(7 Dec 2019) Nobel Prize laureates who gathered in Stockholm to receive their awards stressed the importance of addressing climate change.
Winners of the prizes in physics, chemistry and economics made the assessment on Saturday ahead of next week's presentation of the prizes.
The remarks come as a global summit on climate change takes place in Madrid.
Didier Queloz, who shared the physics prize for discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a sunlike star, took issue with people who shrug off climate change on the grounds that people will eventually leave Earth.
Esther Duflo, one of the economics laureates, cautioned that dealing with climate change “will require a change in behaviour, particularly in the rich countries” that are heavy consumers of goods and energy.
While some believe that there is no need to consume less provided consumption is fueled by renewable energy, “it would be great if that were the case but I don't think we can count on it necessarily,” Duflo said.
M. Stanley Whittingham, who shares the chemistry award for helping develop lithium-ion batteries, said “to help solve the climate issue, the time is right now, but we have to be pragmatic. ... We can't just turn off all the CO2.”
Canadian-American James Peebles, who gets half of this year's 9-million-kronor ($948,000) physics prize for studying what happened soon after the Big Bang, later told The Associated Press he is excited about the wave of youthful climate change protesters.
Whittingham also told the AP he was encouraged by the protests.
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