You seem to be exaggerating a bit.
I never promoting "ending pollution" but rather increasing efficiency.
There are a limited number of resources on the planet - except human ingenuity.
The whole world cannot use resources in the manner the West currently does. There simply is not enough.
The world will also not simply let the West continue its lifestyle while they adopt a more modest one.
The only solution is for the West to modify its resources use patterns. This is an impossible scenario to imagine the West voluntarily reducing its resource consumption. Of course, the alternative is the overuse the resources capacity of the earth. Thus, it is the most impossible likelihood, except for the all of the others.
The nations that start first in efficiency will be the big winners. Ever notice that Germany is the world's leading exporter with 1/5 of the US population? What they export are their very efficient manufactured goods.