UN General Assembly
1989

The third issue, the environment, is closely linked to the previous issue, since development and the environment are indivisible. Today, I do not think there can be any disagreement on the importance of preserving the mechanisms that ensure the renewal of the biosphere in order to protect the future of humanity. The problems of air pollution, desertification, the transfer of wastes, pollution of the seas and oceans, the depletion of the ozone layer, and other problems, are at the forefront of the list of international concerns owing to their negative impact on humanity's present and future. The world today has reached a stage where some economic development programmes are threatening the environment with irreparable damage. Such damage could even endanger the elements themselves and the balance of nature's cycle on which the very survival of planet Earth depends.