1
The world’s problems are pressing in on us all. The scale and impact of human activities now affects a great portion of the global resources important to human welfare. These activities are putting growing, often destructive pressure on the global environment, pressure that appears likely to increase as human numbers swell toward the doubling of the world’s population that evidently lies ahead. These pressures can spawn or aggravate conflict that, in a world with so much destructive weaponry, generates important national security problems. Great changes are necessary to help ensure a humane future for the generations to come.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References and Notes
Jonathan Allen, editor, March 4—Scientists, Students and Society (MIT Press, Cambridge, 1970). This volume recounts the issues and discussions during the activities sponsored by UCS in its first public presentations.
For an account of the early years of UCS, see Brian Balogh, Chain Reaction: Expert Debate and Public Participation in American Commercial Nuclear Power, 1945-1975 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, 1991).
In this regard, see especially the two chapters “What Place for Science in Our Culture at the ‘End of the Modern Era’?” and “The Public Image of Science” in Gerald Holton, Einstein, History, and Other Passions (American Institute of Physics Press, Woodbury, NY, 1995).
A 1997 Gallup poll found that 42% of American college graduates believe that flying saucers have visited Earth in some form, whereas 20 years ago, a Roper Center survey found that 30% of college graduates believed in unidentified flying objects (UFOs) (reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, June 14, 1997). This example is only one of numerous others that have developed in astrology, creationism and other areas.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2000 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kendall, H.W. (2000). Introduction. In: Kendall, H.W. (eds) A Distant Light. Masters of Modern Physics, vol 0. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8507-1_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8507-1_1
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-98833-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-8507-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive