From: Student Pugwash USA <uspugwash@igc.apc.org>
Newsgroups: alt.org.pugwash
Date: 14 Dec 92 11:42 PST
Subject: Re: *Tough Questions: Fall 92 News
Nf-ID: #R:cdp:1758700030:cdp:1758700032:000:6938
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!uspugwash    Dec 14 11:42:00 1992


Tough Questions - Conference Issue 1992

From the Executive Director
PERSON-SIZED ACTIONS AND OUR GLOBAL FUTURE
By Betsy Fader

********************************************************************
Betsy Fader is a 1985 graduate of Vanderbilt University where she 
studied political science and communications.  While at Vanderbilt, 
she served two years in the Student Senate and was subsequently 
elected to the University's Board of Trustees upon her graduation 
from the University.  Prior to her arrival at SPUSA, Betsy served as 
Parliamentary Assistant to a member of the House of Commons in 
London, England, and then as Legislative Assistant in a D.C. law 
firm.  In both positions, Betsy tracked legislative and policy 
developments in alternative energy and clean energy technology 
issues. Betsy then served as legislative assistant at the Association 
of American Universities where she followed issues, focussing on 
biomedical research policy and policies regarding ethical conduct 
in research.  She has served as Executive Director of Student Pugwash 
USA since 1989.
*********************************************************************

Each day, news sources inform us that the lifestyles we lead, and our 
consumption of the worldUs resources, are not sustainable.  We know 
that our over-use of finite energy resources and abuse of the 
environment will soon place us in a state of ecological crisis. We 
know that our fragile planet  cannot carry the ever-increasing numbers 
of people inhabiting its limited space.  This is not news.

     An interested individual can easily locate a plethora of 
articles, books and journals devoted to examining these issues.  
However, while there is no shortage of information documenting the 
unfavorable direction weUre heading or the problems we will soon 
confront, there is a distinct absence of realistic solutions to these 
dilemmas.  Likewise, there is a notable lack of attention devoted to 
the role that young scholars will play as the leaders, decision-makers 
and managers of technology in the not-too-distant future.  

     Student Pugwash USAUs conferences and programs help to bridge 
the gap between documentation of problems and positive social change 
by providing opportunities for young people to develop their own 
individual agendas for the exploration of critical global issues.  
For the week of June 14 - 20,1992, Student Pugwash USAUs Seventh 
International Conference brought together an interdisciplinary, 
international and intergenerational group of committed scholars and 
eminent professionals for intensive discourse and examination of a 
variety of social and global issues.  Unlike the dozens of student 
conferences that take place each year, the Student Pugwash USA 
International Conference stressed the exploration of solutions to 
current and impending problems.  Rather than focussing solely on the 
current state of social, environmental and global dilemmas, Student 
Pugwash USAUs International Conference stressed the importance of 
ENVISIONING the type of world in which each of us would like to live 
and identifying what we, as individuals, can do to help shape such a 
world.

     Unfortunately, SPUSA does not attract the TaverageU or TtypicalU 
student.  Rather, we attract young people with an established affinity 
for critical analysis of global issues and a strong desire to utilize 
their talents to affect positive social change.  And so, while we 
successfully assembled a group of committed citizens who recognize 
that we each share in the responsibility for determining and setting 
our global agenda, I ask myself why more people do not share this 
commitment?  What will it take before more people feel empowered to 
take action and change the unsustainable course we have chosen?  Will 
it take global catastrophe before individuals realize that we are all 
part of the problem, but we are also part of the solution?

     Following are the closing remarks that I made to the 95 student 
participants of Student Pugwash USAUs Seventh International 
Conference.  I present these remarks here as a commendation, a 
challenge, and a responsibility that we all need to accept!

     The activities of this past week have, hopefully, helped to 
better form your collective and individual vision for a world that IS 
sustainable, a world which supports life that is free from the threat 
of nuclear war, a world which supports a balanced ecosystem, and a 
world which ensures freedom and opportunity for all of its inhabitants. 

     The challenge we face in achieving such a vision is great, but 
the potential to facilitate positive social change is equally great, 
beginning with you.  The path toward sustainability begins with your 
ability to make a difference through the work you undertake, through 
the decisions you make in your professional and personal life, and 
through your ability to empower other people to share your vision.  

     You have now had the opportunity to share in the development of a 
very special community.  You have helped create a community dedicated 
to exploring and learning from global problems in the context of a 
vision for the future.  You have helped form a community that 
challenges itself and others to seek solutions.  You have helped 
develop a community that serves as a catalyst for change. 

     A Student Pugwash USA International Conference similar to this 
one will not take place for another two to three years, and there 
are less than one thousand individuals who have had the opportunity 
to take advantage of this experience over the last thirteen years.  
So it is extremely important that this experience not end here, at 
Emory University.  The Conference, and the energy that you have 
expended, must extend to Africa, Europe, Asia, and South America Q 
to each of the 27 countries from which you have come.  

     And while this Conference may have begun when you arrived one 
week ago, it does not end here.  It will continue after you leave, 
when you share this experience with the people you know and meet, and 
the community in which you live.  The Student Pugwash USA International 
Conference will continue as long as you, as individuals, decide that 
you have a contribution to offer, a responsibility to make this world 
a better place than you found it, and a vision of the future to share.

     As you read through the reports, perspectives, and reflections 
that are contained in the pages of this special conference edition of 
Tough Questions, I invite you to become a part of this community as 
well.  In encouraging widespread participation and commitment to 
global sustainability, more emphasis and attention must be placed on 
how tangible, behavioral changes by average citizens can have a 
profound impact upon our continued survival.  After all, global 
problems will be resolved, in the end, through person-sized actions.