The degradation of biosphere and soil, water deficit, changes in the chemical composition of the atmosphere have underlined the importance of the environment to social development. The studies have included mutual relationships between the ocean, vegetation and the atmosphere; the principal strategy of economic activities has been formulated as a policy of sustainable development. Economic activities now preferred are those which follow natural processes in the environment or modify them. The author considers the social and political implications of sustainable development and those of modelling climatic relationships, both at regional and global scale. The extent of human impact on individual climatic factors is considered together with effects which these changes can exert on the main fields of economic activity.