In the last 25 years of the 20th century (from 1975 to 2000), another group of nations began to be noticed. This group is referred to as developing or emerging nations. In a developing nation, the average income is much lower than in industrial nations, where the economy relies on a few export crops and where farming is conducted by primitive methods. In many developing nations, rapid population growth threatens the supply of food. Take a look at the map below. The countries that are developing or emerging are in green. These include countries such as Russia, China, India, Poland, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, and Chile.

@Stephen Codrington / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)

China

The world's two most populated nations fall into this group. These are China and India, which have 37% of the world's people (that is over 2.5 billion people!).

@Thaejas at the English Wikipedia / CC BY-SA

India

These developing nations often represent a mini-world with their own populations divided into the extremes of have, have-not, and wealthy groups. As you can see from the picture on the right, this shows the extremes of the living conditions in Bangladesh.

@Ahron de Leeuw / CC BY

Unlike a developed nation, they still have many citizens who struggle to meet their basic needs, but for many of their citizens, the standard of living is improving. This still falls far short of the standard of living that people in developed nations enjoy. The improvements for these people mean that most people have adequate shelter, clean drinking water, and food. They have access to basic health care, and they are able to receive a decent education. Some are even able to buy goods that they want and not just focus on having their basic needs met. Life expectancy in these nations is increasing.

As these nations continue to improve their standard of living, the impact on the rest of the world will be significant because of the populations of many of them. China and India are the two main nations in this group. To put things into perspective, if just 15% of the populations of China and India become consumers, this is the equivalent of the population of the United States. Why is this important?

Remember the previous theme in this course that covered energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions? You saw how wealthy nations are the largest contributors to these problems. Given the populations of the developing nations, the strain on the world's resources and potential increase in greenhouse gases as more of their citizens become consumers is incredible. Of course, keeping these nations poor is not the solution. However, considering this reality is necessary when examining the world's situation with regards to our resources and greenhouse gas problem.

Self-check!

Digging Deeper!