In a finite world, what does prosperity look like? Does it require ecological destruction and social injustice, or are these just the repercussions that our fundamentally broken society has caused? We must thrive as human beings within the limits of our planet, and to do so we must first achieve a credible vision of prosperity. To realize that vision we must first recognize our limitations as a planet to capture the environmental impacts of economic activity. At the rate the human race operates, we are entering an era characterized by the end of low oil prices, rising human populations, degradation of air, water and land, conflicts over land use and land resources, from forestry and fishing rights, from the constant increase in raw materials. prices and the problem of stabilizing the global climate. But to what extent is economic growth an adequate measure of development? Surely regularly eroding the foundations of our well-being for tomorrow today is not development. Our failure as a society to live within our limitations has led to a rapidly growing human population, overconsumption of resources, depletion, and pollution on local, regional, and global scales. As population growth increases, so does the need for food, shelter, water, clothing and other services, and we rely on the Earth's already depleting natural resources to meet these demands. Therefore, rapid population expansion causes an increase in pollution and a decrease in living standards. A study conducted by a research team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1970s found that, if exponential growth continued, within a century the human population would exceed the Earth's capacity to provide resources and assimilate our waste. This study has brought to light the unsustainable... middle of the paper... solving world hunger, population control, pollution, resource depletion or rising commodity prices is a task difficult and it is a task that every individual on the planet must take responsibility for. We live in a world where consumer demands are growing and technology is improving and not all people will scale back their luxurious lifestyles and give up their smartphones and luxury cars to improve the environment. Realistically, what we need to do is continue to farm, mine, improve technology, and so on, but do so responsibly to the environment and the Earth's capabilities. It won't be an easy task, but many projects have been launched to help improve the sustainability of our planet and this is just the beginning. As Mahatma Gandhi once said “The Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.”.”