Globalization of social and cultural processes in the modern world. Global problems of our time and ways to solve them

The twentieth century was characterized by a significant acceleration of sociocultural change. A gigantic shift has taken place in the “nature-society-man” system, where an important role is now played by culture, understood as an intellectual, ideal, and artificially created material environment, which not only ensures the existence and comfort of a person in the world, but also creates a number of problems . Another important change in this system was the ever-increasing pressure of people and society on nature. For the 20th century The world's population has grown from 1.4 billion to 6 billion, while over the previous 19 centuries of our era it increased by 1.2 billion people. Serious changes are taking place in the social structure of the population of our planet. Currently, only 1 billion people (the so-called "golden billion") live in developed countries and fully enjoy the achievements of modern culture, and 5 billion people from developing countries suffering from hunger, disease, poor education, form a "global pole of poverty" that opposes the "pole of prosperity" . Moreover, the trends in fertility and mortality make it possible to predict that by 2050-2100, when the world's population reaches 10 billion people. (Table 18) (and this, according to modern ideas, is the maximum number of people that our planet can feed), the population of the "pole of poverty" will reach 9 billion people, and the population of the "pole of well-being" will remain unchanged. At the same time, each person living in developed countries exerts 20 times more pressure on nature than a person from developing countries.

World population (million people)

Source: Yatsenko I. E. Explanatory dictionary of "social science" terms. St. Petersburg, 1999. P. 520.

Sociologists associate the globalization of social and cultural processes and the emergence of world problems with the presence of limits to the development of the world community.

Sociologists-globalists believe that the limits of the world are determined by the very finiteness and fragility of nature. These limits are called external (Table 19).

For the first time, the problem of external limits to growth was raised in a report to the Club of Rome (a non-governmental international organization created in 1968) "Limits to Growth", prepared by the leadership of D. Meadows.

The authors of the report, using a computer model of global changes for calculations, came to the conclusion that the unlimited growth of the economy and the pollution caused by it by the middle of the 21st century. lead to economic disaster. To avoid it, the concept of "global balance" with nature was proposed with a constant population and "zero" industrial growth.

According to other globalist sociologists (E. Laszlo, J. Bierman), the economic and socio-cultural development of mankind is limited not by external, but by internal limits, the so-called socio-psychological limits, which manifest themselves in the subjective activity of people (see Table 19) .

The limits of human development

Table 19

Supporters of the concept of internal limits to growth believe that the solution to global problems lies in the ways of increasing the responsibility of politicians who make important decisions, and improving social forecasting. The most reliable tool for solving global problems, according to

E. Toffler, one should consider knowledge and the ability to withstand the ever-increasing pace of social change, as well as the delegation of resources and responsibility to those floors, levels where the relevant problems are solved. Of great importance is the formation and dissemination of new universal values ​​and norms, such as the security of people and societies, of all mankind; freedom of activity of people both within the state and outside it; responsibility for the conservation of nature; availability of information; respect for public opinion by the authorities; humanization of relations between people, etc.

Global problems can be solved only by the joint efforts of state and public, regional and world organizations. All world problems can be differentiated into three categories (Table 20).

The most dangerous challenge to mankind in the XX century. there were wars. Only two world wars, which lasted more than 10 years in total, claimed about 80 million human lives and caused material damage of more than 4 trillion 360 billion dollars (Table 21).

Global problems

Table 20

Table 21

The most important indicators of the First and Second World Wars

Since the Second World War there have been about 500 armed conflicts. More than 36 million people died in local battles, most of them were civilians.

And in just 55 centuries (5.5 thousand years), humanity has survived 15 thousand wars (so that people lived in peace for no more than 300 years). More than 3.6 billion people died in these wars. Moreover, with the development of weapons in combat clashes, an increasing number of people (including civilians) died. Losses especially increased with the beginning of the use of gunpowder (Table 22).

Table 22

Nevertheless, the arms race continues to this day. Only after the Second World War, military spending (for 1945-1990) amounted to more than 20 trillion dollars. Today, military spending is more than $800 billion a year, that is, $2 million per minute. More than 60 million people serve or work in the armed forces of all states. 400 thousand scientists are engaged in the improvement and development of new weapons - these studies absorb 40% of all R & D funds, or 10% of all human costs.

