THERE are many signs that the next general international crisis is going to be about the environment. There have been warnings about environmental abuse for decades, but concerns were separated from high politics and security. Now convergence has begun. We recognise that poverty, environmental degradation and population growth are inextricably related and that none of these fundamental problems can be successfully addressed in isolation. There is something fundamentally wrong in treating the Earth as if it were a business in liquidation.

Energy use, industrial production, and deforestation all contribute to air pollution that is harming plants, animals, and human health, and altering the global atmosphere. We are living in an historic transitional period in which awareness of the conflict between human activities and environmental constraints is literally exploding. Never before in our history have we had so much knowledge, technology and resources.

Never before have we had such great capacities. The time and the opportunity have come to break out of the negative trends of the past. Natural resources are the basis of economic development; environmental protection and economic development are inseparable. Many struggling tropical countries, reeling from growing foreign debt and rising expectations from their citizens are treating their forest as materials they can export for cash.

Too often, when logs are removed the entire forest is cleared. Trees not intended for harvest often are damaged or killed by heavy logging machinery, which also compacts the soils and makes forest regeneration much more difficult. Currently, logging is depleting the world’s forest much faster than they are being reforested or can regenerate. The clearing of large amounts of forest harms a country’s potential for development. Forests perform many functions important to long-term national productivity. Tropical forests may play a critical role in global climate patterns, and continuing deforestation could alter those patterns.
MOHAMED KHAN