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 hirty-four
of the world's most distinguished scientists, including many
Nobel laureates, have joined together in an unprecedented stance
against Mitsubishi's plans to build a massive salt factory in
Laguna San Ignacio, on the Baja California peninsula in Mexico.
Laguna San Ignacio was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site
in 1993, and is the last pristine birthing lagoon for the Pacific
gray whale as well as home to many endangered species of flora
and fauna.
 The
prominent group calls Mitsubishi's plans -- to pump 6,000 gallons
out of the lagoon per second, and to flood over 116 square miles
to create evaporation pools -- "an unacceptable risk"
to the environment. Their powerful scientific statement refutes
Mitsubishi's eco-friendly claims, and appeared as a full-page
ad in the Los Angeles Times and New York Times,
and as a double-page spread in Mexico's La Reforma and
the San Francisco Bay Guardian. The ad was sponsored by
a Mexican-led international coalition of concerned organizations,
including Grupo de los Cien, Pro Esteros, Union de Grupos Ambientalistas,
Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental, Consejo Para la Defensa
de la Costa del Pacifico, the Natural Resources Defense Council
(NRDC), Greenpeace Mexico, and the International Fund for Animal
Welfare (IFAW -- www.ifaw.org).
Dr. Roger
Payne, the world renowned whale biologist who co-discovered that
humpback whales sing, drafted this significant scientific declaration.
According to Payne, "Mitsubishi needs to recognize the weight
of scientific opinion against their plans to turn the California
gray whale's last pristine breeding ground into a salt factory."
Laguna San Ignacio is home to the only remaining population of
gray whales and Payne believes that "It makes no sense to
threaten such a unique Mexican and global treasure by converting
116 square miles of critical habitat into an industrial zone."
The statement
has been backed by nine Nobel Laureates including Dr. James Watson,
Dr. Murray Gell-Man, Sir Andrew Huxley, Mario Molina, and Sir
Aaron Klug; as well as prominent scientific figures such as Edward
O. Wilson, Sylvia Earle, Paul Ehrlich and Jared Diamond.
"We believe
that the industrialization of this undisturbed breeding habitat
is contrary to the principles and values that sanctuaries, biosphere
reserves, and World Heritage Sites were created to uphold,"
reads the scientists' statement. "To build major industry
here -- especially when it is constructed on, extracts its water
from, and pumps its wastes into a UNESCO World Heritage Site
-- will create a dangerous precedent."
"We respectfully
urge Mitsubishi to abandon the project," the statement emphatically
concludes, "and trust that the Mexican government will stand
by its original decision denying ESSA permission to construct
a saltworks at Laguna San Ignacio." 
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