| In the middle of the 20th century, we saw our planet
from space for the first time. Historians may eventually find that this vision had a
greater impact on thought than did the Copernican revolution of the 16th century, which
upset the human self-image by revealing that the Earth is not the center of the universe.
From space, we see a small and fragile ball dominated not by human activity and edifice
but by a pattern of clouds, oceans, greenery, and soils. Humanity's inability to fit its
doings into that pattern is changing planetary systems fundamentally. Many such changes
are accompanied by life-threatening hazards. This new reality, from which there is no
escape, must be recognized--and managed. Fortunately, this new
reality coincides with more positive developments new to this century. We can move
information and goods faster around the globe than ever before; we can produce more food
and more goods with less investment of resources; our technology and science give us at
least the potential to look deeper into and better understand natural systems. From space,
we can see and study the Earth as an organism whose health depends on the health of all
its parts. We have the power to reconcile human affairs with natural laws and to thrive in
the process. In this our cultural and spiritual heritages can reinforce our economic
interests and survival imperatives.
This Commission believes that people can build a future that is more
prosperous, more just and more secure. Our report, Our Common Future, is not a
prediction of ever increasing environmental decay, poverty, and hardship in an ever more
polluted world among ever decreasing resources. We see instead the possibility for a new
era of economic growth, one that must be based on policies that sustain and expand the
environmental resource base. And we believe such growth to be absolutely essential to
relieve the great poverty that is deepening in much of the developing world.
But the Commission's hope for the future is conditional on decisive
political action now to begin managing environmental resources to ensure both sustainable
human progress and human survival. We are not forecasting a future; we are serving a
notice--an urgent notice based on the latest and best scientific evidence--that the time
has come to take the decisions needed to secure the resources to sustain this and coming
generations. We do not offer a detailed blueprint for action, but instead a pathway by
which the peoples of the world may enlarge their spheres of co-operation.
A CALL FOR ACTION
Over the course of this century, the relationship between the human
world and the planet that sustains it has undergone a profound change.
When the century began, neither human numbers nor technology had the
power radically to alter planetary systems. As the century closes, not only do vastly
increased human numbers and their activities have that power, but major unintended changes
are occurring in the atmosphere, in soils, in waters, among plants and animals, and in the
relationships among all of these. The rate of change is outstripping the ability of
scientific disciplines and our current capabilities to assess and advise. It is
frustrating the attempts of political and economic institutions, which evolved in a
different, more fragmented world, to adapt and cope. It deeply worries many people who are
seeking ways to place those concerns on the political agendas.
The onus lies with no one group of nations. Developing countries
face the obvious life-threatening challenges of desertification, deforestation, and
pollution, and endure most of the poverty associated with environmental degradation. The
entire human family of nations would suffer from the disappearance of rain forests in the
tropics, the loss of plant and animal species, and changes in rainfall patterns.
Industrial nations face the life-threatening challenges of toxic chemicals, toxic wastes,
and acidification. All nations may suffer from the releases by industrialized countries of
carbon dioxide and of gases that react with the ozone layer, and from any future war
fought with the nuclear arsenals controlled by those nations. All nations will have a role
to play in changing trends, and righting an international economic system that increases
rather then decreases inequality, that increases rather than decreases numbers of poor and
hungry.
The next few decades are crucial. The time has come to break out of
past patterns. Attempts to maintain social and ecological stability through old approaches
to development and environmental protection will increase instability. Security must be
sought through change. The Commission has noted a number of actions that must be taken to
reduce risks to survival and to put future development on paths that are sustainable. Yet
we are aware that such reorientation on a continuing basis is simply beyond the reach of
present decision-making structures and institutional arrangements, both national and
international.
This Commission has been careful to base our recommendations on the
realities of present institutions, on what can and must be accomplished today. But to keep
options open for future generations, the present generation must begin now, and begin
together.
To achieve the needed changes, we believe that an active follow-up
of this report is imperative. It is with this in mind that we call for the UN General
Assembly, upon due consideration, to transform this report into a UN Programme on
Sustainable Development. Special follow-up conferences could be initiated at the regional
level. Within an appropriate period after the presentation of this report to the General
Assembly, an international conference could be convened to review progress made, and to
promote follow-up arrangements that will be needed to set benchmarks and to maintain human
progress.
First and foremost, this Commission had been concerned with
people--of all countries and all walks of life. And it is to people that we address our
report. The changes in human attitudes that we call for depend on a vast campaign of
education, debate, and public participation. This campaign must start now if sustainable
human progress is to be achieved.
The members of the World Commission on Environment and Development
came from 21 very different nations. In our discussions, we disagreed often on details and
priorities. But despite our widely differing backgrounds and varying national and
international responsibilities, we were able to agree to the lines along which change must
be drawn.
We are unanimous in our conviction that the security, well-being,
and very survival of the planet depend on such changes, now.
Source: Our Common Future. NY: Oxford University Press,
1987. |