With the development of an industrial urban civilisation dependent
upon the consumption of fossil fuels, and our own increasing
knowledge, it has become clear that the environment is being moulded
in potentially dangerous ways by human beings as never before. The
Rio Earth Summit of June 1992 found political leaders from all over
the globe discussing seriously the depletion of world resources
(especially non-renewable energy sources); the phenomenon of global
warming; the dangers of chemical, biological and radiation pollution in
the atmosphere and oceans; the destruction of animal and plant species
through the destruction of valuable habitats such as the rain forest.
Non-governmental groups at the same summit stressed the human
population explosion and the unequal distribution of resources
between North and South as contributors to a single problem resulting
essentially from uncontrolled industrial growth.