ABSTRACT
Growing Pains suggests the often painful trade-offs that have to be made in the process of economic and social growth in the countries concerned. It also indicates the increasing 'pain' the Western lifestyle causes the ecosystems globally. The implications of the developments are that people in the North may lead environmentally unsustainable lifestyles, but that lifestyle is perceived as desirable because of the breadth of choice that it entails. The very fact that consumption levels have been too low to meet basic needs for more than a billion people is seen as one of the main causes of economic stagnation, particularly in the least developed countries. While policy-makers in the North struggle with a maintenance and eventual reduction in per capita resource use at given levels of lifestyles, the main social, political and economic concern in the South is poverty alleviation. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
