"CHINA SCIENCE: China's Greatest Student"

"The making of Joseph Needham's multi-volume masterpiece."

There is a review by Judith Shapiro in Sunday's Washington Post of THE MAN WHO LOVED CHINA: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries Of the Middle Kingdom By Simon Winchester.

I have been reading the biography of Joseph Needham, and it is indeed a good read. Needham was the man who put the "S" in UNESCO. Assigned by the British to head a scientific delegation to China in World War II, he came to believe that it was important for the scientifically developed nations to help the scientifically less developed portions of the globe to develop their scientific capacity. Not only did he network with other scientists to build support for this position, but he took advantage of the development of UNESCO as a United Nations agency serving the intellectual communities of its member states as a vehicle for his proposed international scientific organization. He then was asked by UNESCO's first Director General, Julian Huxley (no mean scientist himself), to serve as the first Assistant Director General for Science. He did so for two years.

Needham was a towering intellect. He was a leader in the field of biochemistry prior to World War II, with a remarkable flare for languages which allowed him to learn Chinese when his laboratory began to host Chinese exchange researchers in the 1930's. His greatest intellectual contribution, however, was the 18 volumes he wrote of the 25 volume history of Science and Civilization in China that he conceptualized -- a series which radically changed our understanding not only of the contributions of China to our modern technological civilization, but which more broadly raised issues about the factors that lead to the industrial revolution and which challenged Western chauvinism.

Winchester is the best selling author of previous scientific biographies who writes very well. Needham was as flamboyant a subject as a biographer could want, as well as a great intellect who left an important intellectual and organizational legacy for the world.

Support for the Man and the Biospere (MAB) Program

The Man and the Biosphere Program (MAB), proposes an interdisciplinary research agenda and capacity building. Launched in the early 1970s, it promotes research and knowledge sharing on the ecological, social and economic dimensions of biodiversity and the conditions needed to maintain biodiversity. The program uses its World Network of Biosphere Reserves as vehicles for knowledge-sharing, research and monitoring, education and training, and participatory decision-making.aiming to improve the relationship of people with their environment globally.

Species are becoming extinct at a historically unprecedented rate, and the genetic diversity within species is also decreasing for many species as the number of living plants or animals in the species decreases. If that fact alone does not offend you, then you should be at least worried that the loss of biodiversity will mean a loss of genetic resources for agriculture, medicine and even industry.

Bioreserves provide refuges where biodiversity can be maintained. In situ preservation requires reserves to be located in a very wide variety of locations in order that all the ecological systems can be represented in the network. Indeed, the areas of greatest biodiversity in relatively untouched ecosystems are in developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Thus a global network of bioreserves is needed for the benefit of mankind.

The network is, of course, not a sovereign entity, and each bioreserve falls under the sovereign control of the nation in which it is located. The United States needs bioreserves within our own nation for the safeguarding of its biodiversity. By participating in the international network, we help assure that other nations will support their own bioreserves, and that the overall network will protect global biodiversity for all of mankind.

The United States was instrumental in the creating the Man and the Biosphere program, and was an active participant during the time that America was a member of UNESCO and indeed during the period that we had withdrawn from the organization. There are now 531 bioreserves in 105 countries in the MAB network; the United States has 47 bioreserves.

The U.S. MAB Committee was a good one. It was reconvened briefly after the United States rejoined UNESCO, but it was disbanded in 2005. Draft legislation is now being considered for restitution of the U.S. participation in the Man and the Biosphere program, and the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO recommended that participation be restarted as soon as possible!

The George Wright Society provides this website on UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere program.

Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures of the National Museum

Members of the National Commission for UNESCO were treated to a preview of a wonderful exhibit at the National Gallery of Art (East Wing) that will be available to the public starting next week.

It had been thought that over the decades of war and Teliban domination of Afghanistan the archaeological treasures that had been excavated during the 20th century had been lost. The building of the National Museum had been destroyed.

Amazingly, those treasures had been hidden for many years, and survived intact. Unfortunately, the restored museum still does not have the security systems needed to protect the treasures, especially given the current level of violence. Therefore the decision was made to allow the greatest treasures of the country to circulate through Europe and the United States in this great exhibit.

The exhibit combines the findings of a great deal of archaeological research with understanding of Afghanistan's history. The artifacts are themselves often of the greatest possible artistic value. Under any circumstances the survival of gold, ivory and glass objects of such beauty for thousands of years would be amazing. For Afghanistan their survival appears miraculous.

This exhibit will revise your understanding of Afghanistan and Central Asia!

Read More on the Gallery Website!

