Greening the Nobel Prize? : Environment: An award would be a step toward reversing the destructive practices that are ruining our planet.

This month, the Nobel Prize Commission awarded various individuals the Nobel memorial awards in physics, mathematics, medicine and economics. Noticeably absent is a Nobel Prize for contributions to our understanding of environmental issues. I believe that such an award should be created.

We are only slowly learning about the effects that our environmental assaults have had on planet Earth. Some of these problems are confined to local regions of a single country, but most have profound international consequences. Oil spilled on the beaches of Alaska disrupts the food web throughout the Pacific Ocean. Radiation from an explosion at Chernobyl contaminated dairy products throughout northern Europe. Freon lost from a refrigerator in Southern California contributes to the loss of ozone in our atmosphere, thereby possibly causing an increase in cases in skin cancer throughout the world.

A Nobel Prize for environmental achievement would not only serve as recognition and reward for work completed; it would also act as an incentive for further work. It might motivate scientists, politicians and individuals worldwide to devote more of their energies toward improving our understanding of, and sense of responsibility for, the environment.

Humankind’s pursuit of progress in the sciences, literature, economics and world peace will falter if we do not also work to save the planet on which we live. What better means is there to elevate the magnitude of our global environmental problems than to award those who have dedicated their careers to the world’s preservation? Establishing an award as prestigious as a Nobel is one of the many steps we can take toward reversing the destructive practices that are ruining our planet.

In his poem, “Magnitudes,” America’s poet laureate, Howard Nemerov, writes: “Earth’s wrath at your assaults is slow to come/But relentless when it does.” If we are to preserve our planet and avoid the retribution that is likely to result from our assaults on the environment, then we must act now. A Nobel Prize would serve to recognize and encourage those who are working toward that end.