European Association for Promotion of Science and Technology (Euroscience)

International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG)

Workshop
"Science for Reduction of Risk and Sustainable Development of Society"

June 15-16, 2002
Budapest, Hungary

The Euroscience working group ì Science and Urgent Problems of Societyî and the IUGG Commission on Geophysical Risk and Sustainability are initiators of the meeting. The Workshop will address the main question of how basic science can help in reduction of risk and sustainable development of society. We will also discuss the crucial problem of implementing scientific initiatives in public policy and the moral, ethical, and spiritual dimensions of such initiatives. The Workshop Program will consist of the following parts: (i) Introduction with addresses given by representatives of the international organisations dealing with problems of risk and sustainability; (ii) Natural and environmental risk prevention and sustainability; (iii) Science, risk and society.

The world is facing major threats resulting from expansion of human activities, among them deterioration of the environment, depletion of natural resources, and destabilisation of economies and social order. The long-term threats to the sustainability of our planet, like global warming, are accompanied by the immediate dangers of natural and man-made disasters. Our vulnerability to them is greatly magnified with each passing year undermining our ability to maintain a sustainable and productive world into the 21st Century and beyond. Since the tragic events of 11 September, the sustainability of cities has become one of the urgent problems of society. The methods and tools used to examine natural risk can be applied to the effects of geopolitical risks, such as the terrorist attacks that we witnessed.

Human society is increasingly recognizing such threats. Throughout the world, huge resources are being spent annually to counteract them. While these efforts are commendable for preventing part of potential damage, overall they have reached a kind of stalemate: the destabilizing factors prevail, and the scale of possible catastrophes is rapidly growing. Both history and common sense tell us that basic research is pivotal to breaking such a stalemate. Indeed, since ancient times, basic science has repeatedly rescued humanity, providing "new solutions to old problems."

The Workshop will search for such new possibilities, focusing on this major responsibility of today's scientific community. At the same time, we recognize that scientific initiatives can be useful only if they can be implemented as public policy and are acceptable to the society from moral, ethical and spiritual points of view. These issues are also included in the program.

The distinctive features of this Workshop will be: (i) brainstorming discussion without any formal limitations; (ii) high level of speakers; and (iii) focus on what can be done, rather than simply alerting the audience to growing threats.

The Workshop Proceedings is intended to be published by KLUWER.

Programme Committee
Jean-Patric Connerade, President, Euroscience
Vladimir Keilis-Borok, former President, International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics
Norbert Kroo, Secretary General, Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Organising Committee
S. Anguelov (Euroscience), Bulgaria/France
T. Beer (IUGG), Australia
A. Ismail-Zadeh (Euroscience & IUGG), co-Director, Russia/Germany
R. Seltz (Euroscience), co-Director, France

P R O G R A M M E