SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE ON PROBLEMS OF THE ENVIRONMENT, B.1-B.1240

WARNER/B

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE ON PROBLEMS OF THE ENVIRONMENT, B.1-B.1240

1982-1999

SECTION B

English

items

The Scientific Committee on Problems of Environment, SCOPE, was established by the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) in 1969 in response to environmental concerns emerging at the time. ICSU members recognized that addressing many of these concerns would require input from several of the scientific unions and SCOPE was the body created to forge such links. Its objectives were: 1. To advance knowledge of the influence of humans on their environment, as well as the effects of these environmental changes upon people, their health and their welfare - with particular attention to those influences and effects which are either global or shared by several nations. 2. To serve as a non-governmental, interdisciplinary and international council of scientists and as a source of advice for the benefit of governments and inter- governmental and non-governmental bodies with respect to environmental problems. Its activities were directed by an Executive Committee and its first task was to prepare a report on Global Environmental Monitoring (SCOPE 1, 1971) for the UN Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment in 1972. Warner was Treasurer and a member of the Executive Committee of SCOPE 1982-1988. In the 1980s and 1990s he became involved in three major international SCOPE programmes: ENUWAR (Environmental Consequences of Nuclear War), RADPATH (Radioecology after Chernobyl: Biogeochemical Pathways of Artificial Radionuclides) and RADTEST (Nuclear Test Explosions: Environmental and Human Impacts). The results were published in SCOPE volumes 28 (1985-1986, 2nd ed. 1989), 50 (1993) and 59 (1999) respectively. The University of Essex hosted the SCOPE Unit that provided administrative support for these three programmes. It organised meetings, circulated papers and prepared reports.