Takes a close look at the factors influencing organized responses to seven international environmental problems - oil pollution from tankers, acid rain in Europe, stratospheric ozone depletion, pollution of the North Sea and Baltic, mismanagement of fisheries, overpopulation, and misuses of farm chemicals - to determine the roles that environmental institutions have played in attempting to solve them. The organisations analysed within this framework include UNEP, IMO, FAO, ECE, the Oslo and Paris Commissions, the Helsinki Commission and UNFPA.