The dynamics of environmental problems is among other things affected by knowledge and economic growth and the perception of welfare. In this article, we present a method for aggregating historically relevant environmental pressure indicators, thereby acknowledging that the complexity of environmental problems calls for multi-indicator approaches. Secondly, we use the aggregate for exploring the long-run dynamics between the environment and economic growth, using a methodology used in the study of the so-called environmental Kuznets curve. We find evidence for a right tilted-S form dynamic relationship. The dynamics is analyzed in a framework stressing that new knowledge of environmental problems is an important driver for the changing relationship, here called “the Pasteur effect”.