Since 1950, the global economy has more than quintupled in size. Despite the financial turmoil in East Asia starting in late 1997, the world's economy continues to expand, growing by 4.1 per cent in 1997. Despite remarkable improvements in many places, one-quarter of the world's population remains in severe poverty. In the developed world, technology has transformed patterns of work and family life, communications, leisure activities, diet and health.
Similar transformations are well under way in the more prosperous parts of the developing world.
The impacts of these changes on the natural environment are complex. The modern industrial economies of North America, Europe and parts of East Asia consume immense quantities of energy and raw materials, and produce high volumes of wastes and polluting emissions. In other regions, particularly in many parts of the developing world, poverty combined with rapid population growth is leading to widespread degradation of renewable resources - primarily forests, soils and water. People living in subsistence economies are faced with few alternatives to depleting their natural resources. At the same time, rapid urbanization and industrialization in many developing countries are creating high levels of air and water pollution, which often hit the poor hardest.