The paper starts out by discussing factors which influence the Indian monsoon rainfall—including Northern Hemispheric temperature changes, long-period soli–lunar tides, and the tidelike phenomena associated with the wobble of the Earth relative to its spin-axis. When the effects of these factors on precipitation are quantified and integrated into a thermodynamical–statistical model, long-range climatic forecasts can be made that are better than chance or than predicting ‘normal’ up to two or more years in advance.

Climatic changes have had profound effects on the peoples of India through the controlling influence of the monsoon on Indian agriculture. We now have a technological tool, never before available, that might lessen the impact of variations of the monsoon by forecasting these variations one to two years in advance. The two-years-in-advance 1982 monsoon rainfall forecast for June and July, using the same station models that produced the excellent 1981 forecast, indicates that there is a two-to-one chance that the 1982 Indian monsoon rainfall will be less, in general, in June and July, than it was in 1981. The question which we wish to ask the reader is: How can this new technology be used? For example, how can this type of information be used for planning and policy-making in order to ensure less uncertainty about food supplies in the future than in the past?

This region cannot depend upon the monsoon to bring plentiful rain every year, and, therefore, it is essential that we should continue to improve our forecasting capability and that others learn to make optimum use of these forecasts.

Until recently there has been no international register or international network linking national registers for the exchange of information on, and for, chemical hazard assessment and control. The International Register of Potentially Toxic Chemicals (IRPTC) was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1976 and is now in full operation.

The objectives assigned to the Register concern the establishment of a global network of contributing partners through which it can develop its data-bank containing relevant information for an assessment of environmental hazards caused by chemicals, and disseminate this information to decision-making bodies, national authorities, international organizations and other institutions, and to the scientific community that is concerned with the evaluation and control of chemicals in the environment.

The IRPTC operations involve preparation of data profiles for chemicals, the development of a computerized data storage and retrieval system, a query–response service, and the publication of a 4-monthly Register Index, a periodical Bulletin, and other documents. These contain information on chemicals, international and national activities related to issues of chemical safety, and also legislative and regulatory measures for protection of the health of humans and of the environment from the noxious effects of chemicals.

The historical perspective is becoming ever more important in scientific research and development—especially in regions of rapid political and social change, such as former colonial empires, where the past is readily forgotten. Therefore this essay attempts to reconstruct the evolution of Ecology as the scientific basis for environmental conservation and human progress, as seen through the eyes of a biologist who has exercised that science during a number of tasks in various parts of the world over most of the twentieth century.

From its beginnings in evolutionary thinking during the nineteenth century, ecology emerged from natural history at the beginning of the twentieth. At first the running was made by botanists; but this was soon followed by zoologists, who dealt with more mobile communities. The first quarter-century was mainly exploratory; the second was mainly descriptive (although biological exploration was still dominant in the tropics). The third quarter saw ecology developing into an experimental science, and, as the environmental revolution got into its stride, ecology became organized both nationally and internationally.

Although the term is now often misused and sometimes misunderstood by laymen, the last quarter-century is seeing the wide application of ecology in environmental and human affairs, and this gives some assurance that the twenty-first century will not become one of chaos. The Author expresses the hope that experienced practising ecologists will in future give higher priority to applying what they already know than to learning more and more about less and less.