ABSTRACT
An expanded global economy will mean expanded industrial production. If current patterns continue, that will also mean large increases in wastes and pollution worldwide. Might this cause irreversible changes in climate or other forms of environmental degradation that could undercut economic and social progress? A more crowded world, especially in the poorest regions where populations are still overwhelmingly rural, will need more of the basics of life—water, food, cooking fuel, shelter. Might these needs overwhelm the available resources—the supplies of fertile land, pastures for grazing, and firewood—that sustain villages and nomadic communities? Might these trends together put such stresses on natural ecosystems that some begin to fail, no longer able to support many desirable plant and animal species or to provide other essential ecosystem services? 1 The answers to such questions will help shape human destinies—help determine whether optimistic or pessimistic scenarios unfold, especially in developing regions, as well as whether future generations everywhere will inherit a bountiful natural world or one that is biologically impoverished.
