Our Global Environment and the World Campaign for The Biosphere

by

NICHOLAS POLUNIN DPM DSc(Oxon) CBE

President of the Foundation for Environmental ConservationSecretary-General and Editor of the International Conferences on Environmental Future

Founder and Editor of Environmental ConservationConvener and General Editor of Environmental Monographs and Symposia

15 Chemin F-Lehmann 1218 Grand-Saconnex Geneva Switzerland

INTRODUCTION

This account was written (and subsequently approvedby critical referees) in compliance with requests to ex-plain how we came to recognize and care about our OnlyOne Biosphere and hence to propose a World Campaignin its support while also updating our thoughts on whatmight best be done to further the Campaign and make itoperationally effectivemdashprimarily as an educationaldevice and secondarily to engender action

It was in the summer of 1966 at a conference in Fin-land which had been well organized by UNESCO thatwe finally realized how our beautiful world was beingthreatened by the inexorable rise of human population-pressures So we decided henceforth to do our utmost towarn people widely of the extreme gravity of the impend-ing situation even if it should mean relinquishing ourlast Chairmdashas indeed it did inter alia to found a much-needed international journal and then another

In our earlier student days the global population hadseemed manageable but we had the globalist view ofone world thrust upon us on realizing that dust identi-fied from the paroxysmal eruptions of Krakatoa (Kraka-tau) nearly 50 years earlier in the then Dutch East Indieshad drifted at least three times around the world persis-tently reddening sunsets and widely darkening the skyin the mid-1880s before finally settling to land or oceanor otherwise disappearing

In my later student days in 19331 exposed nutrientPetri-plates to northerly winds on mountain-tops innorthern Lapland and West Spitsbergen and caught onboth occasions so many fungal spores and Bacteria onthe nutrient-rich media that I thought they must havebeen contaminated and consequently did not publish myobservations Yet they were probably quite valid asemerged in 1948 when using American aircraft and vari-ous devices for collecting and sampling specialist col-leagues and I were able to demonstrate the occurrenceof botanical particlesmdashsuch as pollen grains yeastsfungal spores and Bacteria many of which were stillviablemdashin the atmosphere at the highest latitudes andin some cases almost directly over the geographic NorthPole (Polunin 195 la Polunin amp Kelly 1952) Meanwhile

Formerly called a Decade but now renamed for reasonsexplained on page 92 of this issue (following its Declaration onpp 91-2)mdashEd

in that same far-off summer of 1933 the aviator CharlesA Lindbergh had exposed sticky slides in the air overDavis Strait and East Greenland with apparently com-parable results to my own obtained in Lapland and Spits-bergen (Meier amp Lindbergh 1935 cf Gregory 1973)

Following the war we resumed our arctic explorationwith the help of various aircraft though these imme-diately swept away the challenge that we had met inearlier times by foot-slogging and other laborious meansThus in 1946 flying in a Canso amphibious aircraft ofthe Royal Canadian Air Force after confirming the exis-tence of the Spicer Islands in Foxe Basin north of Hud-son Bay we sighted to their east the last major islands tobe added to the world map and now called Prince CharlesIsland and Air Force Island The conviction that therecould scarcely be any other terrestrial features of suchmagnitude remaining undiscovered on Earth gave usagain the feeling of one-world globalism Then two yearslater having been given the use of a United States AirForce B29 Superfortress and crew to investigate thespore content of the atmosphere around the North Polewe had thrust on us yet again the now-evident onenessof the world in that further connection

Studies of the air-masses in which we were flying toand from the North Pole in 1948 indicated that theyhad come from the Great Plains before travelling forhundreds of kilometres over the largely ice-covered Arc-tic Ocean So the Great Plains were seemingly the pro-venance of our botanical particles as indeed the iden-tity of the latter in some cases appeared to support (Po-lunin 1951a Polunin amp Kelly 1952 Gregory 1973and works cited therein) Similarly supported were mysuspicions of the preceding year when I had caught manysuch bodies including rust (Puccinia) spores on stickyslides and nutrient Petri-plates that I had exposed byhand from aircraft northwards to the Arctic Ocean coastand southwards from the vicinity of the magnetic poleon Somerset Island NWT Canada (Polunin et al 19471948 Polunin 19516)