Currently, the environmental problem comes first, which includes such unresolved issues as:

• ? land desertification. Currently, deserts occupy about 9 million square meters. km. Every year, deserts "capture" more than 6 million hectares of land developed by man. A total of 30 million sq. km of inhabited territory, which is 20% of all land;
• ? deforestation. Over the past 500 years, 2/3 of forests have been cleared by man, and 3/4 of forests have been destroyed in the entire history of mankind. Every year, 11 million hectares of forest land disappear from the face of our planet;
• ? pollution of reservoirs, rivers, seas and oceans;
• ? "the greenhouse effect;
• ? ozone holes.

As a result of the combined effect of all these factors, the productivity of land biomass has already decreased by 20%, and some animal species have become extinct. Mankind is forced to take measures to protect nature. Other global problems are no less acute.

Do they have solutions? The solution to these acute problems of the modern "world" may lie on the paths of scientific and technological progress, socio-political reforms and changes in the relationship between man and the environment (Table 23).

Table 23

Ways to solve global problems

Scientists under the auspices of the Club of Rome are engaged in the search for a conceptual solution to global problems. In second report(1974) of this non-governmental organization (“Humanity at the Crossroads”, authors M. Mesarevich and E. Pestel) talked about the “organic growth” of the world economy and culture as a single organism, where each part plays its role and enjoys that share of common goods, which correspond to its role and ensure the further development of this part in the interests of the whole.

In 1977 was published third report Club of Rome under the title "International Order Revisited". Its author J. Tinbergen saw a way out in the creation of global institutions that would control global socio-cultural and economic processes. According to the scientist, it is necessary to create a world treasury, a world food administration, a world administration for technological development and other institutions that would resemble ministries in their functions; on a conceptual level, such a system presupposes the existence of a world government.

In subsequent works by the French globalists M. Guernier "The Third World: Three Quarters of the World" (1980), B. Granotier "For a World Government" (1984) and others, the idea of ​​a global center that governs the world was further developed.

A more radical position in relation to global governance is occupied by the international public movement of mondialists (International Registration of World Citizens, IRWC), which was created in 1949 and advocates the creation of a world state.

In 1989, the report of the UN International Commission on Environment and Development chaired by G. H. Brundtland "Our Common Future" created the concept of "sustainable development", which "satisfies the needs of the present, but does not jeopardize the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

In the 1990s the idea of ​​a world government is giving way to projects of global cooperation among states with the vital role of the UN. This concept was formulated in the report of the Commission on Global Governance and Cooperation of the United Nations "Our Global Neighborhood" (1996).

Nowadays, the concept of “global civil society” is gaining more and more importance. It means all the people of the Earth who share universal human values, who actively solve global problems, especially where national governments are not capable of doing this.

Federal Agency for Education

State educational institution

Higher professional education

Tula State University

Department of Sociology and Political Science

Control work on the topic:

"Globalization of social processes in the modern world"

Completed: stud. gr.631871

Golubtsova T.N.

Checked by: Makhrin A.V.

Introduction

1. The emergence of globalization

2. Society and processes of globalization

3. Manifestations of globalization

4. Challenges and threats posed by globalization

5. Globalization: challenges for Russia

Conclusion

Literature

Introduction

At the present stage of human development, a single civilization is being formed on the entire planet. The rooting of this idea in science and public consciousness contributed to the awareness of the globalization of processes in the modern world.

What is globalization? Globalization is a process of worldwide economic, political, social and cultural integration and unification. The main consequence of this is the global division of labor, global migration of capital, human and production resources, standardization of legislation, economic and technological processes, as well as convergence of cultures of different countries. This is an objective process that is systemic in nature, that is, it covers all spheres of society.

However, the globalization of processes is not only their ubiquity, not only the fact that they cover the entire globe. Globalization is connected, first of all, with the internationalization of all social activities on Earth. This internationalization means that in the modern era all mankind is included in a single system of social, cultural, economic, political and other connections, interactions and relations.

Nevertheless, the globalization of social, cultural, economic and political processes in the modern world, along with the positive aspects, has given rise to a number of serious problems that are called "global problems of our time": environmental, demographic, political, etc. All these problems are very important for the present and future of mankind, the possibilities and prospects for the survival of mankind.

1. The emergence of globalization

The process of globalization is far from new. We can trace some beginnings of globalization already in the Age of Antiquity. In particular, the Roman Empire was one of the first states that asserted its dominance over the Mediterranean and led to a deep interweaving of different cultures and the emergence of a local division of labor in the regions of the Mediterranean.

