144 The Environmental Debate
DOCUMENT 119: Stockholm Declaration on the
Human Environment (1972)The United States was not alone in its awakening to environmental threats. In June 1972, in response to
expanding international environmental consciousness, the United Nations sponsored a Conference on the
Human Environment in Stockholm. The declaration produced by the conference took note of the “dangerous
levels of pollution in water, air, earth and living beings; major and undesirable disturbances to the ecological
balance of the biosphere; destruction and depletion of irreplaceable resources; and gross deficiencies harmful
to the physical, mental and social health of man, in the man-made environment.”
The conference, which marked the beginning of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP),
recognized both the increasing demand by Third World countries for a Western-style standard of living and
the desire of the industrialized nations for continued economic growth. The declaration that it produced
underscored the fact that international environmental policy is clearly subordinate to the economic interests
of individual states, as noted in principles 21 and 24. Nevertheless, during the nearly half century since its
founding, UNEP has succeeded in encouraging the nations of the world to take major steps to decrease sea and
air pollution. Indeed, many of the UNEP-sponsored protocols and conventions relating to the environment have
been incorporated into U.S. law, although the U.S. Senate has balked at ratifying international environmental
agreements that it views as detrimental to U.S. strategic or economic interests [see, for example, Documents
130 and 143B].
The Stockholm Declaration also committed the U.N. to the concept of sustainable development—the idea
that, with suitable resource management, the resource base of nations, including soil, fisheries, water supplies,
and forests, could be maintained, and that at the same time both underdeveloped and developed countries
could continue to grow their economies.The Declaration... States the
common conviction that:
Principle 1 Man has the fundamental right of
freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life,
in an environment of a quality that permits a life
of dignity and well-being, and he bears a solemn
responsibility to protect and improve the environ-
ment for present and future generation....
Principle 2 The natural resources of the earth
including the air, water, land flora and fauna and
especially representative samples of natural eco-
systems must be safeguarded for the benefit of
present and future generations through careful
planning or management, as appropriate.
Principle 3 The capacity of the earth to pro-
duce vital resources must be maintained and,
wherever practicable, restored or improved.
Principle 4 Man has a special responsibility
to safeguard and wisely manage the heritage of
wildlife and its habitat which are now greatly
imperiled by a combination of adverse factors.
Nature conservation including wildlife must
therefore receive importance for planning in eco-
nomic development.
Principle 5 The non-renewable resources
of the earth must be employed in such a way
as to guard against the danger of their future
exhaustion and to ensure that benefits from such
employment are shared by all mankind.
Principle 6 The discharge of toxic substances
or of other substances and the release of heat, in
such quantities or concentrations as to exceed
the capacity of the environment to render them
harmless, must be halted in order to ensure that
serious or irreversible damage is not inflicted
upon ecosystems....
Principle 7 States shall take all possible steps
to prevent pollution of the seas by substances
that are liable to create hazards to human health,
to harm living resources and marine life, to dam-
age amenities or to interfere with other legiti-
mate uses of the sea.
Principle 21 States have, in accordance
with the Charter of the United Nations and the