In a village individuals need to work closely together to insure that the land is well kept and that it's carrying capacity is not diminished. Nations, like people in a village, are coming to understand that what they do individually can impact people in all the nations of the world. Impact, often in subtle, but in other times, very direct ways. The growing concern for the state of our environmental and the need to understand the complex interactions of our planetary life support system are real and immediate. We here should all remember that the Earth is the only known closed life support system that has shown itself capable of supporting life for more than decades.
History shows that people have always sought to understand more about the world in which they live.
In the early days of exploration, Nations, some represented here, sailed the seas to complete the outlines of continents. Today many people appear to believe that because the outlines of the continents have been completed that the information that mapmakers put inside the outlines of the continents is therefore correct as well. All of us here understand the problem with this perception. The system that peoples in all nations are becoming more concerned about. Some of this concern began because of a book a very gentle lady wrote in the early 1960's.