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3.0
They predicted that the limits to growth on this planet will be reached sometime within the next one hundred years, invoking five major trends of global concert: accelerating industrialization, rapid population growth, widespread malnutrition, depletion of non-renewable resources, and a deteriorating environment.
However, the expectation is that as other, poorer nations increase their level of material wellbeing, they too will reduce birth rates and thus rates of population growth. The “race” between population and resources leads to two related problems: the rate at which resources are being used (and used up) and the inequality in the distribution of resources. There is no doubt that the world Is utilizing resources at historically unprecedented rates. That in itself is a measure of its “success” in mastering the environment and solving the economic problem but it has also given rise to fears of total exhaustion of resources. Such fears are not unreasonable, but they are not well-grounded historically. After all, it was the shortage of timber for charcoal that led to the use of coke for smelting iron ore. There are many other instances in which temporary or localized shortages of particular resources have given rise to substitutes, which often turn out to be more efficient or economical than those that they replaced.
However, the expectation is that as other, poorer nations increase their level of material wellbeing, they too will reduce birth rates and thus rates of population growth. The “race” between population and resources leads to two related problems: the rate at which resources are being used (and used up) and the inequality in the distribution of resources. There is no doubt that the world Is utilizing resources at historically unprecedented rates. That in itself is a measure of its “success” in mastering the environment and solving the economic problem but it has also given rise to fears of total exhaustion of resources. Such fears are not unreasonable, but they are not well-grounded historically. After all, it was the shortage of timber for charcoal that led to the use of coke for smelting iron ore. There are many other instances in which temporary or localized shortages of particular resources have given rise to substitutes, which often turn out to be more efficient or economical than those that they replaced.
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