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These developments, along with improvements in medical science and healthcare,
enhance the lives of many. At the same time, these trends create new or
intensify existing social and environmental concerns. Advances in biotechnology
and genetic engineering, both in combating disease vectors and creating
hardier crops, open up areas of Africa and other regions to intensive
exploitation by large-scale commercial agriculture and ranching. This
jeopardizes both natural and agro-biodiversity and it leads to far worse
land degradation than before, destroying harvests and livelihoods and
driving even more people into poverty.
Improvements in information technology help draw attention to the vast
differences between how different people live, often causing great frustration
among the less well off. In the polar regions, resource exploitation speeds
up as a result of technological advances and easier access due to climatic
changes, putting ecosystems in those regions at greater risk. More use
is made of hydropower resources in the Arctic, as well as in Asia and
the Pacific, Latin America, parts of Europe, and Africa. Water is also
transported over increasing distances to drier regions to cater to soaring
demand. This trend is highlighted by the initiation of large-scale projects
in the 2010s to move water from the Great Lakes and the Pacific Northwest
to the arid regions in the southwest of North America. These steps are
followed by similar efforts in Europe and parts of the Asia and the Pacific
region.
At the heart of all these market-led concerns is a seemingly never-ending
obligation on society to muster enough technological and structural progress
to catch up with the skyrocketing demand for goods and services. Meanwhile,
environmental conditions are constantly shifting. The effects of climate
change are becoming clearer, particularly in the polar regions, in poorer
countries and along the world's coastlines. Plans are already being made
to evacuate some small island states. Other environmental changes, including
imbalances in the nitrogen cycle and the continued dispersion of persistent
organic pollutants, are also having their impacts, evidenced by the 'red
tides' that hit the Mediterranean in the 2010s and the Indian Ocean in
the 2020s.
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| 'The economic advances that have characterized the past few decades
begin to slow noticeably. More and more effort is needed simply to
maintain the achievements realized so far.' |
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Prolonged (though decelerating) population growth in Africa, West Asia
and parts of Asia and the Pacific and increasing urbanization in almost
all regions, aggravate problems such as biodiversity loss, water stress
and the frequent breakdown of basic services. These are reflected, in
turn, in persistent regional conflicts and migration pressures. As a consequence,
the economic advances that have characterized the past few decades begin
to slow noticeably. More and more effort is needed simply to maintain
the achievements realized so far. Social and environmental goals, which
are still in the minds of many even though other concerns have relegated
them to the back seat, seem to be moving further beyond reach every year.
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