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of political idealism and against the barbarism of terrorism, the most extreme aberration of
ideologies, which she has masterfully analysed in her novels.
She is admired and read throughout the world for all these reasons, for her ethical and creative
singularity, for her highly independent conscience, for a call for memories of the past that is one
of the themes of her work. We echo this sentiment and thank her for her valuable moral and
intellectual legacy.
Anewstar shines inEarth’s nights, aworkof creation, on this occasionhuman. It is the International
Space Station, recipient of the Award for International Cooperation, the fruits of an enormous effort
led by the space agencies of the United States of America, Europe, Russia, Japan and Canada.
This ambitious project, which over twenty thousand technical experts from twenty counties are
participating in, does not aim at costly, utopian adventures out in space, but rather at bettering the
knowledge about our own planet so as to conserve what is so under threat and improve the quality
of life on it. State-of-the-art technical laboratories on board will provide more precise knowledge
about our climate, plants and animals, about the environment that supports life but is sending out
so many signals nowadays of change and of danger.
As was pointed out by the Jury who bestowed the Award, confronting the dangers that threaten
life on Earth is the major objective of this scientific adventure, which is surely the greatest work
of civil engineering ever undertaken by man in space, and which furthermore will prove to be a
momentous source of information in the fields of physics and biology, and in general for all the
important questions related to our knowledge of interplanetary space.
Bertrand Russell used to say that the only thing that would
redeem humanity is cooperation, as it is useless to wish good on
oneself without alsowishing it upon everybody.The International
Space Station, so splendidly represented on this stage, is an
outstanding model of cooperation and fraternity amongst
human beings. In contrast to the dangers of destruction from the
misuse of techniques and technologies which threaten us, this
adventure in space opens up new horizons, is a counterbalance to
such excesses and is a solution to cure the many wounds that we
have inflicted on our beautiful planet.
Of no less importance for defending life and biodiversity on
Earth is the activity of unesco’s World Network of Biosphere
Reserves, which has been granted the Award for Concord.
For the last thirty years, the World Network of Biosphere Reserves has been turning the much
sought-after balance between the development of society and respect for Nature into a reality. The
Man and Biosphere Programme is replete with approaches and solutions that are not only of an
environmental nature but also cultural and human. Conserving large area of Nature that are still
unspoilt, the real treasures of humanity, is a challenge that brooks no delay, that demands further
research and work, and a wider scope of action.
Over 400 Biosphere Reserves make up the network; Spain contributes twenty of them. Ordesa and
Sierra Nevada, the islands of Lanzarote and Menorca, Muniellos, Somiedo, and now Redes Nature
Park here in Asturias are just some of these exceptional places that we must continue to protect
and add to. In this respect, the project to include the entire Cantabrian coastline in the Network of
Biosphere Reserves —should it become a reality— could turn this area into one with a rich natural
heritage, which could have undreamt-of, positive outcomes for the land and its inhabitants.
We have here, therefore, an organization that is taking major, wise steps, such as promoting
what is generally known as “sustainable development”, a practice that proposes the rational use of
natural resources and which reconciles the terms conservation and development. It is an approach
based on the idea of balanced, pro-conservation progress and is a model for the management of
the interaction between man and the land that looks way towards the future.
Manuel Estiarte, the Spanish water polo player has received the Award for Sports. Once again, in
“The access to what has come to be
called, ‘the book of life’ has once and for
all demonstrated the error of those who
used to uphold the belief in qualitative
differences between human beings.”
26
th
O
ctober
2001
