(iv) Support

231. It is recommended that Governments provide information to the SecretaryGeneral concerning their experiences with pollution control activities, including legislative and administrative arrangements. technology, cost-benefit methodology, and that the Secretary-General make this information available to those who desire to benefit from the experience of others.

Response: 231. On the international level, this presents one of the best hopes for control for the immediate future. The United Nations has placed most of the burden for the present, and rightly so, at the national and regional level. The transfer of technology and control strategies represents a non-compulsory alternative that will hopefully allow developing nations to avoid some of the undesirable externalities that have beset both industry and society in the developed world. The Committee does feel that where an alternate pollution control activity is substituted that poses some greater short-term risk, like more lethal non-persistent pesticides, either the exporting nation, or an international agency should provide a broad education program to accompany the alternative. Cases such as the death of dock workers in Algeria from scooping lethal compounds from larger to smaller containers by hand, are matters of great concern.

The transfer of pollution technology is more than an idle hope. The universality of production technology ensures the transferability of abatement technology. The Environmental Protection Agency in the United States has spent the past year in preparing its permit program. They currently have information on sampling, monitoring, and analytic techniques along with pollution abatement technology capable of providing the equivalency of secondary treatment of effluents on an industryby-industry basis. The licensing of such technology by American industry holds forth the possibility of American industry becoming proselytizers of environmental concern.

(v) Machinery

232. It is recommended that any intergovernmental mechanism which may be established within the United Nations in conncetion with environmental problems should include among its functions:

determination of which pollution problems. are of international significance; consideration of the appointment of appropriate intergovernmental, expert bodies to assess quantitatively the exposures, risks, pathways and sources of pollutants of international significance;

review and co-ordination of international co-operation for pollution control, ensuring in particular that needed measures are taken and that measures taken in regard to various media and sources are consistent with each other; examination of the needs for technical assistance to Governments in the study of pollution problems, in particular those involving international distribution of pollutants.

Response: 232. The Advisory Committee concurs.

B. Marine Pollution

(i) General Recommendations

233. It is recommended that Governments:

accept and implement existing instruments on the control of the maritime sources of marine pollution;

ensure that the provisions of existing instruments are complied with by ships flying their flags and that adequate provisions are made for reviewing the effectiveness of, and revising, existing and proposed international measures for control of marine pollution;

ensure that ocean dumping by their nationals is controlled and complete and bring into force as soon as possible an overall instrument for the control of ocean dumping, as well as needed regional agreements within the framework of this instrument;

participate fully in the 1973 IMCO Conference on Marine Pollution and the Law of the Sea Conference scheduled to begin in 1973, as well as in regional efforts, with a view to bringing all significant sources of pollution within the marine environment under appropriate controls;

strengthen national controls over land-based sources of marine pollution.

Response: 233. The Advisory Committee concurs with all of this recommendation except the ocean dumping section. See Advisory Committee Recommendation III-5.

(ii) Acquisition of Knowledge

234. It is recommended that Governments:

support national research and monitoring efforts that contribute to agreed international programmes for research and monitoring in the marine environment, in particular GIPME and IGOSS;

register the discharge of significant quantities of radioactive materials to the oceans with the IAEA, as well as co-operate with IAEA in the expansion of this registry to include all discharge of significant quantities of radioactive materials into the biosphere;

provide to the UN, FAO and UNCTAD, as appropriate to the data-gathering activities of each, statistics on the production and use of toxic and persistent materials;

expand their support to components o fthe United Nations system concerned with research and monitoring in the marine environment, especially the IOC in order that it can take on additional responsibilities for promotion and co-ordination of scientific services.

Response: 234. The Advisory Committee concurs.

235. Assessment—It is recommended that the Secretary-General, together with the sponsoring agencies, make it possible for GESAMP to:

re-examine annually, and revise as required, its Review of Harmful Chemical Substances with a view to further elaborating its qualitative assessment of risks, pathways and sources of marine pollutants;

assemble scientific data and develop a set of scientific considerations to be taken into account in the regulation of ocean dumping and continue its comparison of national marine water quality standards.