Perhaps more unexpected was our observation thatin the summer of 1950 the most abundant pollen grainsin the air near ground-level at Kongsfjord northwesternSpitsbergen were of coniferous trees which did not growwithin hundreds of kilometres (Polunin 1955) and sowe go on with of course further pertinent observationsby others (cf Gregory 1973)

115Environmental Conservation Vol 9 No 2 Summer 1982mdashcopy 1982 The Foundation for Environmental ConservationmdashPrinted in Switzerland

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116 Environmental Conservation

In 1971 we held our first International Conference onEnvironmental Future in Finland mainly at Jyvaskylaand gave a paper on The Biosphere Today in which ourcurrent globalist views were aired and further expanded(Polunin 1972) Meanwhile the Universe was being ex-ploredmdashparticularly by the Americansmdashand it wasemerging as more and more likely that our planet sup-ports the only forms of life at present in existence in ourUniverse being indeed the Only One Earth This quotedphrase was the slogan of the United Nations Conferenceon the Human Environment held in Stockholm in 1972which at last brought to many politicians and leadingdecision-makers overdue recognition of the paramountimportance of the environment for Man as well as Nature

This and subsequent developmentsmdashsuch as theestablishment of the United Nations Environment Pro-gramme UNEPmdashdid not however bring home to peoplegenerally the all-important facts that (1) The Biosphereconstitutes a single integrated whole (2) we humansform an integral part of it (3) we are utterly dependenton its health for our own sustenance and more (4) it isin several ways fragile but (5) it is gravely threatenedby various human activities and out-sized capabilities

So we proposed a World Decade of The Biosphere(Polunin 198Cto 198061980c Vallentyne etal 1980aLaconte et al 1980) to run if possible from 1982 to1992 which incidentally is just 500 years after the redis-covery of the New World by Europeans Earlier we hadproposed with others such an International Year (Val-lentyne et al 19806) which for various reasons did notmaterialize (cf Vallentyne 1980 despite Cloud 1980)But the World Decade seemed to be catching on verywidely in prospect already before being launched whichbodes well for the leading use of the World Campaignas a vehicle for educating people everywhere concern-ing The Biosphere and the above five numbered pointsabout it namely that it constitutes an integrated wholeof which we humans form an integral part that we areutterly dependent on it that it is fragilemdashand yet gravelythreatened by our activities

So much for the background micro-history which Ihave been asked to record from a personal standpointand which recalls the experiences of our colleague Val-lentyne (1981) in such matters as student experiencesand the aftermath of atomic explosions as comparedwith volcanic ones (see also Worthington 1982) Nowlet us consider The Biosphere as our life-supporting hab-itatmdashthan which effectively we have no known alter-nativemdashand proceed to review some ways in which themuch-needed World Campaign for The Biosphere can bepromoted as an educational device and hopefully be-come operationally effective

Thus for example we have recentlymdashsince having the projectreturned to us by the world body to which we passed it on con-ception of the idea but found after a wasted year and more ofwaiting that they were unable to do much about itmdashreceivedindications that another world body has formally endorsed theproposal while at least two major regional organizations haveestablished special committees to support the Campaign as re-corded later in this papermdashEd

THE BIOSPHERE AS OUR LIFE-SUPPORTING HABITAT

To our mind The Biosphere is best described as theperipheral envelope of the Earth together with its sur-rounding atmosphere so far down and up as living thingsexist naturally It thus ranges from the deepest layers ofsoils and bottoms of troughs in oceans upwards to thehighest levels of the atmosphere in which any form oflifemdashincluding dormant spores and bacterial or othercellsmdashis present at all normally for we exclude artificialprojections into space and descents into deep mines etc(Polunin 1980a 1980c 1982)

Although categorized primarily by the presence oflife The Biosphere of course has its inert componentsand constitutes in its parts and as a whole the planetarylife-support system of all Nature and Mankind It thusembraces the unique intelligence and cognate capabilitiesof Man (comprising also women and children) whichputs humans in such a position of power that they haveemerged collectively as the worlds undisputed pando-minant (Johnson 1980) Thus as species and other taxaof biota disappear and the potentialities for and of gene-pools become depleted biologists in general and plantscientists in particular need to be personally concernedas well as professionally involved for their supply of ma-terials to study as well as for subsistence For the envi-ronment is liable to be so changed by ever-mountinghuman populations and their demands for food rawmaterials and living-space that there is reason for ever-increasing concern about the global life-support system

