Need science to produce new thoughts
Petteri Vuorimäki, Senior Arctic Official and Finland’s Ambassador to the Arctic at the Arctic Circle Assembly. (Photo: Birgitte Martinussen)
Petteri Vuorimäki, Senior Arctic Official and Finland’s Ambassador to the Arctic says science is needed to prevent us from repeating the same old thoughts.
“I read somewhere that an average human being thinks 60,000 thoughts every day. Only 1,000 of them are new thoughts,” he said.
“We need science and scientists to bring us new thoughts. These are the ones that will save us.”
Vuorimäki made sure to emphasize the importance of the Arctic Council in regard to science diplomacy:
“The Arctic Council was not dead, is not dead, and will not die.”
“The Arctic Council is perhaps the most important circumpolar format to pursue common work, including in the field of science,” said the diplomat to an engaged audience in the Harpa concert hall in Reykjavik.
“Despite the problems that we have, science must prevail if we are to prevail.”
Bonds of mutual trust and respect
John P. Holdren, Research Professor and Co-Director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program at the Belfer Center at the Arctic Circle Assembly. (Photo: Birgitte Martinussen)
John P. Holdren, Research Professor and Co-Director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program at the Belfer Center, says that bonds of mutual trust and respect within the scientific community can have large and unexpected diplomatic benefits when the scientists rise to positions of political influence in their countries.
He highlighted several examples of such successful science diplomacy endeavors, including an interaction with a Chinese scientist on air pollution.
“As a result of that interaction, he and I became very active in discussions to reach an agreement between the US and China on climate policy. That contributed to the statement by President Jinping and President Obama jointly in Beijing in 2014, in which the US and China, the world’s biggest economies and emitters of greenhouse gases, recognized climate change as a surpassing problem for the 21st century and that both were prepared to lead the addressing of the problem globally. “
“That statement in 2014 contributed very substantially to the success of the Paris climate agreement a year later. Total serendipity.”
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