'C'wealth to help find environmental solutions'
Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma has said one of the biggest services that science and technology can render to humanity will be in providing the environmental solutions which the world so actively seeks.
Commonwealth can play a major role in helping developing countries to access that help through partnership, he noted.
The Commonwealth chief made the remarks in a statement issued from London marking the Commonwealth Day yesterday.
Sharma said the consequences of the progress, however, have not always been fully realised at the time that new technologies were introduced. Some have later presented safety and environmental concerns while others have raised moral and ethical questions.
New ideas and inventions sometimes challenge established values and ways. Questions arise about whether a new technology, for instance, takes a step too far in terms of civil liberties, or if it has other social consequences.
“In finding a way forward, each of us as Commonwealth citizens in democratic societies needs to be informed, to understand and to exchange opinions about the possibilities of science and technology,” he pointed out.
The secretary general said the discussion needs to be held as much in universities, laboratories and government offices, as in homes, schools and in the media. Society will benefit fully where all people, including the vulnerable and those on the margins, are involved in public discussion and its outcomes.
In the Commonwealth, he said great emphasis is laid on ensuring that progress embraces all.
“We build and maintain partnership and networks so that people can come together to learn from and share with each other and profit from this collectively.”
Sharma said, “It is well recognised that science and technology are integral to our future as a global community, and that future possibilities are beyond our present imagining. Science and technology only fulfil their promises when they serve society.”
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