Today we commemorate the 160th anniversary of the date of birth of the world-famous Ukrainian scientist Volodymyr Vernadsky. He was the first President of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. Our Research base has the honor of being named after him. His whole life he studied the global processes on Earth and he has worked not only for our country but for the whole of humanity and its future.
Today we feel very strongly that we live like in two different centuries.
From one side, now we work in Antarctica – the only continent on the Planet which does not witness wars and even people with weapons. We are here to solve the problems of humanity of the 21st century – global climate change, interrelations of space and atmosphere, environmental issues etc.
On another side, our country, Ukraine, where now our families and friends are and where we will come back soon faces another century. Russian aggression tries to push us back, somewhere in the middle of 20th century in times of bloody wars and genocide of nations, years of dictatorship and totalitarian regimes.
Whole his life Volodymyr Vernadsky has fruitfully worked in two countries – Ukraine and Russia. He has archived a lot as a scientist and at the same time, created the philosophy of “noosphere” – the field of mind created by human thoughts. He would not believe in Russian aggression against Ukraine in 21st century. But unfortunately, this is a reality. The aggressive Russian regime tries to turn history back and push humanity instead of joint cooperation to solve the global problems to split into separated nations, which have to purchase weapons and deal mainly with defense.
To avoid this, it is important that the whole of humanity shows solidarity with the victims of aggression and helps to isolate the aggressor everywhere, including science.
We should remember, that totalitarian regimes do have “science for truth”, “science outside of policy”, etc. Earlier or later dictators can use even the most peaceful research to empower themselves, for wars and violence. Every international contacts, even scientific ones, weaken the isolation of the Putin criminal regime and become an argument for the so-called “justification” of the Russian brutal aggression. This way, cooperation with Russia and Russians even in peaceful scientific fields, supports aggression of Russian invasion and killing of Ukrainians.
We appeal to the world scientific community to stop any cooperation with Russia and Russians until the Russian society bethinks itself and will not stop the aggression against its neighbors and condemn the war and the war criminals.
The 21st century should be the century of noosphere – the field of the human mind, interaction, and mutual understanding of nations in joint efforts to solve global Earth problems. War criminals thinking in the past style should not have a place in this century. It’s our joint task – to show it clearly and plainly.
Members of the 27th Ukrainian Antarctic expedition jointly with the National Antarctic Scientific Center, Ukraine