Corbridge, James N., Jr.

English

University of New Mexico

Volume 23 
Issue 4 Fall 1983 
Fall 1983 
World Climate Change: The Role of International Law and 
Institutions, Ved P. Nanda, Ed. 
James N. Corbridge Jr. 
Recommended Citation 
James N. Corbridge Jr., World Climate Change: The Role of International Law and Institutions, Ved P. 
Nanda, Ed., 23 Nat. Resources J. 943 (1983). 
Available at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nrj/vol23/iss4/13 
This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at UNM Digital Repository. It has 
been accepted for inclusion in Natural Resources Journal by an authorized editor of UNM Digital Repository. For 
more information, please contact amywinter@unm.edu, lsloane@salud.unm.edu, sarahrk@unm.edu. 
WORLD CLIMATE CHANGE: THE ROLE OF
INTERNATIONAL LAW AND INSTITUTIONS
VED P. NANDA, Ed.
Boulder: Westview Press. 1983. Pp. 264. $20.
World Climate Change: The Role of International Law and Institutions,
is a collection of papers on global climate problems prepared for a two-
day conference held in 1980 at the University of Denver College of Law.
The papers, authored by climate experts from a variety of disciplines,
describe and evaluate the present state of our efforts to reduce or adapt
to manmade stresses on the global environment.
These impacts are the result of both intentional and inadvertent climate
modification. In the former category fall such programs as precipitation
enhancement, airport fog dispersal, and hail suppression. While such
weather alteration activities present potential problems, they have not yet
developed into serious environmental disturbances, and they receive only
minor attention in this book.
Of far greater significance are the unintended consequences to the world
climate, caused primarily by activities associated with economic devel-
opment, and including increased levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the
atmosphere, changes in the ozone layer from the release of chlorofluo-
rocarbons, and acid rain aggravated by industrial sulphur dioxide (SO 2)
pollution.
Increased atmospheric CO, has been traced to two major sources,
combustion of fossil fuels for efiergy production and the conversion of
much of the world's forested land to agricultural use. Because CO2 is an
important absorber of heat radiation from the earth, its buildup in the
atmosphere creates a "greenhouse" effect that is predicted to raise global
average temperatures significantly over the next fifty to seventy-five years,
especially in the higher latitudes. While one result might be some melting
of polar ice and a rise in ocean water levels, a more likely scenario is a
shift in worldwide agricultural productivity with resulting effects on the
international economic environment.
The release into the stratosphere of chlorofluorocarbons, best known
as propellants in aerosol spray cans, creates a similar effect. By damaging
the ozone layer and thereby increasing the ultraviolet radiation that reaches
the surface of the earch, these chemicals further exacerbate the warming
trend already induced by higher CO2 levels.
The acid rain phenomenon is associated with the release of SO2 into
the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels. Tall smokestacks have
changed a local problem into an international one. The effects of acid
NATURAL RESOURCES JOURNAL
rain on fish life and on the stone surfaces of buildings have now been
well documented and have stimulated widespread concern.
In 1972, the United Nations convened its historic Stockholm Confer-
ence on the Human Environment. Principle 21 of the Declaration devel-
oped by the Conference reflected an underlying conflict between economic
development and environmental management:
States have, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations
and the principles of International law, the sovereign right to exploit
their own resources pursuant to their own environmental policies,
and the responsibility to insure that activities within their jurisdiction
or control do not cause damage to the environment of other states,
or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction.
The challenge lies in translating this ambivalent statement of principle
into an effective mechanism for the protection of the global environment.
Since Stockholm, a good deal of attention has been devoted to identifying
international institutions to accomplish this task and international legal
principles with which to accomplish it. The results are reported in this
collection of papers. Substantial progress has been made in research on
climate problems and in the international exchange of data regarding
climate change and its impacts. New institutions, such as the United
Nations Environment Programme, have been created to coordinate efforts
at climate management, while existing institutions such as the World
Meteorological Organization have given a high priority to the study of
climate change.
Progress on the international law front has been less encouraging,
however, and there has been little movement toward the acceptance by
individual nations of enforceable remedies for global pollution. This slug-
gish pace is no doubt attributable to the conflict illustrated by the Stock-
holm Declaration: the poorer nations are unwilling to forego industrial
and economic development in the interest of global pollution control.
Even developed nations have demonstrated a marked reluctance to impair
their economic competitiveness by, for instance, substantially reducing
SO2 discharges into the atmosphere.
Most of the contributors to this book concede that existing international
legal institutions are unlikely to resolve global climate problems in the
near future. They stress the importance of further research and efforts at
increased public awareness of the problem. Several encourage the de-
velopment of adaptive techniques to prepare for what they see as inevitable
changes in the global environment. Walter Orr Roberts describes this
process in his foreword to the book as "build[ing] agriculture and other
human systems with an eye to making them more resilient to climate
anomalies."
[Vol. 23
October 1983] WORLD CLIMATE CHANGE 945
World Climate Change suffers from a problem common to edited col-
lections of papers prepared for a conference: little attention is paid to
prior coordination of the contributions and, as a result, the papers are
occasionally repetitious. The reader is told several times about the pre-
dicted.climatic changes and the institutional arrangements that have been
devised to monitor and meet them. The book also, in my opinion, devotes
too little attention to the economic impacts of climate modification, which
may provide the greatest incentive for nations to work together in this
area.
Despite these minor faults, this is an important book which deals with
problems of critical significance to the human race. It brings together the
thinking of a group of diverse scholars, all of whom are concerned about
the future of our planet. Their thoughts should receive widespread atten-
tion.
JAMES N. CORBRIDGE, JR.
School of Law
University of Colorado


World Climate Change: The Role of International Law and Institutions, Ved P. Nanda, Ed.

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2714&amp;context=nrj

World Climate Change: The Role of International Law and Institutions, Ved P. Nanda, Ed.

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

University of New Mexico