Social and economic aspects of environmental problems in the globalized world

Abstract

Globalization is the phenomenon that has made quite a loud statement about itself during the last decades of the 20th century and found its representation in the formation of global economic, financial, cultural, legal, and political areas. Having been the conglomerate of various national states for thousands of years, the world’s social, economic, ecological, cultural space is now transforming into space without borders. The formation of global economic relations, ecological, demographic challenges can’t be solved individually, with local measures and means. In the second half of the 20th century, the world faced global problems and crises (ecological, demographic, reorganization of the economic and political world order), which have become the challenges that can’t be solved with the help of local actions. The global community is forced to raise issues about the ecologization of the entire industrial activity taking into account its consequences at all levels: local, national, and international. That’s what common threats and problems require. The sustainable development paradigm requires both reviewing and changing the “human-nature” system and realizing the necessity of preserving nature for ensuring the existence of the next generations. Sustainable development is to provide the transfer to a new economic type – the green economy, which requires significant investments, particularly in the renewable-energy industry, industrial waste treatment, restoration of soil fertility, preservation of forests.