Since the imposition of free market policies in the 1980s, globalization has come to represent an ideological battle between those who favor economic growth and deregulation through the growing power of multinational corporations, versus those who prefer a more sustainable and democratic approach to international development, socio-economic justice, and the securing of basic human rights and needs.
For the first time in forty years, some of the most powerful business leaders and politicians at the World Economic Forum are questioning the value of globalisation. But will this change in rhetoric lead to a more credible vision of human progress?
Endless
growth is pushing the planet’s biosphere beyond its safe limits. We urgently
need to change our economy to promote well being, reduce resource consumption
and live within its environmental budget, says a report by the New Economics
Foundation.
Indigenous peoples make up one third of the world’s poor and are often disproportionately affected by the economic globalisation. Governments should prioritise self-determination and land rights to protect indigenous communities and their knowledge, says a report by UN DESA.
For the most part, the wake-up call in
2008 to rethink our economic model went unheeded. Governments must address financial
and ecological sustainability together in order to allow humans to flourish
within the limits of a finite planet, argues Tim Jackson.
With seismic shifts in global power relations already underway,
the coming decade is set to reshape the world as we know it. Far more
profound will be changes to the natural world, which will impact humanity in
unpredictable and possibly devastating ways, writes Michael Klare.
The practice of sustainable development has been
mainstreamed to align with the interests of business, government, and
‘economics as usual’. We need to reset the pursuit of sustainability and
demand transformative changes to the predominant global economic system, argues
Alan Atkisson.
Environmentalists are coalescing around the idea that the current drive for unending economic growth is not sustainable on a finite planet. But the end to which the economic system should now aim is still open to debate, suggest three different viewpoints.