Already our Only One World and life as we know itseem gravely threatened in ways that are widely proli-feratingmdashbasically through increasing population-pres-sure (demophora) with attendant pollution erosion andsoil-degradation inequities of distribution to relievecruel shortages and concomitant threats of widespreadfamine and pestilence pandemic disease or nuclearholocaust At the same time other often more subtleforces are also at work practically at Mans behestmdashincluding the loss of more and more productive land toman-made structures or coverings build-up of carbondioxide in the troposphere and increase of ozone-destroying substances in the stratosphere Less-subtleforces engendering the gravest possible concern includethe stupendous build-up of nuclear arms particularly onthe two sides of the North Atlantic as stressed in ourlast Winter issue (eg Hiatt 1981 Westing 1981)

But lest I may seem like a morbid doomsayer let meaffirm that I am a strong believer in the resilience oflife and the capacity of humans to save their world ifonly they will realize the situation recognize the grow-ing dangers and act widely in sufficient concert Forthis a prerequisite is educationmdashparticularly concern-ing The Biosphere and the items of integrity interde-pendence insecurity and threatening human activitywhich we indicated in our Introduction Consequentlywe return to the main point of that Introduction whichwas to preface as an educational device the World Cam-paign for TheBiosphere that should extend from 1982for at least several years and also have other worthy

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Polunin Our Global Environment and the World Campaign for The Biosphere 117

objectives These include not only world-wide under-standing of the situation but also realization of how weare all involved and interdependent and so need to betogether in our thoughts and actions

THE WORLD CAMPAIGN FOR THE BIOSPHERE

With our enlightened audience of those who subscribeto or otherwise obtain access to this Journal there isno need to dwell futher in general terms on the back-ground and significance of this much-needed enterprisebut it does seem desirable to consider how it may bestbe furthered Right from the inception of the idea (Po-lunin 1980c) it seemed clear to us that a world bodywould be needed to organize a suitable launching andglobal campaign and thereafter promote and coordinateefforts for maximum effectiveness For this it appearedthat the World Environment and Resources Council(WERC) might be a suitable body (Laconte amp Jones1980) But despite their early welcome of the idea (egLaconte et al 1980) they subsequently found thatThe present membership of WERC does not allow [us]to organize a world-wide campaign for a Biosphere De-cade (Pierre Laconte in litt 24 December 1981) Sovery late for due action it came back to us to pushmdashhopefully soon into the right lap

Let me now deal in some detail with the rounddozen of means by which when writing the editorialon pages 6mdash7 of our latest issue that was intended topreface the stressing in this one of the Decade now re-named Campaign it seemed (and still seems) clear to usthat the latter might best be promoted and fosteredwhile calling for further ideas And although most ofour own activities are carried on without special financ-ing I do feel that some will be needed for effective pro-motion of the World Campaign for The Biosphere andto such ends would welcome suggestions of methodsand possible sources of financing (see also several of thenumbered items below) This will be for transmission to theadopting body or if necessary for activation throughour own Foundation for Environmental Conservationwhich has also adopted this theme of the Campaign forThe Biosphere

1) Publishing and Broadcasting Information andSupport by All Appropriate MeansmdashThis should includeeditorials survey articles and research topics in such wide-circulation but high-level journals as Science Nature NewScientist and Scientific American and also in such gen-eral environmental journals as Environmental Conserva-tion Ambio The Ecologist The Environmentalist Ma-zingira and a few others of international circulationmdashto mention only some in English In addition the dailyand other popular press should be involved throughsuch internationally-oriented newspapers as The TimesThe New York Times The International Herald-Tribuneand their counterparts in other languages having a widelyinternational readership If the big internationals4eadthe way with persistence and inspiration the local butoften widely-quoted press will surely carry on the message

