Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
of international governance. Maurice Strong, the U.N. point man for
the Stockholm Conference, supported international governance more
explicitly, but his political goals had little to do with CO
2
. Though Strong
himself consistently demonstrated concern for scientific research in the
service of environmental protection, the “global vision” that shaped his
approach to Stockholm reflected geopolitical values that had as much to
do with the Cold War as they did with the so-called global environmental
crisis. Strong and his colleagues saw in the pressing but poorly defined
environmental crisis the type of collective, international problem that
the now ailing United Nations had originally been designed to address.
Strong hoped to use the Stockholm Conference to re-empower the United
Nations as a force for international peace and cooperation by mobilizing its
institutional machinery to deal with the world's environmental problems.
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His concerns underscored the complexities of the geopolitical context into
which the Keeling Curve had meandered in the early 1970s.
Strong took the job of conference secretary-general in January of 1971
as a rising star within the United Nations. That same month, the man who
appointed him, U Thant, announced that he would not serve a third term
as U.N. secretary-general, and Strong became a leading candidate for the
job. Strong was a rags-to-riches Canadian businessman whose “disarm-
ing modesty and beguiling punctiliousness,” according to the
N e w Yo r k
Times,
belied a “phenomenal dynamism and an extraordinary skill at both
business and diplomacy.”
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He cut an unimposing figure— his naturally
slight build had softened in middle age and his thick, close-cut sideburns
and short-bristled mustache did little to compensate for a receding hair-
line— but his presence made an impression. A former president of one
of Canada's biggest utility companies, the forty-two-year-old's extensive
business experience and his myriad contacts in the oil and gas industries
made him an appealing candidate to U.N. members concerned about inter-
national development. His success as the head of Canada's international
aid program— which grew from $80 million to $400 million under his
directorship— complemented his business résumé.
34
Strong envisioned the U.N. Conference on the Human Environ-
ment as the centerpiece of a larger effort to promote global international
cooperation, democracy, and unity within the hierarchy of U.N. values.
Central to this was the strengthening of the General Assembly, where
the United Nations dealt with cultural, social, and now environmental
