________________ Global 2000 Revisited: What Shall We Do? spiral downward into increasingly desperate poverty exacerbated by global environmental deterioration. Ultimately the North spirals downward too, and the whole planet drifts off into a new dark age or worse. But there is another option open to us, one in which everyone comes to recognize that a healthy Earth is an essential prerequisite for a healthy human population. Under this option, the world could become less polluted, less crowded, more stable ecologically, economically and politically if we humans would be willing to work together to (a) create the religious, social, and economic conditions necessary to stop the growth of human population, (b) reduce the use of resources (sources) and disposal capacity (sinks) by the wealthiest, (c) assure civil order, education, and health services for people everywhere, (d) preserve soils and species everywhere, (e) double agricultural yields while reducing both agricultural dependence on energy and agricultural damage to the environment, (f) convert from carbon dioxide-emitting energy sources to renewable, non-polluting energy sources that are affordable even to the poor, (g) cut sharply the emissions of other greenhouse gases, (h) stop immediately the emissions of the. chemicals destroying the ozone layer, and (i) bring equity between nations and peoples of the North and South. We do not have generations or even decades to choose between these two directions because of the momentum inherent in population growth, capital investments, technological choices, and environmental changes. In fact, the choice of direction for Earth is being made today. The choice is difficult because: (a) there is some scientific and economic uncertainty about the severity of the difficulties ahead, (b) it is difficult to believe that such major, unprecedented change can be occurring, (c) it is generally thought to be easier to adapt to whatever comes than to make change in advance of necessity, (d) there is widespread lack of awareness of what is happening, and (e) the steps which must be taken are extremely difficult, and (f) we lack a set of common moral values on which to base collective action. Most difficult, however, is to accept that our concept of progress has failed. Our concept of progress--our model of development, measures every nation by the norm of a so-called "developed" country. Under this concept of progress, each "rational" nation is to progress to the economic and military might of the "developed" countries of the industrialized North. Similarly, the goal of each "rational" person is to progress to the point of being able to live like the wealthiest. This concept of progress has failed. Twelve billion people cannot live like the wealthiest do now. All nations of the world cannot become as wasteful and environmentally destructive as the industrialized North is now. For them to do so
