Vieira focuses on the relationship between environmental pollution and socioeconomic underdevelopment and emphasizes the role information can play in the protection of the Third World environment. She identifies the main governmental and nongovernmental institutions related to important aspects of the Third World environment--pollution control, sanitation, public health, and development and alternative technologies. The Brazilian institutional panorama is analyzed and then compared with Mexican, Indian, and Egyptian systems in an effort to identify common points that might be applied to the Third World as a whole. Finally, she recommends the establishment of an informal international network of both nongovernmental institutions and individuals for the exchange of information considered important to the developing countries or pertinent to the environmental realities of the Third World. Providing the core for such a network is an appendix listing organizations interested in the environment and development of the Third World.