Global Climate Change and Sustainable Development

Abstract

Concerns about impoverishment of the environment caused by human activities have climbed steadily on national and international agendas to the extent that they are discussed frequently in all forms of news media, debated in governing bodies everywhere, and are the subject of hundreds of conferences and frequent reviews in scholarly journals. At first these discussions were largely technical: what is the nature of the problem, what measurements should be made to determine its extent and cause, and what modification of the cause is necessary to reduce the severity of the problem? As time has passed and the number and scope of the problems have increased, however, studies have frequently shown that the problem is not purely or even primarily technical; it is not the accidental release of some harmful substance or the careless interaction between people and the environment, but rather the necessary result of intentional and important actions by people, inspired and motivated by custom, culture, economics, and politics. Thus the realization has grown that some sort of change, a shift to activities that can continue for generations without progressive damage to our surroundings, is required. This new pattern of activities has been labeled “sustainable development.”

The atmosphere and the climate system are central to most environmental issues; their combined role in ecosystems and societies is so pervasive that serious changes in the atmosphere alone could precipitate widespread or global crises. Furthermore, any discussion of what to do about dangerous atmospheric changes leads naturally to consideration of steps toward sustainable development. This review will use the atmosphere to represent a natural system that may be changing in ways that are not sustainable or cannot continue indefinitely without likely significant harm to society. But the atmosphere, though pervasive, is not a unique global determinant of sustainabilty; a review centered on loss of biodiversity would likely reach similar conclusions about needed changes in human institutions and behavior.