It is becoming more apparent that there must be regulation of any of man's activities which may result in significant climatic change. The earth is in a fairly precarious temperature balance given the present distribution and density of human population and agricultural production. A cooling trend could lead to continental glaciation in the middle latitudes. This tendency could be reversed by the use of carbon dust spread on snow and ice to reduce albedo and induce melting, but this method has been stated by Gates (1970) to be financially unrealistic.Given the failure of the various national states to prevent the explosion of nuclear weapons, another source of atmospheric pollution, it is doubtful whether these same states will be able to control their present industrial air pollution. For this (and other reasons) the present division of humanity into sovereign states seems a dangerous anachronism. The federation of mankind into a world parliament would be one alternative which would permit the adoption of pollution controls sufficiently stringent to prevent climatic alteration and its social and economic consequences.