It is impossible to separate economic development issues from environmental issues. Many forms of development erode the environmental resources upon which they must be based and environmental degradation can undermine economic development. Poverty is a major cause and effect of global environmental problems.
It is thus futile to attempt to deal with environmental problems without a broader perspective that encompasses the factors underlying world poverty and international equality.
A main spring of economic growth is new technology. New technology offers potential for slowing the dangerously rapid consumption of finite resources. It also entails high risks including new forms of pollution that would change evolutionary pathways.
Such related changes have locked the global economy and global ecology together in new ways. In past, we have been concerned about the impacts of economic growth upon the environment. Presently, we are forced to concern ourselves with the impacts of ecological stress. Ecology and economics are becoming more interwoven into a seamless net of cause and effect, locally, regionally, nationally and globally.