Environmental issues

Abstract

The year covered by this report (October 1982 to September, 1983 has been characterized by concern for, and development of, existing themes rather than the emergence of totally new issues. This in no way is meant to suggest a static scene.With changing emphases and the achievement of definite progress in certain areas, there is a great deal of significance to report. I Some general trends Following the seminal UN Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm in 1972, the UN General Assembly has required the preparation of regular reviews of the world environmental situation. The first of these updating reports was presented in 1982 by Holdgate et al. (1982a) with a useful summary contained in Holdgate et al. (1982b). This important report provides an invaluably comprehensive and sober -even hopeful -digest of trends over the past decade. Inevitably, attention is focused on the increasing proportionate influence of society in relation to natural environmental processes but it is concluded that the short-term productivity of the biosphere has not yet been seriously reduced by human activities and that there is no evidence of imminent collapse. On the other hand, it is recognized that the resilience of some systems is threatened and the excessive release of sulphur in many developed regions is identified as a target for prompt action in the 1980s. As far as practical action is concerned, approval is given to the way in which scientific and popular interests in the environment have fused together to form a more realistic conservation movement but the report warns of the limited contribution which even rapidly growing and more predictive scientific insights alone can provide. No real solutions to the world's environmental problems can occur in the absence of an appropriate social organization and political will. Above all, the report recommends that priority should be given to education, training and other strategies to facilitate the rapid application of the currently available knowledge which is necessary to improve the quality of life for millions in the developing regions.The UN report highlights environmental issues, like energy, acid rain and tropical at University of Manitoba Libraries on