2) Other Vehicles of Desirable Publicity IncludingPosters and StickersmdashChronically involved should be

such further media as television documentary andeven fictional films and writing radio broadcasting thepulpit and possibly the flesh and blood stagemdashseealso 3 and 8 below Into all should be inculcated thevital importance of real knowledge of The Biosphere andthe urgency of passing on this knowledge to the widestpossible audience everywheremdashsee also the followingtwo items Means must be found to make proprietorsand exponents of the various media and ultimately theirclients and supporting public really interested and in-volved Could not they be cajoled into giving time spaceor whatever for the good of this all-important cause offurthering the environmental movement and ultimatelysaving our world

At pertinent conferences and widely elsewhere thereshould be displays of coloured posters illustrating vari-ous leading features of The Biosphere and its supportingCampaign while vivid stickers for cars etcmdashsuch asINSONAs Save Our Biosphere (Gaekwad amp Oza 1981)one duly amended (Fig 1)mdashshould be widely used assuggested by Vallentyne (MS) We can even visualizethem as constituting the medium of a world competi-

Such as the UNESCOmdashICSU event described on pp 74-5of our preceding issuemdashEd

INDIAN SOCIETY GF NATURALISTS

Fig 1 The revised INSONA sticker with OUR inserted in theheading and the full title of the Society below Similarly blackand white on a bright-green background it was received fromIndia within a matter of days of our pointing out such needs(see also Gaekwad amp Oza 1981)

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118 Environmental Conservation

tion entries for which children and others might collectwith avidity

3) Instructive Advertising and Audience-attractingShowmanshipmdashOne of the prevailing means of chang-ing peoples attitudes through improving their know-ledge and understanding is by means of advertizing invarious mediamdashincluding those already mentioned andalso newspaper notices and announcements But how-ever this may be done by or for us it must be dignifiedand scientifically sound wholly accurate throughout(unless obviously farcical) and strictly factual withoutever being unduly alarmist Unfortunately media adver-tising is nowadays apt to be far too costly for most lead-ers and others in the environmental movement to payfor personally However governments and major indus-tries (which often have far larger budgets) cannot affordto have happen the kind of things that ecologists andrealistic demographers feel bound to warn them aboutand herein should lie the basis of advertising bill-footingon behalf of The Biosphere

4) Books on The Biosphere and Illustrated StudyManuals mdashNeeded are a popular but scientifically-basedvolume on The Biosphere with a mass-produced andinexpensive paperback edition and illustrated study-manuals (for examples on particular regions or biomesand their component ecosystems) These could help withenlightenment and due guidance and should not be dis-tributed free but bought at the lowest possible pricemdashespecially in the poorer regions and countries Anotheridea which we have in mind to implement at the earliestopportunity for book-writing could come in here

As for what he himself calls audience-attractivingshowmanship I think of our enthusiastic colleague JackVallentynes bicycling with his symbolic Biosphere onhis backmdashwidely in North America and Eurasia east-wards to Japan (cf Polunin 1980c Fig 1 Vallentyne1981) This is something which the inquisitive publicmay wonder about but at least will tend to remember(Fig 2)

5) Specialist Research and Due ApplicationsmdashAl-though it is true that the answers to many looming ques-tions are known (at least to enlightened workers) andthat what is now widely needed is due application of suchknowledge there can scarcely be too much basic researchand applicational testing of pertinent results emanatingfrom it This is particularly true where ever-changing lifeand its environments are concerned Moreover who cantell at any particular stage what research results arepertinent and even important for application So wemust push on with more and more basic and relevantapplied research and with the widest possible dissemi-nation and use of new as well as old knowledgemdashchron-ically remembering the great Faradays proverbial res-ponse regarding his electrical sparks What use is a new-born baby

6) Need to Control Human Numbers and Behav-iourmdashPerhaps the most fundamental thing that Manhas so far failed to do is to control his own numbersdespite having the necessary means and knowledge ofhow to undertake it humanely So the remedy is left to