The origins of globalization lie in the 16th and 17th centuries, when strong economic growth in Europe was combined with advances in navigation and geographical discoveries. As a result, Portuguese and Spanish traders spread throughout the world and began to colonize the Americas. In the 17th century, the Dutch East India Company, which traded with many Asian countries, became the first genuine transnational company. In the 19th century, rapid industrialization led to increased trade and investment between the European powers, their colonies, and the United States. During this period, unfair trade with developing countries had the character of imperialist exploitation. In the first half of the 20th century, globalization processes were interrupted by two world wars and a period of economic recession that separated them.

After 1945, two important processes unfolded simultaneously in the world economy. On the one hand, due to mutual investments and the mutual exchange of technologies, the introduction of organizational innovations, the developed countries began to converge in terms of technical and economic, as well as socio-structural and political indicators. On the other hand, the collapse of colonial empires, the conscious choice in favor of modernization, the spread of "flexible" methods of managing social processes were important prerequisites for a qualitatively new stage of globalization. This was also facilitated by the improvement of transport and means of communication: contacts between peoples, regions and continents were accelerated, consolidated and simplified.

2. Society and processes of globalization

In the 1990s the concept of globalization has become an essential element of the international political process. It is understood as a gradual transformation of the world space into a single zone, where capitals, goods, services, new ideas move freely, modern institutions and mechanisms of their interaction develop. Globalization can be viewed as integration at the macro level, that is, as the convergence of countries in all areas: economic, political, social, cultural, technological, etc.

Globalization has both positive and negative features that affect the development of the world community. The positive ones include the rejection of the obedient subordination of the economy to the political principle, the decisive choice in favor of the competitive (market) model of the economy, the recognition of the capitalist model as the “optimal” socio-economic system. All this, at least theoretically, made the world more homogeneous and allowed us to hope that the relative uniformity of the social structure would help eliminate poverty and poverty, and smooth out economic inequality in the world space.

The collapse of the USSR to some extent confirmed the thesis about the unidirectional historical process. It was in the early 1990s. many followers of the idea of ​​global liberalization appeared in the West. Its authors believe that globalization is one of the forms of the neoliberal development model that directly or indirectly affects the domestic and foreign policies of all countries of the world community.

In their opinion, such a model of development may turn out to be "the end point of the ideological evolution of mankind", "the final form of human government, and as such represents the end of history." Preachers of such a course of development believe that "the ideal of liberal democracy cannot be improved," and humanity will develop along this only possible path.

Representatives of this trend in political science and sociology believe that modern technologies make it possible to accumulate wealth without limit and satisfy ever-growing human needs. And this should lead to the homogenization of all societies, regardless of their historical past and cultural heritage. All countries that carry out economic modernization on the basis of liberal values ​​will become more and more like each other, drawing closer with the help of the world market and the spread of a universal consumer culture.

This theory has some practical evidence. The development of computerization, fiber optics, the improvement of the communication system, including satellite, allows humanity to move towards an open society with a liberal economy.

However, the idea of ​​the world as a homogeneous socio-economic space, driven by a single motivation and regulated by "universal values", is largely simplified. Politicians and scientists in developing countries have serious doubts about the Western model of development. In their opinion, neoliberalism leads to a growing polarization of poverty and wealth, to environmental degradation, to the fact that rich countries are gaining more and more control over the world's resources.

Inequality in the development of various countries can be traced in all spheres, primarily in the economic sphere. Thus, one of the first results of globalization was the integration of markets. However, the share of rich countries at the end of the 20th century accounted for 82% of export trade, and the share of the poorest - 1%.

Global inequalities are also evident in the distribution of foreign direct investment: 58% of these investments were placed in industrialized countries, 37% in developing countries and 5% in the transition economies of Eastern Europe and the CIS.

The United States and Japan are achieving 90% of GDP growth through the introduction of modern scientific and technological achievements, and in terms of its production per capita, they have no equal. In Russia, this figure is only 15% of the US level, 33% below the world average and provides our country with only 114th place in the world.

Thus, globalization in its current form serves the interests of rich industrial countries that lead in the promotion of the latest technologies to the world market, and divides countries into those that use its opportunities for their development, and those that do not.

