Economic development and population growth are of essential concern to environmentalists. In those areas of the Third World where countries are experiencing rapid industrial expansion, there is evidence that air- and water-borne toxins are being generated at enormous rates, and that they are being disposed of far more carelessly than in the North. Meanwhile, in the least developed countries, population growth is exerting dangerous pressure on the carrying capacity of the ecosystems and producing widespread desertification and deforestation. In both cases the ecological problems are severe. There is a crucial paradox in that the very development deemed necessary to alleviate misery and poverty in the Third World by elevating consumption levels to those enjoyed in the North simultaneously has appalling ecological consequences. As a result, radical greens argue that the pattern of development in the South today must be quite different from that which occurred in the First World.
