Double Factor Ten: Responsibility and Growth in the 21st Century

ince the world conference in Rio in 1992, the world has been facing the challenge of consciously organizing sustainable development. The goal is no less than the organization of growth compatible with sustainability, together with the creation of a global social balance and the preservation of ecological systems. In this context, the demands of a global ethic and of intercultural humanism must be effectively implemented in terms of a global domestic policy. Furthermore, adequate regulations must be set in such a way so as to make systematic practices that run counter to sensible rules and to the fair interests of others economically unprofitable.The chances of attaining this ambitious goal of balance are limited. The alternatives are a collapse or a resource-dictatorship / brazilianization, probably connected with terror and civil war. Both alternatives are so disastrous that the countries of the world, facing the global financial crisis, the threat of a climate catastrophe and an aggravating division between the rich and the poor, might still come together in order to implement a better designed global order: eco-social instead of market-radical.