Do you agree that in the long run, globalization will lead to increased economic well-being of the majority of the world's population?

Answers will vary. As businesses specialize and trade their specialized products across borders, more people have access to these products and the ability to help in their production. However, one potentially negative effect of globalization falls on the ecological environment. The ecological environment consists of the air, water, land, minerals, resources, and organisms that underpin our ability to survive on this planet.
Globalization often puts extreme pressure on the ecological environment. As we try to
figure out how to support what will likely be 9.7 billion people living on Earth by 2050 (with a good chance at 11.2 billion by 2100), we also need to consider that globalization helps a growing world population to become richer, healthier, better educated, and freer. In many respects, this is a good thing. With over a billion people poised to enter the global middle class in the next few decades, demand will increase for more meat for meals, more oil to fuel mobility, more copper for electronics, more wood for homes, more water for lawns, and more electricity for lights and cell phones.
From a short-term perspective, there is much money to be made from producing these commodities and goods for the rising middle class. From a long-term perspective, however, producing meat uses up incredible amounts of land and resources, oil and copper are finite resources, harvesting too much wood without replenishing it can be destructive to natural habitats, and using water for watering lawns has become a major problem in many drought-ridden parts of the world.
The section "What Is Sustainability?" on pages 150-151 discusses the different effects of globalization. Students can use this section to make their own interpretation and answer this question.