UNESCO, Energy and Climate Change

On Monday, James Connaughton, the head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, spoke to the members of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO on the topic of "Energy and Climate Change". He stated that global warming and increased concentration of greenhouse gases are both occurring, and that scientists generally agree that mankind is contributing substantially to the buildup of greenhouse gases, and thus to global warming.

He projected the very desirable economic growth in the developing world, and noted the very major difficulty that if the world is to hold global warming to acceptable levels, the developing countries are going to have to make major changes in technology, since their current energy and agricultural technologies are "heavy" in the sense that they produce a lot of greenhouse gas per unit economic production. Even were the developed countries to achieve huge improvements in emissions, that effort would not be enough; were the improvements in developed nations emissions to be achieved by the transfer of greenhouse-gas intensive production activities to developing countries without the transfer to clean technologies in those developing countries, there would be no net gain for the reduction of global warming.

Mr. Connaughton also emphasized that the current emphasis on global climate change had had the unfortunate side effect of diverting the attention of policy makers from other environmental problems, such as water and air quality (and I would add desertification, loss of tropical forests, pollution, etc.)

Mr. Connaughton stressed that if we are to succeed in limiting climate change (and other environmental problems), the key limitation will be political will in developing nations, since we have adequate technology for the job. He also said that a critical problem was a major lack of understanding of the size and nature of the task before mankind.

In short, there is a major educational challenge for the world, to build the environmental literacy and numeracy needed to generate the political will to solve the problems leading to global warming and environmental deterioration. The effort is urgently needed, and must continue for generations.

Surprisingly, given that the talk was made to the National Commission for UNESCO, Mr. Connaughton did not make the further inference publicly that UNESCO was a logical entity to lead in the educational effort, building that public understanding and support. Obviously, UNESCO is the lead agency within the United Nations system for both education and communications and information. It leads in the natural science programs needed to develop appropriate understanding of the causes and remedies of global warming and other environmental problems, and the social science leadership needed to measure the success in changing knowledge and understanding of environmental problems.

If the White House really believes Mr. Connaughton's presentation, as does the author of this posting, then it should support a serious effort to expand UNESCO's program focusing on the environmental sustainability of economic development.

I spoke briefly with Ambassador Oliver after the talk, and she emphasized that that kind of an initiative would be a very appropriate one for a public-private cooperative approach. Voluntary contributions, both financial and in kind, would be a powerful stimulus to the development of such an effort on the part of UNESCO.

Obituary: William Lowenthal

William Lowenthal, 87, a Foreign Service officer died May 6 at Inova Fairfax Hospital. He had cancer. Dr. Lowenthal retired in 1981 as economic development officer for the U.S. delegation to the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in Paris. Bill Lowenthal was a good friend and colleague to Americans for UNESCO.

Read his obituary in The Washington Post.

Editorial: The U.S. National Commission for UNESCO

National Commissions for UNESCO are an important innovation, written into the charter of UNESCO after considerable debate; the U.S. National Commission is similarly chartered in U.S. law. The Commissions are intended to assure that the intellectual communities of the member nations and not just their governments, are fully involved in UNESCO. Sixty years ago, the U.S. National Commission was a powerful and active organization, with a vigorous program promoting knowledge and understanding of UNESCO in the United States. It is not that now, and this year's annual meeting appeared to involve much less than half its members.

This editorial addresses the advisory function of the National Commission. That is an important function, and indeed the Commission is regulated under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). The advisory function is difficult because UNESCO has a very complex program, involving 193 member nations, focusing on intellectual changes that are difficult to measure and to benchmark. It is also difficult because the Commission constantly changing membership of 100 people meets infrequently and its members are generally strangers to one another. After the long absence of the United States from UNESCO, there are relatively few Americans who really understand UNESCO and its programs.

For some 20 years I was involved in managing the provision of scientific advice to government agencies. That experience makes me recognize that people when asked for advice will almost always provide it, but if they are poorly chosen and the process poorly organized, the advice may well be of poor quality. Advisors must be experts. They must be asked the right questions, and be given the time and resources to respond rationally to those questions. The management of scientific advisory committees is a highly skilled activity for agencies such as the Office of the Science Advisor, the National Academies, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation.

The State Department needs not only scientific advice, but other forms of professional advice to deal with the complex programs of UNESCO. Still, many of the lessons learned in the provision of scientific advice must be relevant also to provision of professional advice on cultural and educational activities of UNESCO. The State Department has not assigned experts in the management of advisory services to that function in the case of the National Commission for UNESCO, and the staff of the Commission's secretariat, while working hard and imaginatively, is still learning on the job.