In the social sphere, globalization involves the creation of a society that should be based on respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, on the principle of social justice. However, the number of people living in poverty around the world at the end of the 20th century was more than 1 billion people, more than 800 million (30% of the active population) were unemployed or underemployed. Over the past 15 years, per capita income has declined in more than 100 countries around the world, according to the World Bank and the United Nations. Until now, half of the world's 6 billion people live on less than $2 a day; 1.3 billion on less than $1 a day, including 150 million citizens of the former Soviet Union; 2 billion people are deprived of sources of electricity; nearly 1.5 billion lack access to safe, clean water; 1 out of 7 school age children does not go to school. More than 1.2 billion people in developing countries do not have the basic conditions that would enable them to live beyond 40 years.

Developing countries (India, China) and countries with economies in transition (Russia) do not have the opportunity to achieve the level of material well-being of rich countries. The neoliberal model of development does not allow even the basic needs of the vast masses of the population to be met.

Globalization- a term for a situation of change in all aspects of society's life under the influence of a global trend towards interdependence and openness.

The main consequence of this is the global division of labor, global migration of capital, human and production resources, standardization of legislation, economic and technological processes, as well as convergence of cultures of different countries. This is an objective process that is systemic in nature, that is, it covers all spheres of society.

Globalization is connected, first of all, with the internationalization of all social activities on Earth. This internationalization means that in the modern era all mankind is included in a single system of social, cultural, economic, political and other connections, interactions and relations.

Globalization can be viewed as integration at the macro level, that is, as the convergence of countries in all areas: economic, political, social, cultural, technological, etc.

Globalization has both positive and negative features that affect the development of the world community.

The positive ones include rejection of the obedient subordination of the economy to the political principle, a decisive choice in favor of a competitive (market) model of the economy, the recognition of the capitalist model as the "optimal" socio-economic system. All this, at least theoretically, made the world more homogeneous and allowed us to hope that the relative uniformity of the social structure would help eliminate poverty and poverty, and smooth out economic inequality in the world space.

In the early 1990s many followers of the idea of ​​global liberalization appeared in the West. Its authors believe that globalization is one of the forms of the neoliberal development model that directly or indirectly affects the domestic and foreign policies of all countries of the world community.

In their opinion, such a model of development may turn out to be "the end point of the ideological evolution of mankind", "the final form of human government, and as such represents the end of history." Preachers of such a course of development believe that "the ideal of liberal democracy cannot be improved," and humanity will develop along this only possible path.

Representatives of this trend in political science and sociology believe that modern technologies make it possible to accumulate wealth without limit and satisfy ever-growing human needs. And this should lead to the homogenization of all societies, regardless of their historical past and cultural heritage. All countries that carry out economic modernization on the basis of liberal values ​​will become more and more like each other, drawing closer with the help of the world market and the spread of a universal consumer culture.

This theory has some practical evidence. The development of computerization, fiber optics, the improvement of the communication system, including satellite, allows humanity to move towards an open society with a liberal economy.

However, the idea of ​​the world as a homogeneous socio-economic space, driven by a single motivation and regulated by "universal values", is largely simplified. Politicians and scientists in developing countries have serious doubts about the Western model of development. In their opinion, neoliberalism leads to a growing polarization of poverty and wealth, to environmental degradation, to the fact that rich countries are gaining more and more control over the world's resources.

In the social sphere, globalization involves the creation of a society that should be based on respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, on the principle of social justice.

There is little opportunity for developing countries and countries with economies in transition to achieve the level of material well-being of rich countries. The neoliberal model of development does not allow even the basic needs of the vast masses of the population to be met.

The growing socio-economic and cultural gap between the upper and lower strata of the world community becomes even more obvious if we compare the incomes of some of the richest people on the planet with the incomes of entire countries.

Manifestations of globalization in the sphere of culture:

1) the transformation of the planet into a "global village" (M. McLuhan), when millions of people, thanks to the media, almost instantly become witnesses of events taking place in different parts of the globe;

2) introducing people living in different countries and on different continents to the same cultural experience (Olympiads, concerts);

3) unification of tastes, perceptions, preferences (Coca-Cola, jeans, soap operas);

4) direct acquaintance with the way of life, customs, norms of behavior in other countries (through tourism, work abroad, migration);

5) the emergence of the language of international communication - English;

6) widespread distribution of unified computer technologies, the Internet;

7) "erosion" of local cultural traditions, their replacement by mass consumer culture of the Western type

Challenges and threats caused by globalization:

It should be noted that in recent years, economic aspects have become increasingly important in globalization. Therefore, some researchers, speaking of globalization, have in mind only its economic side. In principle, this is a one-sided view of a complex phenomenon. At the same time, an analysis of the process of development of global economic ties makes it possible to identify some features of globalization as a whole.

