Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977–1980, Volume II, Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs

343. Memorandum From President Carter to Secretary of State Muskie, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (McIntyre), the Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality (Speth), the President’s Assistant for Domestic Affairs and Policy (Eizenstat), and the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (Press)¹

Washington, July 24, 1980

SUBJECT

• Task Force on Global Resources and Environment

Among the most urgent and complex challenges before the world today is the projected deterioration of the global environmental and resource base. Unless nations of the world take prompt, decisive action to halt the current trends, the next 20 years may see a continuation of serious food and population problems, steady loss of croplands, forests, plant and animal species, fisheries, and degradation of the earth’s water and atmosphere.

To increase our capability to respond to these problems, I am establishing a Presidential Task Force on Global Resources and Environment.² I am asking you to serve as members of this Task Force and am asking the Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality to serve as Chairman.

The objectives of this Task Force will be:

• to ensure that high priority attention is given to important global resource, population, and environment problems;

• to assess the effectiveness of Federal efforts in these areas; and

• to assess ways to improve the Federal government’s ability to project and analyze long-term resource, population, and environment trends.

The Task Force will report to me as soon as possible with recommendations for problem areas needing priority attention by the Task Force. It will report to me within six months and periodically thereafter on its progress and on ways in which Federal programs in these areas can be strengthened and improved.

The Task Force will carry out its responsibilities in consultation with and with the assistance of the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Justice, the Central Intelligence Agency, the International Development Cooperation Agency, the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and my Assistant for National Security Affairs.³

Jimmy Carter

1. Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, P800114–1715. No classification marking. Attached to a July 31 memorandum from Speth to Bergland requesting that the USDA identify “problem areas” relating to global issues. The White House released the resultant three volume report entitled, The Global 2000 Report to the President: Entering the Twenty-First Century, on July 24, which the Department summarized and transmitted in telegram 195667 to all diplomatic and consular posts, July 24. (National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D800355–0820)
2. In his statement accompanying the Global 2000 Report’s release, the President noted that the report served as the impetus for creation of the Presidential Task Force on Global Resources and the Environment and underscored the desirability of American leadership in solving these global problems. (National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, P800114–1701) Carter’s and Muskie’s statements, as well as the major problems and conclusions of volume I of the report (constituting the summary), are printed in Department of State Bulletin, September 1980, pp. 38–41. See also Joanne Omang, “Report to President Warns About Overcrowded Earth,” The Washington Post, July 25, 1980, p. A–2 and Richard L. Strout, “Carter urges world to act on US report,” Christian Science Monitor, July 25, 1980, p. 7.
3. In an August 1 memorandum to Muskie, McIntyre, Eizenstat, and Press, Speth indicated that he had appointed Yost as the Director of the Task Force. (National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, P800114–1700) Speth added that he had sent an attached July 24 memorandum, under the President’s signature, to Bergland, Klutznick, Harold Brown, Duncan, Harris, Andrus, Goldschmidt, Civiletti, Turner, Ehrlich, Langenberg, Costle, Frosch, and Brzezinski. The memorandum discussed the establishment of the Task Force and directed each agency head to “cooperate with and support this important Task Force.” (National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, P800114–1719) The President’s memorandum is printed in Public Papers: Carter, 1980–81, Book II, pp. 1417–1418.