The numbers speak for themselves. A disastrous worldwide trend over the last 100 years is illustrated in tables, graphs and analyses of natural resource reserves vs. production and consumption. The effects of world income distribution, objective limits to economic growth on a finite planet, the impossibility of providing full employment on a global scale and the role allotted to the Third World are laid out in black on white. Updated tables and a new, compact format bring this volume of essential statistics to today's increasingly tense debate. The figures add up to an urgent call for a global commitment to alternative energies and conservation measures.