Illustration by Lo Cole Jospin s suggestion raises three questions. The need for a GEO is clear both in theory and practice. Some environmental problems are worldwide in scale and cannot be adequately addressed by national governments acting on their own. From thinning of the ozone layer to depleted fisheries to the possibility of climate change, we face today a number of inescapably global challenges. Stronger national or local environmental laws and programmes are useful in their own right, but miss the point.
Ecological interdependence is a fact.
The only question is whether we will be able to manage it thoughtfully, explicitly and effectively. The problem is not just environmental. Basic economics teaches that unregulated shared resources are at risk of overexploitation. Fish stocks, for instance, can be run down quickly if every fisherman tries to catch as many fish as possible as quickly as possible. In an economically interdependent world, collective action is required to address externalities at the scale on which they arise, making some sort of functioning global environmental regime an economic as well as an ecological necessity.