List in 1996. Tradition has it that two of Christ's apostles, St. Thaddeus and St....

Dizzy Gillespie, a jazz giant. (jazz musician John Barks Gillespie)
May 1, 1998... John Birks Gillespie was born in Cheraw, a small town in South Carolina. Neither his father, a builder who led a dance-band at weekends, nor his mother took much interest in his education. But young John was bright and curious about everything,...

The art of silence. (interview with mime artist Marcel Marceau)(Interview)
May 1, 1998... The world-famous French mime Marcel Marceau breaks his silence and talks about the secrets of his craft and the highlights of a career spanning five decades. * You have been appearing on stage all over the world for more than fifty years....