Environmental issues are of paramount importance in marginal countries because their impact on human survival is immediate and direct. The inadequate response to pressing questions of natural resource management, whether of water or trees, merely strengthens the hands of opium dealers and malcontents in what is already the most disaffected and sensitive part of Afghanistan – the clear-cut mountain slopes where intelligence officers believe Osama bin Laden is most likely holed up.
环境问题对边缘国家十分重要，因为它对人类生存具有立竿见影的直接影响。若对紧迫的自然资源管理问题——不管是水资源还是森林资源的管理问题反应措施不当，就只会在砍伐一空的山坡地带——阿富汗本已充斥不满情绪和最敏感的地带，加强鸦片商人和不满分子的力量。情报官员相信那里是奥萨马·本·拉登最有可能洗劫的地方。