ABSTRACT
Acid rain, oxidants, and other consequences of fossil fuel use are affecting plant and animal life-damaging forests and fish, harming crops, changing the species composition of ecosystems-over large regions of the globe. Unsustainable agricultural practices are eroding soil, sapping water resources, and degrading rivers and estuaries. Human impacts have grown to approximate those of the natural processes that control the global life-support system. The chapter discusses the changes that are essential for treating the root causes are encapsulated in the six transitions. These are: demographic transition, technological transition, economic transition, social transition, transition in consciousness and institutional transition. The institutional transition is needed at all levels, from the top down and from the bottom up. For world political leaders, the challenge is to devise a new system of shared international responsibility. The principal goal of diplomacy must shift from conflict management to common endeavor.
