The Guardian: Humanity has reached a "defining moment" in our dominion over the planet and our ability to destroy it, says Martin Rees, President of the Royal Society, who gave the Joseph Rotblat lecture at the Hay Book Festival in the UK two days ago. Rees said in his lecture, "Twenty-first century science: hopes fears and ethical challenges," that scientific advances had made it much easier for individuals to commit devastating acts of terror on a much greater scale than 9/11. "In a global village there will be global village idiots. And with this power, just one could be too many," he said. These might not be fundamentalists, but those with the mentality of a computer virus designer or arsonist, he added. "Even a single person will have the capacity to cause massive disruption through error or through terror. We are kidding ourselves if we think that technical education leads to balanced rationality."
Politicians should do more to counter the danger posed by climate change, "ravaging" the biosphere. He called for massive investment in technological solutions such as biofuels. "They deserve a priority and commitment from governments akin to that accorded to the Manhattan project to build the first atom bomb or the Apollo moon landing project in the 60s."
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