We need shifts in technology and public policy which can lead to both unsustainable life styles and unacceptable poverty becoming problems of the past. This is a challenging task to which the Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems should address itself. India A major issue for all is that of conservation of resources, raw materials, energy. It requires the giving up of careless and wasteful behavior in a throw-away society. It is a question of individual and collective attitudes and not a consequence of science and technology.
Science provides the knowledge and technology the means of action.
The decision about how to make use of them is ours, as individuals. Beyond the general progress of knowledge and the technological development, the most important impact science can and must have on society is the spirit that it implies, the scientific, rational approaches towards the world, life and society. Education, science and technology may collide with tradition and disturb beliefs or social structure. We must be prepared for that and take it into account so as to overcome it. It is my strong opinion that the scientist has first of all a general responsibility to the truth, and only then is there responsibility to the society and to the world at the particular time in history.