Scientists have recently reported that the polar ice caps are melting due to a rise in atmospheric temperatures known as the "Greenhouse Effect". According to Melvin Calvin, who won a Nobel Prize for earlier research, the carbon dioxide given off when coal and oil are burned is accumulating in the atmosphere and causing temperatures to reise. As a result, the ice covering the North and South Poles is melting and may eventually lead to a rise in sea levels which could flood many areas of the world including New York, London, Tokyo.

"Greenhouse Effect" is just one of many fundamental changes which are taking place in the environment. Tropical rain forest which took fiftty million years to grow are being reduced at the rates of fourteen acres per minute. The world's deserts are growing year by year. Scandinavia's beautiful lakes are becoming lifeless due to acid rain caused by sulphur dioxide emissions from factories in the West of Germany and Britain. Many species of animals and plantes are threatened with extinction.

In presenting the results of "Global 200", the US Government most comprehensive study of the future, Edmund Muskie said, "World population growth, the degradation of the Earth's natural resource base and the spread of environment pollution collectively threaten the welfare on mankind". He added saying: "World alone, however, will not solve the problem. If governments do not act quickly and decisively to protect the environment, this planet will soon become uninhabitable".