Global 2000 Study Statement on the Report to the President.

Shortly after assuming office in 1977, I directed the Council on Environmental Quality, the Department of State, and other Government agencies to study the profound changes that may take place in our world's population, natural resources, and environment through the end of the century. Never before had our government or any government attempted to take such a comprehensive, long-range look at interrelated global issues such as world population, agriculture, water resources, forest resources, energy needs, and the overall environmental quality of the Earth we live on.

The Global 2000 study is now complete. Its report projects global conditions which could develop by the end of this century, assuming that present trends and patterns around the world continue. Many of the report's findings must be of great concern to all of us. These findings point to developments related to the world's peoples and resources that our prompt attention can begin to alleviate. We will make use of the information from the Global 2000 report in carrying out public policy wherever possible. In addition, we must continue to analyze the serious issues it raises.

It is important to understand that the conditions the report projects are by no means inevitable. In fact, its projections can and should be timely warnings which will alert the nations of the world to the need for vigorous, determined action at both the national and international levels.

The United States is not alone in responding to global population, natural resource, and environmental issues. The recent Venice summit declaration committed the Western industrial nations to cooperate with developing countries in addressing global food, energy, and population problems. The summit nations agreed on the need for a better understanding of the implications of resource availability and population growth for economic development. In the United Nations many of the key issues raised in the Global 2000 report are being included in the formulation of a new international development strategy.

A number of U.S. and international responses to critical global issues are already underway. For example, since the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in 1972, our Government has contributed actively to a series of world conferences on these issues, and to followup actions.

Nonetheless, given the importance, scope, and complexity of the challenges set forth in the report, I believe America must provide special leadership in addressing global conditions. I am therefore today appointing a Presidential Task Force on Global Resources and Environment, to be chaired by the Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality and to include the Secretary of State, the Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs and Policy, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. The Task Force will report to me as soon as possible with recommendations for action in problem areas needing priority attention. I am directing other Federal agencies to cooperate with and support the Task Force's efforts.

I am also directing the State Department to raise the issues and problems identified in the Global 2000 report in all appropriate international meetings, and I myself will raise them as well. For example, in my second environmental message last August, I expressed my concern about the loss of tropical forests. For immediate action on this critical problem, I am directing all relevant Federal agencies to respond within 60 days to the Interagency Task Force Report on Tropical Forests, which was submitted to me last month. In their responses, agencies will detail the steps they will take to carry out the report's recommendations. In receiving these reports, the Interagency Task Force on Tropical Forests will operate as an arm of the Presidential Task Force on Global Resources and the Environment. Finally, I am requesting the Commission of the Eighties to give careful attention to these global issues.

There are less than 20 years left in our 20th century. The time to look forward to the world we want to have in the year 2000 and leave to succeeding generations is now. It is my firm belief that we can build a future in which all people lead full, decent lives in harmony with a healthy and habitable planet. And I believe that the skills, experience, vision, and courage of the American people today make the United States a natural leader in charting and guiding humanity's course towards a better world tomorrow.