Globalization has also affected the social sphere, although the intensity of these processes largely depends on the economic capabilities of the integrated components. Social rights, previously available to the population of only developed countries, are gradually being adopted for their citizens by developing countries. In an increasing number of countries, civil societies, a middle class are emerging, and social norms for the quality of life are being unified to some extent.

A very noticeable phenomenon over the past 100 years has been the globalization of culture based on the enormous growth of cultural exchange between countries, the development of the mass culture industry, the leveling of the tastes and predilections of the public. This process is accompanied by the erasure of national features of literature and art, the integration of elements of national cultures into the emerging universal cultural sphere. The globalization of culture was also a reflection of the cosmopolitanization of being, linguistic assimilation, the spread of the English language around the planet as a global means of communication, and other processes.

Like any complex phenomenon, globalization has both positive and negative sides. Its consequences are associated with obvious successes: the integration of the world economy contributes to the intensification and growth of production, the mastering of technical achievements by backward countries, the improvement of the economic condition of developing countries, and so on. Political integration helps prevent military conflicts, ensure relative stability in the world, and do many other things in the interests of international security. Globalization in the social sphere stimulates huge shifts in the minds of people, the spread of democratic principles of human rights and freedoms. The list of achievements of globalization covers various interests from a personal nature to the world community.

However, there are also many negative consequences. They manifested themselves in the form of the so-called global problems of mankind.

Global issues are universal difficulties and contradictions in the relationship between nature and man, society, the state, the world community, having a planetary scale in scope, strength and intensity. These problems partially existed in an implicit form earlier, but mainly arose at the present stage as a result of the negative course of human activity, natural processes and, to a large extent, as the consequences of globalization. In fact, global problems are not just the consequences of globalization, but the self-expression of this most complex phenomenon, which is not controlled in its main aspects.

The global problems of mankind or civilization were truly realized only in the second half of the 20th century, when the interdependence of countries and peoples, which caused globalization, increased sharply, and the unresolved problems manifested themselves especially clearly and destructively. In addition, the realization of some problems came only when mankind had accumulated a huge potential of knowledge that made these problems visible.

Some researchers distinguish the most important from global problems - the so-called imperatives - urgent, immutable, unconditional requirements, in this case - the dictates of the times. In particular, they call the economic, demographic, environmental, military and technological imperatives, considering them to be the main ones, and most of the other problems are derived from them.

Currently, a large number of problems of a different nature are classified as global. It is difficult to classify them because of mutual influence and simultaneous belonging to several spheres of life. Sufficiently conditionally global problems can be divided into:

Global problems of mankind:

Social character - the demographic imperative with its many components, the problems of interethnic confrontation, religious intolerance, education, healthcare, organized crime;

Socio-biological - problems of the emergence of new diseases, genetic safety, drug addiction;

Socio-political - problems of war and peace, disarmament, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, information security, terrorism;

Socio-economic character - problems of stability of the world economy, depletion of non-renewable resources, energy, poverty, employment, food shortages;

Spiritual and moral sphere - the problems of the decline in the general level of culture of the population, the spread of the cult of violence and pornography, the lack of demand for high examples of art, the lack of harmony in relations between generations, and many others.

A characteristic feature of the state of affairs with global problems is the growth of their number, the aggravation or manifestation of new, quite recently unknown threats.

The twentieth century was characterized by a significant acceleration of sociocultural change. A gigantic shift has taken place in the “nature-society-man” system, where an important role is now played by culture, understood as an intellectual, ideal, and artificially created material environment, which not only ensures the existence and comfort of a person in the world, but also creates a number of problems .

Another important change in this system was the ever-increasing pressure of people and society on nature. For the 20th century The world's population has grown from 1.4 billion to 6 billion, while over the previous 19 centuries of our era it increased by 1.2 billion people. Serious changes are taking place in the social structure of the population of our planet. Currently, only 1 billion people (the so-called "golden billion") live in developed countries and fully enjoy the achievements of modern culture, and 5 billion people from developing countries suffering from hunger, disease, poor education, form a "global pole of poverty" that opposes the "pole of prosperity" . Moreover, the trends in fertility and mortality make it possible to predict that by 2050-2100, when the population of the Earth reaches 10 billion people. (Table 18) (according to modern concepts, this is the maximum number of people that our planet can feed), the population of the "pole of poverty" will reach 9 billion people, and the population of the "pole of well-being" will remain unchanged. At the same time, each person living in developed countries exerts 20 times more pressure on nature than a person from developing countries.

