ABSTRACT
Since 1972 — the year of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm — there has been a crescendo of concern about environmental degradation worldwide. This has been manifest in a variety of declarations, strategies, resolutions, plans and programmes. But where has it led? What, if anything, has changed? Is there a real crisis that justifies a global strategy? To answer it is helpful to review who has been making the environment an issue over the last decade, and for what reasons. Some clarity on these points then allows the questions to be considered.
