Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T07:17:20.000Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

World Campaign for the Biosphere

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

E. Barton Worthington
E. Barton Worthington
Affiliation:
Environmental Consultant, Colin Godmans, Furners Green, Near Uckfield, East Sussex TN22 3RR, England, UK; formerly Scientific Director, International Biological Programme; sometime Secretary-General of the Scientific Council for Africa South of the Sahara, etc.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The Devil's Advocate, who is a cynic, points to many international programmes which are related to The Biosphere, whether past or ongoing. He asks what a World Campaign for The Biosphere could do beyond attempting to coordinate the coordinators.

The Archangel answers by drawing attention to the success of such programmes in stimulating activity on many important subjects and fronts. But the critical situation of the world now demands more. He therefore hopes that all who have at heart the future health, wealth, and happiness, of mankind, which can only flourish in a healthy Biosphere—whether they be pessimists or optimists—will support the Campaign with all the means at their disposal.

For the purposes of the Campaign, The Biosphere can be defined in summary as ‘the peripheral envelope of the Earth in which living things exist naturally’. Thus it includes parts of the geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere—and, most important, it includes mankind as the pandominant member of the animal kingdom.

As to a starting-date for the Campaign, there is a case for deferment owing to the time necessary for preparing and approving a programme and then establishing a network organization for putting it into operation. However, considering the urgency of the problems at issue and the timing of related programmes, there is a stronger case for starting now, in 1982, and for including the preparatory phase within the Campaign, which would then commence with the second decade of UNEP.

Four aims are included in the Draft Declaration about the Campaign: (1) education and allied activities, (2) scientific understanding, (3) practical activities, and (4) accommodation of humanity to The Biosphere. The aims (1), (2), and (3), should go forward hand-in-hand in order to achieve (4). The main emphasis could be on (1); but as (2) is already the subject of several international programmes, (3), which provides good material for (1), should also receive emphasis. Meanwhile, much careful discussion will be needed in order to prepare a plan that will be acceptable to participating organizations.

Type
Main Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , Summer 1982 , pp. 93 - 100
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anon. (1980): World Conservation Strategy: Living Resource Conservation for Sustainable Development. IUCN-UNEPWWF (obtainable fiom IUCN, Avenue du Mont-Blanc, 1196 Gland, Switzerland: (pack of ca 50 unnumbered pp., illustr., in stiff paper folder).Google Scholar
Arnon, I. (1981). Modernization of Agriculture in Developing Countries: Resources, Potentials and Problems. (Environmental Monographs & Symposia, convened etc. by Nicholas Polunin.) John Wiley & Sons, Chichester-New York-Brisbane-Toronto: xxiii + 565 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Batisse, Michel (1980). The relevance of MAB. Environmental Conservation, 7(3), pp. 179–84, map.Google Scholar
Batisse, Michel (1982). The Biosphere Reserve: A tool for environmental conservation and management. Environmental Conservation, 9(2), pp. 101–11, 8 figs.Google Scholar
[Sir]Carr-Saunders, Alexander M. (1922). The Population Problem. [Not available for checking.]Google Scholar
Golley, Frank B. (1981). Decade of the Tropics. Biology International, 12, pp. 18–9.Google Scholar
Polunin, Nicholas (1980). Suggested actions for the forthcoming ‘World Decade of The Biosphere’. Environmental Conservation, 7(4), pp. 271–8, fig.Google Scholar
Polunin, Nicholas (as ‘N.P.’) (1982 a). Editorial: Human aspirations, environmental care, and the much-needed World Decade of The Biosphere. Environmental Conservation, 9(1), pp. 7–8.Google Scholar
Polunin, Nicholas (1982 b). Our global environment and the World Campaign for The Biosphere. Environmental Conservation, 9(2), pp. 115–21, 2 figs.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Worthington, E. Barton (1982). The Ecological Century. Environmental Conservation, 9(1), pp. 65–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar