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At the Global Forum, fears about the future produced a melange of naive, unworkable and contradictory -- and occasionally inspiring -- notions of how the world might correct its course. But deepening and widening concern may yet lead to a coherent ethic that guides people toward life-styles that minimize damage to the biosphere. The more than 300,000 pledges by children to do something for the planet that were posted on bulletin boards next to the Tree of Life in Flamengo Park raise hopes that the next generation may mature with a deep awareness of the perils of waste and pollution. The question is whether they will learn that lesson in schools, or whether it will be imposed upon them by a world run to ruin by their parents.