UN General Assembly
1972

235. In Stockholm, the issues posed by the threat to the human environment for which this same modern technology is so largely responsible were taken up. Malta was one of the first countries to refer to the problems of pollution in relation to the marine environment when it first raised the issue of the sea-bed in this Assembly some years ago. As such, Malta could not fail to take a keen interest, and to participate actively, in the deliberations of the Stockholm Conference. That Conference recognized that different degrees of development pose different threats to the human environment. In the affluent countries the threat to the environment derives from a high level of industrial activity accompanied by a high standard of living, with all its concomitant demands. On the contrary, in the developing countries the threat to the environment arises from conditions of poverty and under-development. It is therefore important that the aspect of development should not be divorced from the continued consideration of the problems of the environment.