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News Stories & Announcements British Unitarian Shares Nobel Peace Prize A British Unitarian is the shared winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace, along with his colleagues on the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (the IPCC) and Al Gore, in the awards announced on 12 October 2007. The British man is Geoff Levermore, a UK-nominated Lead Author on the IPCC Working Group that deals with mitigating the effects of climate change. He is Professor of the Built Environment at the University of Manchester, and he helped write and edit a chapter on 'Residential and commercial buildings'in the IPCC's 'Fourth Assessment Report', due to be published later this year. Geoff Levermore and his colleagues around the world have received a letter of congratulation from the chairman of the IPCC, Rachendra Pachauri, saying the award "makes each one of us a Nobel laureate". Geoff said he was delighted that the Intergovernmental Panel had achieved "the recognition it deserves", explaining that its research had provided the basis on which governments took their decisions on limiting greenhouse gas emissions and protecting the environment, including through international agreements like the Kyoto Protocol. The Nobel citation says that the award made to the IPCC and Al Gore is "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change". Geoff Levermore is a member of Norcliffe Unitarian Chapel at Styal in Cheshire, where both he and his wife Carolyn serve on the governing Council, and he is also a member of the Manchester District Association of the Unitarian and Free Christian Churches. Unitarianism had its origins in the European Reformation. It initially questioned the doctrine of the Trinity and ideas concerning the nature of Jesus, while emphasising an open and non-dogmatic approach to truth. Today, Unitarians have become more universalist and humanist in their understanding of faith and philosophy. Geoff Levermore says he sees close parallels between his work on climate change and the philosophy and practice of Unitarianism. He said the studies he and his colleagues undertook on climate change went beyond academic discourse. "These are concerned with ethical questions, how we share the earth's resources, how we live together." He said the IPCC's investigations were carried out "in a free and open spirit, accepting that there is no final answer, that there will always be new interpretations based on new evidence. Our conclusions can only be about probabilities". Geoff said this had been the approach of the great eighteenth century Unitarian scientist, Joseph Priestley, the man who discovered oxygen. "This to my mind has been and remains the Unitarian approach to truth, both religious and scientific, that in your explorations you are on an open search," Geoff said. He also compared the strong democratic element in the Unitarian denomination with the way the IPCC worked, which he said was "open, democratic and transparent". Geoff contrasted this with fundamentalism in both science and in religion, saying because it clung to dogma, fundamentalism was unable to respect democracy or transparency. The Nobel Prize for Peace is to be awarded in Oslo, Norway, on 10 December 2007. Geoff said he would be keen to go, although there were more senior people than himself in the IPCC. He said he would "love to be there in Oslo out of interest". On a personal note, Geoff said he had discovered the Unitarian movement just three years ago, after becoming increasingly disillusioned with the dogmatism he found in the Anglican Church. After reading a report that the Unitarian denomination might be extinct in 10 years (a report in The Times), Geoff and Carolyn Levermore decided to give their local Unitarian chapel a try. They say they have increasingly warmed to the spiritual home they have found. Geoff has already been interviewed by the local Cheshire press and BBC Radio Five Live and other radio programmes about his award. Details of the award can be found on the IPCC web page at: www.ipcc.ch. October 2007 |
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The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, |
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