Fig 2 Dr J R Vallentyne of Burlington Ontario Canada withhis Biosphere which he wears on his back as a symbol of globalunity on behalf of our intructional campaign for The BiosphereA former Professor of Zoology at Cornell University and Presi-dent of the International Association of Limnology and current-ly President of the Canadian Society of Environmental Biologistsand Chairman of the Rawson Academy of Aquatic Science DrVallentyne reckons that he must have been seen with his globeby some 200 million people in the past two years mostly innewspapers and on television The words on the straps which heholds with his hands are reading downwards BIOSPHERE andECOSYSTEM The photograph and an accompanying articleappeared on the front page of the Columbus Citizen-Journalon 29 April 1981

Natures way of famine andor pestilence or to Mansway of increased violence But why And how can thisever-worsening situation best be remedied Yet reme-died it must be if our world is not to deteriorate widelyinto a situation of dreary monocultures and widespreadsqualor Of the need for such a remedy environmentaleducation and due awareness should at least provide anoverdue warning while widely pointing the way to stew-ardly care and ultimate amelioration

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Polunin Our Global Environment and the World Campaign for The Biosphere 119

7) National Parks Biosphere Reserves and BiologicalGardens etcmdashThe National Parks and Protected AreasMovement has gathered considerable momentum in gtrecent years inter alia in relation to the rights of indi-genous peoples and some integration with development(cf Eidsvik 1980 Guppy 1980) It is now extendingactively into the marine environment while further use-ful educational toolsmdashranging from the research to thepopular levelsmdashto invoke in support of the World Cam-paign for The Biosphere include the Man and the Bio-sphere Programme and Biosphere Reserves (Batisse1980 1982) together with Biological (rather than mere-ly Botanical or Zoological) Gardens The inspiration ofa wilderness area can be supreme and communion withNature an aesthetic experience leading to productiveenlightenment As for such further devices as the WorldConservation Strategy the Campaign often seems to usa prerequisite to wide public understanding for theirsuccessful implementation

8) Conferences Meetings and Other FreeDelibera-tionsmdashThe launching and prosecution of the WorldCampaign for The Biosphere should as already indicatedbe accompanied by widespread but dignified publicityThe Campaign is to be fostered and furthered at and by ourThird International Conference on Environmental Fu-ture which should include some elucidation of problemsof The Biosphere and its equable maintenance In addi-tion the first World Environmental Education Conferencepostponed from 1982 is expected to include due consid-eration of the theme of education for the protection ofThe Biosphere Moreover a further series of symposiaculminating in a world conference is being planned byWERC to deal with the wise management of biospheralresources (Laconte et al 1980) while the US NationalAssociation for Environmental Education is contem-plating various actions including making the Campaignthe main theme of its 1984 international conferencewhich is to be held in Canada We can also visualize anearly planning workshop and for the year 1985 or soonthereafter a high-level international seminar or widerconference (such as an ICEF) of world leaders to considerall aspects of the Campaign and in particular its mostdesirable future and outcome

9) Need to Change Human AttitudesmdashWhether ornot there is need to change to a new international eco-nomic order it seems important that peoples attitudestowards the future should change in consideration ofgenerations yet unborn and only right to preserve op-tions for them by such means as limiting ourselves toefficient use of the remaining stocks of certain hardminerals and fossil fuels There is also a dire need tochange radically our attitudes vis-a-vis workers on theland and traditional peoples for they are the oneswho will know most intimately their own small piecesof The Biospheremdashwhatever they may call itmdashmore-over understanding its needs and how it can best befostered Indeed it may well prove to be ultimately onthem rather than on politicians or industry or even BigAgribusiness that with the erosion or ignorant destruc-tion of more-and-more of our life-support system con-

temporary humanity may find itself dependent for foodand much else Here again and very widely but not al-ways we should act small while commonly thinking big

10) Need to Establish Due Ethics and LawsmdashIntheir aggregate paper Ethics of Biospheral Survivalcontributed from the vantage point of cultures based onfour different continents Willard et al (1980) empha-size the need for fresh thinking and ethics on behalf ofThe Biosphere while Widman amp Schram (1980) dealwith the hopes for Common Laws for Earth and Man-kind in a similarly innovative fashion These paperswere prepared for and presented in outline at our Sec-ond International Conference on Environmental Futureand engendered long and lively discussions which arepublished in the main in the Conference proceedings(Polunin 1980c) But much more of this kind of think-ingmdashand concomitant action towards ultimate imple-mentationmdashis urgently needed For without due ethicalre-thinking in the corridors of power and along thewider roads that lead to them and in edicts that stemfrom them there can be little room to hope for a betterworld while one of the most obvious needs for the fu-ture will surely be suitable laws and their enforcementfor Man and Nature

