The economic value of the Earth's resources

Economics is the driving force of today's widespread environmental destruction. Markets undervalue the earth's resources and compound their overuse. Since World War II the world has used resources voraciously. The situation can be described as the industrial countries overconsuming resources which are overextracted and exported by developing countries and traded at prices that are lower than the social costs. Resource-intensive patterns of growth and trade are inefficient for the world economy, and lead to tragic maldistribution of the Earth's riches. They should be replaced by knowledge-intensive patterns of growth. Information technology and the environmental agenda are the two most important trends in the world economy. Together they can lead to growth that is intrinsically compatible with the environment.