42 Nobel Laureates call on Canadian Government to reject Teck Frontier Mine Proposal

Dear Prime Minister Trudeau and Deputy Prime Minister Freeland,

2020 has already become a year defined by devastating impacts of climate change. While we celebrated the ambition of countries — including Canada — that demanded the enshrinement of 1.5℃ in the Paris Agreement, it is increasingly clear that even this is a compromise with deeply tragic implications for the world’s climate vulnerable regions.

The importance of leadership in the coming few years cannot be understated. Governments are lagging scandalously behind what science demands, and what a growing and powerful people-powered movement knows is necessary.

There is enough carbon embedded in already operating oil, gas, and coal fields and mines to take us beyond 2℃, let alone 1.5℃. The implications of this are clear: there is no room for expansion of the fossil fuel sector. There is no room for the Teck Frontier tar sands mine.

Projects that enable fossil fuel growth at this moment in time are an affront to our state of climate emergency, and the mere fact that they warrant debate in Canada should be seen as a disgrace. They are wholly incompatible with your government’s recent commitment to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. And with clear infringements on First Nations rights, such projects fly in the face of rhetoric and purported efforts towards reconciliation.

The response to the climate crisis will define and destroy legacies in the coming years, and the qualifications for being on the right side of history are clear: an immediate end to fossil fuel financing and expansion along with an ambitious and just transition away from oil and gas production towards zero carbon well before mid-century. [1]

As recipients of the Nobel Prize, we call on you and your cabinet to act with the moral clarity required by the state of this crisis and reject the proposed Teck Frontier mine proposal.

Sincerely,

Hans Deisenhofer, Chemistry (1988)
Gerhard Ertl, Chemistry (2007)
Edmond Fischer, Chemistry (1992)
Joachim Frank, Chemistry (2017)
Dudley Herschbach, Chemistry (1986)
Roald Hoffman, Chemistry (1981)
Roger Kornburg, Chemistry (2006)
Roderick MacKinnon, Chemistry (2003)
John E. Walker, Chemistry (1997)
Kurt Wüthrich, Chemistry (2002)
Edmund Phelps, Economics (2006)
John Coetze, Literature (2003)
Elfriede Jelinek, Literature (2004)
Alice Munro, Literature (2013)
Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Medicine (2009)
William Campbell, Medicine (2015)
Mario Cappecchi, Medicine (2007)
Andrew Fire, Medicine (2006)
Louis Ignarro, Medicine (1998)
Brian Kobilka, Medicine (2012)
Erwin Neher, Medicine (1991)
Richard Roberts, Medicine (1993)
Michael Rosbash, Medicine (2017)
Gregg Semenza, Medicine (2019)
Thomas Sudhof, Medicine (2013)
Jack W. Szostak, Medicine (2009)
Shirin Ebadi, Peace (2003)
Leymah Gbowee, Peace (2011)
Tawakkol Karman, Peace (2011)
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Peace (1980)
Jose Ramos Horta, Peace (1996)
Mairead Maguire, Peace (1976)
Kailash Satyarthi, Peace (2014)
Muhammad Yunus, Peace (2006)
Jody Williams, Peace (1997)
Philip W. Anderson, Physics (1977)
Barry Barish, Physics (2017)
Sheldon Glashow, Physics (1979)
David Gross, Physics (2004)
Brian Josephson, Physics (1973)
David Politzer, Physics (2004)
Takaaki Kajita, Physics (2015)

c.c.

Hon. Lawrence MacAulay
Hon. Carolyn Bennett
Hon. Dominic LeBlanc
Hon. Navdeep Bains
Hon. Bill Morneau
Hon. Jean-Yves Duclos
Hon. Mark Garneau
Hon. Marie-Claude Bibeau
Hon. Mélanie Joly
Hon. Diane Lebouthillier
Hon. Catherine McKenna
Hon. Harjit Sajjan
Hon. Maryam Monsef
Hon. Carla Qualtrough
Hon. Patty Hajdu
Hon. Bardish Chagger
Hon. François-Philippe Champagne
Hon. Karina Gould
Hon. Ahmed Hussen
Hon. Seamus O’Regan
Hon. Pablo Rodriguez
Hon. Bill Blair
Hon. Mary Ng
Hon. Filomena Tassi
Hon. Jonathan Wilkinson
Hon. David Lametti
Hon. Bernadette Jordan
Hon. Joyce Murray
Hon. Anita Anand
Hon. Mona Fortier
Hon. Steven Guilbeault
Hon. Marco E. L. Mendicino
Hon. Marc Miller
Hon. Deb Schulte
Hon. Dan Vandal

[1] See The Lofoten Declaration: www.LofotenDeclaration.org