In this chapter you will:

• Learn about the construction of scenarios for the environmental impact of economic and population growth;

• Look at the effect of the composition of GDP on the environmental impact of economic growth;

• Study models of economic growth and resource availability;

• Consider the importance of substitution possibilities in production and technological change for growth prospects when there are natural resource constraints;

• Be introduced to The Limits to Growth controversy;

• Learn about the ways in which economic growth can be good for the environment;

• Look at what sustainable development would involve.

In the previous chapter we saw why economic growth is so widely regarded as a very good thing. In that chapter we largely ignored the natural environment. However, we know from Chapter 4 that studying what goes on in the economy without considering the implications for the environment is a serious mistake. In this chapter we are going to begin to correct that mistake, by looking at economic growth and the environment. There are two, related, big issues here. First, there is the widely held view that economic growth damages the environment. Second, there is the idea that environmental constraints mean that economic growth must come to an end. Before getting into these two areas, we begin by considering a simple way of looking at the roles of population growth, economic growth and technological change in how the economy impacts on the environment.