On the seventieth anniversary of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto. Climate and ecology in the focus of the Pugwash Movement

Abstract

July 9, 2025 marked the 70th anniversary of the announcement of
the Russell-Einstein Manifesto, the authors of which were prominent scientists,
including B. Russell, A. Einstein, F. Joliot-Curie, M. Born, J. Rotblat and others.
The Manifesto became the main document of the Pugwash Movement of Scientists
founded in 1957. The article discusses the origin of the idea of a manifesto of
scientists, warning politicians and the public about the threats to humanity
associated with nuclear weapons and their tests, and calling on scientists from the
West and East to gather at a conference to consider from a scientific point of view
the dangers of using nuclear and other types of weapons of mass destruction.
Despite the fact that there are no signatures of Soviet scientists under the
Manifesto, they took part in the first Pugwash Conference, held in July 1957 in
Pugwash, Canada, which marked the beginning of many years of fruitful activity of
the Pugwash Movement. In 1995, it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The
Pugwash Movement made a great contribution to the development and adoption of
a number of agreements in the field of international security. He has made a
significant contribution to the development of international scientific cooperation.
Among the active participants in the Pugwash movement were the heads of the
hydrometeorological service of our country: Academician E.K. Fedorov, who was a
member of the first leadership of the Soviet Pugwash Committee, and Academician
Yu.A. Izrael, one of the authors of the Dagomys Declaration of the Pugwash
Council "Ensuring the survival of Civilization". The main focus of this article is on
the contribution of scientists participating in Pugwash to the study of the "nuclear
winter" and to the discussion of the climatic and environmental consequences of
the use of nuclear weapons.