Growing international awareness of environmental degradation

Under the auspices of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), an International Geophysical Year was proclaimed in 1957–8, mainly focusing on meteorological and ozone-layer observations, including atmospheric pollution and climate change. The Year marked the beginning of a broader interest in the state of the world environment. During the 1960s the global extent of resource depletion and environmental degradation came to the fore. A wide variety of environmentally relevant issues came under discussion including: the long-term damaging effects on nature of products containing DDT; excessive economic growth; tanker disasters on the high seas or in territorial waters; contamination of water; harmful chemicals; waste discharge; the testing of nuclear weapons; population growth; wasteful consumption patterns; and unrestricted use of the world's natural resources. Such issues provoked a new debate on traditional international law, including the principles of freedom of action and non-interference in domestic affairs. Previously, if issues of sea and river pollution were addressed at all at the international level, it was not so much because of fear of damage to the human environment and the ecological balance at large, but because of the threat posed to economic interests, for example, to fish stocks and consequently to the fishing industry.

During the 1960s this situation radically changed. It was realized that the ‘human environment’ as such was at stake. People began to see the world as an entity, as ‘spaceship earth’. This affected thinking on State sovereignty.