Sustainable development: Future scenarios at global level

This paper attempts to describe future scenarios of sustainable development at global level. Views of different authors are presented, ranging from a general examination of the next two centuries to a specific analysis of India's future in the face of its rapid growing population. In the former, it is opted for an epistemological optimism with regard to the technical challenges. But a pessimistic view is expressed when referring to the political and social situation. In the latter, the belief presented is that problems will be solved as long as appropriate strategies are adopted. However, a change towards a resource-saving lifestyle and a break with the past is necessary. No progress will be achieved when only tendencies of the past are projected into the future. With regard to sustainability, a sub-division into eight branches is made and their importance for the development process is emphasised. Currently, the world is far away from a sustainable development and, to some extent, heading in the opposite direction. The major challenge of the future is to find solutions succeeding in the social, economic and ecological-environmental area at once. In addition, strategies are needed to create a civilisation, making an equal access to having which will be made possible for both the South and the North without copying the unsustainable lifestyles of the richer countries. Today, a decisive episode begins in the coevolution of the human species and nature where a transition from the unsustainable resource utilisation to a harmonious coexistence has to be made. The implementation of a sustainable development in the Amazon will have significant influence on the destiny of the world.