11) Institutional and Organizational Involvementtowards SurvivalmdashIt is important that a large numberand wide range of leading international organizationsand institutions national and other academies and asso-ciations and university and other departments and re-search institutes etc participate in fostering and pro-moting the World Campaign for The Biosphere Suchagencies etc as UNEP IUCN INTECOL ICEFs WERCand WWF (our cover-cited collaborators in maintainingEnvironmental Conservation) are obvious cases in pointwhile other notable ones should include UNESCO FAOWMO WHO The World Bank and perhaps further UNAgencies the Smithsonian Institution and various na-tional and other museums and pertinent governmentdepartments and research institutes The Red CrossOECD various religious factions the Sierra Club Friendsof The Earth Institut de la Vie World Scouting etcshould all be actively involved as should many less-widely-influential organizations Already at their latestGeneral Assembly the global International Associationof Limnology (SIL) formally endorsed our initiativewhile the large and powerful North American NationalScience Teachers Association and the National Associa-tion for Environmental Education have both set upspecial committees to support what is turning out to bethe World Campaign for The Biosphere Moreover thelast-named organization according to a letter receivedrecently from its President is contemplating makingthis the topic of their next international conference(as already noted above)

Although a micro-secretariat of not more than fourwell-chosen persons with reasonable wherewithal forcommunications etc may prove desirable it is not con-

And further discussed with incipient plans during a visitwhich he subsequently paid us in Toronto Canada in June 1982

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120 Environmental Conservation

sidered necessary to have any major budget to promotemost aspects of the Campaign indeed the absence ofmajor financing might well be an advantage inter alia inlimiting the promotors to enthusiastic scholars and otherdedicated workers lacking financial aspirations and con-comitant self-promotional ambitions

12) Guardians of The Biosphere Recognition andAwardsmdashWe are firmly convinced that substantialbetterment would accrue to the prospects of our totter-ing world if only people everywhere would learn aboutThe Biosphere and realize their responsibilities as itsstewards to preserve and foster it in all possible waysapplying this stewardship to their day-to-day as well aslong-term actions Might not such learning and cognatebehaviour then take the place of the fervoured disci-pline (eg stemming from religious beliefs) whose ero-sion in the modern world is so much to be deploredTo become thus the profoundly conscious (and whynot recognized or even official ) Guardians of The Bio-sphere should give to all such adherents a feeling of realaccomplishment and lasting togetherness A pervadingattitude of this is Our Biosphere to cherish and main-tain should then underlie their concerted resolve topreserve peace on Earth and do all in their power indi-vidually and collectively to assure for Man and Naturea lastingly robust future True Guardians of The Bio-sphere should be universally recognized as feeling andpractising their full responsibility towards ensuring this

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This paper stems in part (and quotes widely) fromone given at the Oxford International Symposium onEnvironment and the Use of Resources which was heldin Christ Church Oxford England during 22-27 Sep-tember 1980 and in part from an invited lecture deliv-ered on 26 August 1981 in Sydney Australia at theXIII International Botanical Congress to the organizers(and for the excellent organization) of both of whichmemorably enjoyable events the Authors thanks aredue and warmly given

Grateful tribute is also paid to those who helped withthe drafting or polishing (but not necessarily finalization)of the Open Letter of concern andor Declaration ofthe Campaign that start this issuemdashparticularly JohnR Vallentyne Mostafa K Tolba Carole A Trangmar-Palmer Gilbert F White Bert R J Bolin Ivan Poluninand Linus Pauling (in approximate chronological order)

SUMMARYAfter a requested account of how starting from his

student days he had come gradually to care about ourOnly One Biosphere and think globally (even if common-ly acting only locally) the Author presents his thoughtson what might best be done to [foster a World Campaignfor The Biosphere] and make it operationally effectiveThis Campaign should be world-wide and have the objec-tive of educating everybody everywhere to full realiza-tion of the following facts and their often imperativelygrave implications (1) The Biosphere constitutes a singleintegrated whole of which all parts are often intricatelyinterdependent (2) we humans form an integral part of

