Our common future—from one earth to one world

IN 1984 the United Nations established the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) with 20 members from different countries. Mrs. Gro Harlem Brundtland, prime minister of Norway, served as chair. WCED terminated in 1987. Its report, Our Common Future , has become widely known as the Brundtland Report. WCED's mandate involved three objectives: (1) to reexamine the critical environmental and development issues and formulate realistic proposals for dealing with them; (2) to propose new torms of international cooperation on these issues that will influence policies and events in the direction of needed changes; and (3) to raise the levels of understanding and commitment to action of individuals, voluntary organizations, businesses, institutes, and governments. Sites for WCED hearings included Indonesia, Norway, Brazil, Canada, Zimbabwe, Kenya, USSR, and Japan. Working group meetings were held in Geneva, Moscow, and Berlin. Advisory panels provided and published reports on three key issue areas: energy, industry, and food security. WCED received 75 reports on eight other key issues from special groups it engaged. WCED deliberations came to …