The operation of the National Commission's Natural Science subcommittee provides an example that should be replicated in its other subcommittee. That subcommittee works through specific subcommittees on hydrology, oceanography, and geology (with another on man and the biosphere in abeyance). These in turn are not limited to members of the National Commission, but include specialists in the specific programs and their international dimensions, often with decades of experience working with UNESCO. When the Natural Science subcommittee meets, it has the chairs of those subcommittees to present their detailed considerations of the issues at hand, and it is only left to review and interrelate those recommendations. (It would have been better had those subcommittees also been asked to review the budget priorities and make recommendations.) The geologists, oceanographers, and hydrologists participating in these efforts are not only generally experienced in the provision of advisory services within their disciplines, but they also often know each other and form a true rather than a nominal group, able to communicate via phone and email during the year (rather than briefly once a year in group). The subcommittees are also small, allowing real discussion.

Even the operation of the Natural Science subcommittee could be improved, for example by the resuscitation of the Man and the Biosphere Committee and the creation of a Basic Science and Engineering specific science subcommittee. Moreover, the subcommittee reports could be provided to the members of the Natural Science subcommittee in writing before their meeting.

The other subcommittees of the National Commission appear to be in need of reform and rethinking. The education sector is UNESCO's lead sector, and faces a huge and complex task involving primary, secondary and tertiary education, as well as non-formal, literacy, and vocational education, and all of the educational policy and management functions. Comparably, there are few experts who can span cultural areas ranging from museums to cultural aspects of democratization, economic development, and the search for peace.

The 100 person National Commission when meeting as a committee of the whole is a very unwieldy entity. It requires a very strong Chair. Currently the Commission is chaired by a political appointee in the State Department. Compare that with the original chair, who was Milton Eisenhower, the brother of President Eisenhower, who was himself the president of a major university and a recognized leader of the American educational community.

Similarly, to increase effectiveness of the larger Commission, there would have to be a very strong Executive Committee that meets frequently. It would seem likely that the members of that committee should be elected by the Commission itself, rather than selected by the bureaucracy, and perhaps based on nominations by the sectoral subcommittees.

The rethinking of the processes of the National Commission should be one of the first tasks of the new administration that will take office in 2009. While the structure of the Commission is defined by law, the Commission charter must be renewed every two years under the conditions set by the Federal Advisory Committee Act. Fortunately the FACA recognizes that flexibility is required in the structuring of advisory services, especially when they are specified in legislation as well as by the needs of the bureaucracy. Thus the next rechartering of the Commission would be an important opportunity for reform.

The most important factor in the success of an advisory committee is a client who actively seeks that advice, and takes it seriously. It is important that the new administration place people in charge of its relations with UNESCO who fit that description.

John Daly
(The opinions expressed in this editorial are mine, and do not necessarily reflect those of Americans for UNESCO or any other organization.)

The Meeting of the National Commission

The U.S. National Commission for UNESCO completed its two day annual meeting yesterday. The meeting was marked by exceptional cultural activities, including a reception in Blair House and a preview of the Treasures of Afghanistan exhibit that is soon to open in the U.S. National Gallery of Art. There was also a wonderful presentation of a U.S.-funded, UNESCO-implemented project to develop museums in developing countries including presentations by directors of museums in Mali and Guatemala. The meeting was topped off by a reception in the Castle building of the Smithsonian, hosted by the Smithsonian Institution and Americans for UNESCO.

The Commission considered its own membership and organization, encouraging organizations that so desired to submit recommendations on the Commission process to the State Department. It also made recommendations on the priorities for the program purposes and their major lines of action, which will be taken into account in the development of the budget for 2009-2010,

The State Department should publish a summary of the meeting and its recommendations on its National Commission website in the near future.

A Comment on the UNESCO Budget and U.S Policy

The UNESCO budget is divided into two parts. The regular budget, which is approved every two years by the General Conference, implements the six year mid term strategy of the organization, and is just over US$ 300 million per year. That budget is funded through assessed contributions from the member states, and the United States funds 22 percent. The other part of the budget consists of voluntary contributions from the member states, and is estimated at some US$200 million per year. The United States contributes less than one million dollars a year in voluntary contributions, or less than one half of one percent.

Think about the voluntary contributions. They are not added to the general fund, but rather fund things that the contributing country negotiates with the UNESCO secretariat. Thus they do not represent the consensus budget of the 193 member states, but rather are modifications of that consensual budget desired by a single country.

I can only suppose that the secretariat is likely to feel that the regular budget is cash in hand, but inadequate to their needs, and is likely to bend over backward to make the government offering voluntary contributions happy.