The Biosphere but are becoming far too numerous andheavily dominant for its or our own good (3) we areabsolutely dependent on the health of The Biosphere forour own subsistence and more as it constitutes our solelife-support (4) The Biosphere in part or even in toto isin several ways fragile but (5) it is gravely threatened byvarious human activities and out-sized capabilities suchas those of nuclear weaponry which are said to be suffi-cient to destroy our civilization several times over andconceivably even the entire Biosphere

The second longer part of the article is devoted toconsideration of the following chosen round dozenrecommended activities through which it is thought theCampaign might best be advanced at least in its earlystages (1) Publishing and broadcasting pertinent infor-mation and support by all appropriate means (2) Usingother vehicles of desirable publicity including postersand stickers (3) Instructive advertising and audience-attracting showmanship (4) Books on The Biosphereand illustrated study manuals (5) Specialist researchand its vigorous application (6) Need to control humannumbers and behaviour (7) National Parks BiosphereReserves and Biological Gardens etc (8) Pertinentconferences meetings and other free deliberations(9) Need to change human attitudes and priorities(10) Need to establish due ethics and laws (11) Institu-tional and organizational involvement towards survivaland (12) Guardians of The Biosphere recognition andawards

The above 12 points largely follow those presaged inthe Editorial in our preceding issue since completion ofwhich it has emerged that this Campaign should be so-called (without reference to any time-scale) and that itmight best be furthered by two United Nations agenciesan intergovernmental one and at least one nongovern-mental onemdashall hopefully working in concert

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CLOUD Preston (1980) An International Year of The Bio-sphere Environmental Conservation 7(2) p 92

EIDSVIK Harold K (1980) National Parks and protected areasSome reflections on the past and prescriptions for the fu-ture Environmental Conservation 7(3) pp 185-90

GAEKWAD Fatesinghrao P amp OZA G M (1981) Save our Bio-sphere Environmental Conservation 8(2) pp 117-8 fig

GREGORY Philip H (1973) The Microbiology of the Atmo-sphere 2nd edn (A Plant Science Monograph GeneralEditor Nicholas Polunin) Leonard Hill London EnglandUK xxi + 377 pp illustr

GUPPY Nicholas (1980) Some crucial issues of our time Envi-ronmental Conservation 7(1) pp 3-8

HIATT Howard H (1981) Foreseeable medical consequencesof use of nuclear weapons Environmental Conservation8(4) pp 263-7

JOHNSON Stanley P (1980) The pandominance of Man Pp173-94 and following discussion to p 207 in Polunin(1980d qv)

LACONTE Piene amp JONES Philip H (1980) The World Envi-ronment and Resources Council (WERC) EnvironmentalConservation 7(2) pp 91-2

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Polunin Our Global Environment and the World Campaign for The Biosphere 111

LACONTE Pierre JONES Philip H amp HUGHES-EVANS David(1980) Open Letter Support for The World Decade of TheBiosphere 1982mdash92 Environmental Conservation 7(4)pp 257-8

MEIER Fred C amp LINDBERGH Charles A (1935) Collectingmicroorganisms from the arctic atmosphere with fieldnotes and material by Charles A Lindbergh ScientificMonthly 40 pp 5-20

POLUNIN Nicholas (1951a) Seeking airborne botanical par-ticles about the North Poles Svensk Botanisk Tidskrift45(2) pp 320-54 illustr

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POLUNIN Nicholas [as NP] (1982) Human aspirationsenvironmental care and the much-needed World Decade of

The Biosphere Environmental Conservation 9(1) pp 6-7POLUNIN Nicholas amp KELLY C D (1952) Arctic aerobiology

Fungi and Bacteria etc caught in the air during flightsover the geographical North Pole Nature (London) 170pp 314-6

POLUNIN Nicholas PADY S M amp KELLY C D (1947)Arctic aerobiology Nature (London) 160 pp 867-7 map

