We are entering a period in which rapid population growth, the presence of deadly weapons, and dwindling resources will bring international tensions to dangerous levels for an extended period. Indeed, 1 seems no reason for these levels of danger to subside unless population equilibrium is 2 and some rough measure of fairness reached in the distribution of wealth among nations. 3 of adequate magnitude imply a willingness to redistribute income internationally on a more generous 4 than the advanced nations have evidenced within their own domains. The required increases in 5 in the backward regions would necessitate gigantic applications of energy merely to extract the 6 resources.
It is uncertain whether the requisite energy-producing technology exists, and more serious, 7 that its application would bring us to the threshold of an irreversible change in climate 8 a consequence of the enormous addition of manmade heat to the atmosphere. It is this 9 problem that poses the most demanding and difficult of the challenges. The existing 10 of industrial growth, with no allowance for increased industrialization to repair global poverty, hold 11 the risk of entering the danger zone of climatic change in as 12 as three or four generations. If the trajectory is in fact pursued, industrial growth will 13 have to come to an immediate halt, for another generation or two along that 14 would literally consume human, perhaps all life. The terrifying outcome can be postponed only to the extent that the wastage of heat can be reduced, 15 that technologies that do not add to the atmospheric heat burden—for example, the use of solar energy—can be utilized. (1996)