If these temperature increases occur, marked changes in weather patterns and costly and severe social and economic dislocations will result.

The full consequences of global warming are not completely understood. While there might be some benign consequences in some limited parts of the world, it is clear that most regions, particular coastal areas, would be visited by catastrophe. Few nations will be able to adapt rapidly enough to escape major economic and ecological disruption.

Countries in temperate latitudes could see the climatic bands associated with their current forests migrating northward faster than the forests could follow. The frequency of extremely hot days, as would the frequency and intensity of destructive tropical storms. Currently fertile areas could be-pome arid as precipitation patterns change. This has profound implications for agriculture and water resource management. Models predict that the best grain-growing regions in both the USA and Russia will become much drier as global wanning progresses. Developing countries would suffer the most severe consequences since they possess fewer resources to adapt to change. There is clearly the capacity to adjust if the climatic change is slight, but continuing rapid, radical change would have consequences far beyond the abilities of the nations of the world to undertake the adaptive strategies. On the contrary, there is a necessity to make every effort to maintain the climate balance we now have.

With a continuation of the current rates of release of CO2 and an equal effect from increases in other greenhouse gases, a temperate rise of 1.5-4.5 °C by the third quarter of the 20th century can be expected. A significant acceleration in sea-level rise is also possible. Over the last hundred years, as temperatures have risen 0.5 °C, sea level has risen approximately 10 cm. But the rate of sea-level rise is also accelerating and is currently 2.1 cm per decade.

No one nation can solve these problems on its own, because averse environmental trends spill over all national boundaries.

The countries of Europe and America, Asia and Africa have an urgent duty to join together, face their challenge.

The time to act is now.

As a first priority, energy consumption, particularly fossil fuel combustion, must be curtailed.

The people of the earth share life on one planet. Only by acting together we can meet the common dangers that face us all. Bold steps must be taken to stop the environmental degradation.