POLUNIN Nicholas PADY S M amp KELLY C D (1948)Aerobiological investigations in the Arctic and SubarcticArctic (Journal of the Arctic Institute of North America)1(1) pp 60-1

VALLENTYNE John R (1980) Early reactions to the conceptof The International Year of The Biosphere Environmen-tal Conservation 7(2) pp 97-9

VALLENTYNE John R (1981) Origin of the proposal for theWorld Decade of The Biosphere 1982-1992 The Environ-mentalist 1(3) pp 244-6

VALLENTYNE John R (MS) I am a Save Our BiosphereSticker Distributor Typescript submitted from BurlingtonOntario Canada 3 pp [Published in updated form on page111 of this issuesmdashEd]

VALLENTYNE John R STRICKLER J R amp POLUNINNicholas (1980a) Battle for the Biosphere EnvironmentalConservation 7(2) pp 90-1

VALLENTYNE John R STRICKLER J R amp POLUNINNicholas (19806) Proposal International Year of The Bio-sphere Environmental Conservation 7(1) p 2

WESTING Arthur H (1981) Environmental impact of nuclearbullwax Environmental Conservation 8(4) pp 269mdash73

WIDMAN Gary L amp SCHRAM Gunnar G (1980) Commonlaws for Earth and Mankind A glorious hope Pp 515mdash68and following discussion to page 579 in Polunin(1980dqv)

WILLARD Beatrice E ASIBEY Emmanuel O A HOLD-GATE Martin W FUKUSHIMA Yoichi amp GRAY Elizabethamp David Dodson (1980) Ethics of biosphere survivalA dialogue Pp 505-35 and following discussion to page551 in Polunin (198M qv)

WORTHINGTON E Barton (1982) World Campaign for TheBiosphere Environmental Conservation 9(2) pp 93mdash100

A Message of Support for LifeThe following Statement of the Environmental

NGOs present at the Session of a Special Character ofthe Governing Council of the United Nations Environ-ment Programme which was held in the KenyattaInternational Conference Centre Nairobi Kenya during10mdash18 May 1982 was prepared primarily in Englishbut read in Spanish to a plenary meeting of the Sessionwith some 150 NGO representatives standing in support

Such efforts as have been made have dealt with symptomsrather than causes they have failed to recognize the urgencyof global problems and the need to devise fundamentallynew approaches to development if environmental problemsare to be solved

Introduction1 We citizens of 55 nations free and together believe there

was never a moment in history when a change in course wasmore vital We cannot close our eyes to the continuingdegradation of the environment The current developmentprocess in the North and the South the East and the Westis everywhere beset by similar dangers and is itself the funda-mental cause of environmental degradation Despite all thedifficulties confronting the people of the world a new kindof development human and environmental must emergeIt is the unique responsibility of this generation to acceptthat challenge and to work together to secure the future

2 In the ten years since the Stockholm Conference the pros-pect for the human environment has darkened rapidly Thedevelopment processes that degrade the human environmentare also those which degrade the human condition They havecontinued to accelerate Governments everywhere have failedto carry forward the spirit of Stockholm Unratified con-ventions unenforced laws underfunded agencies inadequatenational institutions and declining support for internationalefforts have traced a record of neglect and irresponsibility

Natural Environment3 The state of the environment is bleak

- Croplands and rangelands are everywhere under increasingstress threatening agricultural productivity

- Forests particularly tropical rain-forests are rapidlydeclining in area

- While the deep oceans are not yet known to be significan-ly damaged coastal zones and their important fisheriesare being degraded in many parts of the world explora-tion and exploitation of deep-ocean minerals and oil inthe coming decade threaten the marine environment

- Air quality is improving in some localities but worseningin more acid precipitation and photochemical pollutionare acute problems in many regions and the long-termthreat to the atmosphere from carbon sulphur andnitrogen oxides is growing

- The quality of inland waters is improving in some placesand deteriorating in more and the availability of freshwater is not keeping pace with minimum requirements

- Human settlements are continuing to expand over in-creasing areas of valuable agricultural land the quality ofthe landscape and of urban areas continues to decline

- Biological diversity continues to decline at a rate un-known in history as species-loss accelerates through de-struction of natural habitat

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