Response: 235. Consideration should be given to cxpanding the Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Pollution (GESAMP) and giving it permanence.

236. Research-It is recommended that the Secretary-General ensure that: mechanisms for combining world statistics on mining, production, processing, transport and use of potential marine pollutants are developed along with

methods for identifying high priority marine pollutants based in part on such data;

GESAMP, in consultation with other expert groups, proposed guidelines for test programmes to evaluate toxicity of potential marine pollutants;

FAO, WHO, IOC and IAEA encourage studies of the effects of high priority marine pollutants on man and other organisms, with appropriate emphasis on chronic, low-level exposures;

IOC, with FAO and WHO, explore the possibility of establishing an international institute for tropical marine studies, which would undertake training as well as research.

Response: 236. The Advisory Committee concurs.

237. Monitoring—It is recommended that IOC, in co-operation with other interested UN bodies, promote the monitoring of marine pollution, preferably within the framework of IGOSS and develop methods for monitoring high priority marine pollutants in water, sediments and organisms, with advice from GESAMP on intercomparability of methodologies.

Response: 237. The Advisory Committee concurs. Baseline stations are also needed (see Advisory Committee Recommendation 1(b)).

238. Information Exchange-It is recommended that IOC ensure that provisions are made in international marine research and monitoring activities for dissemination of information in a form usable by Governments, with attention paid to the special needs of developing countries, and consider, with FAO, the need for expansion of existing data centres to fulfill anticipated needs, with emphasis on referral systems.

Response: 238. The Advisory Committee concurs. Ensuring the full participation of developing countries is especially important.

(iii) Control

239. It is recommended that:

governments collectively endorse the principles set forth in paragraph 197 as guiding concepts representing a basis for general agreement, in particular at the 1973 IMCO Conference on Marine Pollution and at the Law of the Sea Conference scheduled to begin in 1973;

the Secretary-General, with the support of FAO, IAEA and UNIDO, consider providing guidelines to Governments for the control of all significant sources of marine pollution, including especially land-based sources, including recommendations as to the best practicable means.

Response: 239. The Advisory Committee concurs. But, ocean research (Advisory Committee Recommendation 4) should be broached at Stockholm and not deferred to the Law of the Sea Conference.

(iv) Support

240. It is recommended that:

any intergovernmental mechanism which may be established within the United Nations in connection with environmental problems should include among its functions overall responsibility for assuring that needed guidelines of this type are provided to Governments;

the Secretary-General take steps to secure additional financial support to those training and other programmes of assistance that contribute to increasing the capacity of developing countries to participate in international research and monitoring programmes.

Response: 240. The Advisory Committee concurs.

4. Education

Educational, Informational, Social, and Cultural Aspects of Environmental Problems

INTRODUCTION

The educational, informational, social, and cultural aspects of environmental problems are among the most crucial matters scheduled for the Conference. It has been suggested that present science and technology can solve most environmental problems and, that for many others, solutions are available through the modification of certain human activities. A resolution of national and international environmental problems will require an understanding and modification of the social, psychological, economic, political, moral, and religious assumptions and practices that have influenced human activities leading to the crisis of the environment.

While the mobilization of relevant political forces to achieve international governmental action is necessary to terminate the current conscious and unconscious policies of wasting natural and human resources, the ultimate survival of man depends on the adoption by mankind of a global environmental ethic.

In order to manage his ambitions and growth in a manner compatible with a finite global life support system and in an atmosphere conducive to his greatest happiness and development, man must be aware of and responsible for the consequences of his activities.

In the developed nations, governments must support legislation to prevent national and international pollution, the unwise depletion of nonrenewable natural resources, and to encourage the recycling and reuse of materials. Still more valuable are imaginative educational programs to revitalize the participation in problem-solving and decisionmaking by the majority of citizens in their own societal growth.