In the last human generation we have learned that life existed on our earth for more than three billion years, yet man has done more to change the earth and its ability to support life in the last few centuries than preceding life forms have over hundreds of millions of years. And nearly all of these changes were brought about as unforeseen or unconsidered side-effects of our technologies.The editors of this book feel that rather than accepting environmental degradation as the wages of progress, today we are seeing "a more widely accepted idea that concern for the environment is simply good economics and planning."In a series of essays written by environmental, economic, and social scientists from around the world, Changing the Global Environment looks at the ecological problems facing us as we move into the next century and examines possible solutions suggested by such new techniques as remote sensing and the implementation of worldwide computer-based data systems.