What's wrong with continued economic growth?

In response to an environmental press release, urging developed nations to just be less wealthy in the future, Warren Meyer of Coyote Blog has an excellent response.

Assuming that such thinking is not just a crass excuse for totalitarian control, it represents an enormous failure of imagination. The author cannot imagine what benefits increased wealth would provide, so he assumes those benefits to be zero. There is absolutely no reason that this same exact thinking could not have been applied in 1300 or 1750 or 1900. Fortunately it was not.

I fully support the increased wealth and comfort for American conservatives. I fully support the right of American liberals to live in penury. And I fully support applying the ingenuity of Americans to make the scientific and technological advances which will improve the life of the entire world.