The budget of UNESCO is far too small as compared with the challenges before it. From the point of view of the United States, there are many things we want done that UNESCO can better accomplish than could our bilateral programs. Moreover, UNESCO leverages U.S. contributions with funding from other donors as well as from host countries. The U.S. contribution, less than US$70 million per year seems quite a bit, unless you compare it with other figures; my local school board has a budget of $2.2 billion per year for public schools in this one county. UNESCO seeks to improve primary, secondary and tertiary education worldwide. Or compare that budget with the one-trillion dollars that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost. Could those wars have been avoided had the educational systems and communications been more supportive of Western values over the past several decades? I think it would have been worth the bet.

So, were the United States to add say $30 million in voluntary contributions per year to UNESCO's budget, that sum would be affordable and would make UNESCO a much more effective multilateral tool of U.S. foreign policy. Such a contribution would more than pay for itself in terms of security for this country, economic benefits from better development of our economic partners, accomplishment of our humanitarian objectives, improved opinions of the United States abroad, and progress on global environmental problems,

John Daly
(The opinion expressed above is mine, and does not necessarily represent that of Americans for UNESCO or any other organization.)

The National Commission Meeting

Today was the first day of the two day meeting of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO, held in the Conference Center of Georgetown University. Some 40 Commissioners attended, with a comparable number of other observers. The morning was taken up by informative presentations by State Department officials, focusing on the role of intergovernmental organizations in U.S. foreign policy and the efforts of the State Department at UNESCO over the past year.

There was an interesting talk by James Connaughton, the chief of the White House Office of Environmental Quality, on international energy and climate change policies.

The afternoon was devoted to breakout sessions on the five major programs of UNESCO.

UNESCO and the earliest oil paintings

Source: "Random Samples", Science, May 2, 2008.

Quoted in full:

Buddhist artists in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, may have painted with oils centuries before European Renaissance painters developed the technique.

A team led by Marine Cotte at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France, has analyzed tiny samples of paintings sent by a UNESCO conservation team from a site where the Taliban destroyed two giant Buddha statues in 2001. Initial scans with ultraviolet light led researchers to suspect the presence of oil, and "we have confirmed it," says Cotte. Twelve of 50 murals depicting colorful Buddhas and mythical creatures, painted in caves behind the statue niches, included pigments bound in plant oils. Oil offers "more freedom" to artists, says Cotte, as it doesn't set instantly like the gypsum or calcium salt pigments also used in the caves.

Helen Howard of the National Gallery in London says European oil paintings date back to the 12th century, but whether oil was used earlier isn't known because "analysis hasn't often been carried out on very early paintings." UNESCO team leader Yoko Taniguchi of the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties in Tokyo said in a statement that ancient Romans and Egyptians were known to use drying oils, but only as medicines and cosmetics. Thus, the team writes in April's Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry, the Afghan samples could be the "oldest example of oil paintings on Earth."

U.S. Water Resources Conference in support of UNESCO’s IHP

A one-day workshop led by NSF and USGS in support of UNESCO’s IHP is to take place on June 27, 2008, in Washington, DC, at the U.S. Department of State.

The conference is to explore how to accelerate application of U.S. technology and knowledge to solve water resources and water quality management problems in developing countries. The participants will include high level representatives from U.S. agencies with interests and responsibilities for water, the Director General of UNESCO, Ambassador Louise Oliver, and leading U.S. scientists.

Expected outcomes are:

1. Recommendations for greater infusion of US science and technology into addressing water issues in developing countries.
2. Direct input into an upcoming international conference involving several hundred people that will be sponsored by the US Committee on Hydrology (with UNESCO) on “Water Scarcity, Global Change, and Groundwater Management Responses” and to be held December 1-8, 2008 in Irvine, CA

Two major topics for the June meeting will be integrated water resource management in semi-arid and arid regions, and meeting needs for potable water and sanitation in the rapidly expanding urban environments of developing countries.

Madrid Declaration on the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme and the World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR)

The representatives of UNESCO Member States, biosphere reserves, and co-operating public and private sector institutions and civil society organizations gathered at the 3rd World Congress of Biosphere Reserves and the 20th session of the International Co-ordinating Council (ICC) of the MAB Programme during 4-8 February 2008 in Madrid, Spain, made the following recommendations:

