Abstract

PIP: The world's population increased form about 3 billion in 1960 to 4 billion in 1974, to 5 billion in 1987, and it is projected to grow to 6 billion by 1991 and to 8 billion by 1992. Finite, nonrenewable resources have to satisfy the increased need for sustenance of this population excess in a sustainable economic development mold. Human activity has upset natural processes with negative environmental effects: Minamata disease in Japan caused by heavy metal pollution, global deforestation, and acid rain. The 1972 Conference on Human Environment in Stockholm dealt with industrial pollution. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) was established subsequently. The theory of global warming caused by emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxides, and halogens as predicted by a Swedish scientist decades ago is accumulating a body of evidence. The International Geosphere Biosphere Programme (IGBP) of the International Council of Scientific Unions attempt to explore the Earth's physical, chemical, and biological processes to predict global environmental changes. Success mandates data availability. Paleoclimatic evidence indicates previous cataclysms caused by climate change, thus agriculture could be affected massively by global warming. Improved scientific analysis of greenhouse gas emissions and crop simulation models for major agricultural areas are needed. The North-South dialogue in UN forums has been acrimonious without much success, although international cooperation has been fruitful with the adoption of the Montreal Protocol on phasing out ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons. Such cooperation is needed on energy consumption and sources.