Unfortunately, international cooperation is something that is much more easily said than done. Sacrifices, effort and money are required to solve the global environmental problems facing our planet. This creates difficulties because environmental degradation tends to be most significant in those countries that are the poorest. People in developing countries experience the seriousness of this degradation first hand as they watch their topsoil blow away and their farms change into deserts, but they do not have the money or the resources to do anything about it. People in the more affluent, developed countries of the world must realize that scenes of famine in Ethiopia represent not just isolated incidents, but rather symptoms of a much larger global problem. Once this connection is made, international cooperation will be more easily achieved. It is really in everyone's best interest to resolve global environmental problems.

The planet cannot afford to wait long for this realization to occur. Almost 80% of the world's 5.3 billion people live in poor, developing countries. Over a third of these people are under the age of 15 and will soon enter their peak reproductive years. Demographers predict that the full impact of the population explosion has yet to come and that our numbers can be expected rise to 8.5 billion in the next 35 years -- with the greatest increases occurring in the poorer countries. Given the global environmental strain created by our current 5.3 billion people and the potential for close to a doubling of the population in less than half a century, coupled with the continued and perhaps more serious overconsumption of resources by the developed countries, there is clearly a need for quick action.