Convinced of the need to strengthen and support the contributions of MAB and biosphere reserve networks to sustainable development in the context of new and emerging challenges and to document, disseminate and share lessons learned in the context of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD; 2005-2014):
• Urge UNESCO, its Member States and Secretariat, to make optimum use of biosphere reserves for the promotion of sustainable development and the WNBR and associated regional, sub-regional and national networks as forums for exchange of experience and lessons learned during the UNDESD;
• Encourage UNESCO Member States to establish MAB National Committees where they do not yet exist;
• Commit the Secretariat to review the implementation of the Seville Strategy and make recommendations to improve the working practices of the MAB Programme at the global, regional, national and local levels in order to enhance its relevance to sustainable development policies, planning and implementation at all levels;
• Call upon UNESCO to actively pursue coherent approaches and strengthen cooperation within the UN system, particularly with UNDP and UNEP with the aim to enable Member States to use biosphere reserves as places to demonstrate and promote the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and other UN targets, such as the commitment of Parties to the Conventions dealing with biological diversity, combating desertification and climate change;
• Call upon UNESCO and international funds for the creation of an innovative mechanism for sustainable funding aimed at reinforcing biosphere reserves, the MAB Programme as well as the regional networks and promote the implementation of the Madrid Action Plan;
• Capitalize upon the potential for action of biosphere reserves to address new challenges such as the loss of traditional knowledge and cultural diversity, demography, loss of arable land, climate change, biodiversity and sustainable development; and, in particular, as places for investments and innovation to mitigate and adapt to climate change, to promote the greater use of renewable energy in sustainable futures of rural and urban areas and to enhance and capitalize upon ecosystem services and products in sustainable development for human well-being;
• Build effective partnerships in biosphere reserves through cooperation among all governmental levels, private sector, mass media, civil society organizations, indigenous and local communities, research, monitoring and education centers and other such institutions for the implementation of the Madrid Action Plan during 2008-2013;
• Encourage cooperation between the MAB Programme and the other Intergovernmental Scientific Programmes of UNESCO, the World Heritage Convention and the One UN pilots;
• Promote MAB and WNBR as global, regional and national fora for involving people and generating new ideas to solve local problems and targeted actions to seek a dynamic and mutually beneficial relationship between People and the Biosphere.

IHP Burear Endorses U.S. UNESCO Center

The Bureau of the International Hydrological Program recently reviewed and endorsed the proposal of the United States of America for the establishment of an International Center for Integrated Water Resources Management (ICIWaRM) that would be hosted by the Institute for Water Resources of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and be set up in partnership with a consortium of U.S. universities and professional organizations. The latest regional meeting of IHP National Committees of Western Europe and North America – Region I (Istanbul, September 2007) had previously given its support to this U.S. proposal. Accordingly, the proposal is being forwarded to the forthcoming 18th session of the IHP Council.

Read the full proposal for the Center.

World Press Freedom Day

Every year, May 3rd is a date dedicated to events which celebrates the fundamental principles of press freedom. On the day, we pause

• to evaluate press freedom around the world,
  
• to defend the media from attacks on their independence and
  
• to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession.
  

This year's UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize was awarded to Mexican journalist Lydia Cacho Ribeiro. Members of the Prize's independent jury were impressed by her courage as she continues to expose political corruption, organized crime and domestic violence in the face of death threats, an attempt on her life and legal battles. The Prize, which honors the memory of the murdered Colombian journalist Guillermo Cano, is awarded every year by the UNESCO Director-General and since 2007 is supported by the U.S.-based Ottaway Foundation.

Links of interest

President Bush's Statement on World Press Freedom Day

Article: World Press Freedom Day Supports Journalists Facing Threats

USAID Press Release on World Press Freedom

2008 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize awarded to Mexican reporter Lydia Cacho Ribeiro

UNESCO World Press Freedom Day Website

Russians to Explore Africa under UNESCO program

The Russian geographic society will soon start the largest international science and research mission to Africa within last 10 years. The expedition is held within UNESCO's World Heritage program. Several cross-country vehicles will travel through 45 countries of Europe, Middle East and Africa, including 27 African states. The crew includes famous travelers, medics, ethnographers and archeologists. They will collect information about poorly studied peoples of Africa and test telecommunication and navigation equipment.

UNESCO’s New York Office commemoration of World Press Freedom Day

Justice Albie Sachs
© Thomas Khosa

UNESCO’s New York Office this week commemorated World Press Freedom Day with a keynote speech by Justice Albie Sachs, a chief architect of South Africa’s post-apartheid Constitution, on "Access to information and the empowerment of people."

"Openness as a standard practice goes well beyond journalist access; it’s got as much to do with dignity of people to have voices and expression."
Justice Albie Sachs

The celebratory lecture and luncheon was attended by nearly 100 journalists, United Nations delegates, officials and representatives of media advocacy groups and foundations.

Read more about the New York event!

Read more about UNESCO's 2008 celebration of
World Press Freedom Day!

Federico Mayor on the Alliance of Civilisations

This is an interesting video by the former Director General of UNESCO.