In 1992, the United Nations formally recognized climate change as a significant international issue,

and one that would need to be addressed if peace and prosperity is to be furthered and maintained

around the world. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development took place that

same year in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The summit was meant to be a place where UN member states could discuss how to cooperate in a post-Cold War era,

particularly on issues related to sustainability, which are too big for just one nation to handle,

as all nations contribute to the associated problems,

and no single or small alliance of countries would be capable of moving the ball too far down

the field, all by themselves. Also, in 1992, also in Rio, the Rio Earth Summit was held,

with a focus on discussing things like lead toxicity in supply chains,

poisonous and radioactive byproducts of manufacturing and energy production,

alternative energy sources that might come to replace fossil fuels,

public transportation systems that could be developed to reduce pollution and the health problems

associated with pollution, and issues related to the sourcing and production of potable water,

including the increasing usage of such water worldwide.

At that latter meeting, UN member states voted to formally acknowledge that human activities

contribute to climate change, that climate change is an issue of global concern, and that

dangerous human interventions in the overall climate system should be avoided and prevented.

It was also determined that agreements would need to be made to catalyze future

collaborative effort on this bundle of subjects. So the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change

was passed, putting those acknowledgments in writing and paving the way for future action in a non-legally

binding fashion. Basically, once the framework went into

effect, all it really did was set up semi-regular meetings for discussing these topics in the future,

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