The Role of the World Bank Text Figures 7.1 Policy Options for Pollution Control 7.2 New Dimensions for Policy End of Page Looking ahead with moderate optimism, we can imagine that the Earth's population has stabilized at 10 billion by the year 2050.
People still aspire to higher incomes, but desperate poverty has been vanquished.
It could materialize, since many countries have achieved 5 percent growth since 1950. But a shadow looms when we realize that this scenario would entail a 25-fold growth in output and potentially huge increases in pollution. Reacting to such numbers, some people argue that the world's poor will never enjoy material prosperity because industrial civilization will run headlong into an environmental catastrophe. The full story of environment and development has yet to be told, and we cannot guarantee a happy ending. Global warming, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, and other problems remain daunting.