Table 18

World population (million people)

Source: Yatsenko N. E. Explanatory dictionary of social science terms. SPb., 1999. S. 520.

Sociologists associate the globalization of social and cultural processes and the emergence of world problems with the presence of limits to the development of the world community.

Sociologists-globalists believe that the limits of the world are determined by the very finiteness and fragility of nature. These limits are called external (Table 19).

For the first time, the problem of external limits to growth was raised in a report to the Club of Rome (a non-governmental international organization established in 1968) "Limits to Growth", prepared under the leadership of D. Meadows.

The authors of the report, using a computer model of global changes for calculations, came to the conclusion that the unlimited growth of the economy and the pollution caused by it by the middle of the 21st century. lead to economic disaster. To avoid it, the concept of "global balance" with nature was proposed with a constant population and "zero" industrial growth.

According to other globalist sociologists (E. Laszlo, J. Bierman), the limiters of the economy and the sociocultural development of mankind are not external, but internal limits, the so-called sociopsychological limits, which manifest themselves in the subjective activity of people (see Table 19).

Table 19 Limits of human development

Supporters of the concept of internal limits to growth believe that the solution to global problems lies in the ways of increasing the responsibility of politicians who make important decisions, and improving social forecasting. The most reliable tool for solving global problems, according to E.

Toffler should be considered the knowledge and ability to withstand the ever-increasing pace of social change, as well as the delegation of resources and responsibility to those floors, levels where the relevant problems are solved. Of great importance is the formation and dissemination of new universal values ​​and norms, such as the security of people and societies, of all mankind; freedom of activity of people both within the state and outside it; responsibility for the conservation of nature; availability of information; respect for public opinion by the authorities; humanization of relations between people, etc.

Global problems can be solved only by the joint efforts of state and public, regional and world organizations. All world problems can be differentiated into three categories (Table 20).

The most dangerous challenge to mankind in the XX century. there were wars. Only two world wars, which lasted more than 10 years in total, claimed about 80 million human lives and caused material damage of more than 4 trillion 360 billion dollars (Table 21).

Table 20

Global problems

Table 21

The most important indicators of the First and Second World Wars

Since the Second World War there have been about 500 armed conflicts. More than 36 million people died in local battles, most of them were civilians.

And in just 55 centuries (5.5 thousand years), mankind has survived 15 thousand wars (so that people lived in peace for no more than 300 years). More than 3.6 billion people died in these wars. Moreover, with the development of weapons in combat clashes, an increasing number of people (including civilians) died. Losses especially increased with the beginning of the use of gunpowder (Table 22).

Table 22

Nevertheless, the arms race continues to this day. Only after the Second World War, military spending (for 1945-1990) amounted to more than 20 trillion dollars. Today, military spending is more than $800 billion a year, that is, $2 million per minute. More than 60 million people serve or work in the armed forces of all states. 400 thousand scientists are engaged in the improvement and development of new weapons - this research absorbs 40% of all R & D funds, or 10% of all human expenditure.

Currently, the environmental problem comes first, which includes such unresolved issues as:

land desertification. Currently, deserts occupy about 9 million square meters. km. Every year, deserts "capture" more than 6 million hectares of land developed by man. A total of 30 million sq. km of inhabited territory, which is 20% of all land;

deforestation. Over the past 500 years, 2/3 of forests have been cleared by man, and 3/4 of forests have been destroyed in the entire history of mankind. Every year, 11 million hectares of forest land disappear from the face of our planet;

pollution of reservoirs, rivers, seas and oceans;

"the greenhouse effect;

ozone holes.

As a result of the combined action of all these factors, the productivity of land biomass has already decreased by 20%, and some animal species have become extinct. Mankind is forced to take measures to protect nature. Other global problems are no less acute.

Do they have solutions? The solution to these acute problems of the modern world may lie on the paths of scientific and technological progress, socio-political reforms and changes in the relationship between man and the environment (Table 23).

Table 23 Ways to solve global problems

Scientists under the auspices of the Club of Rome are engaged in the search for a conceptual solution to global problems. The second report (1974) of this non-governmental organization (“Humanity at the Crossroads”, authors M. Mesarevich and E. Pestel) spoke of the “organic growth” of the world economy and culture as a single organism, where each part plays its role and uses that share of common goods, which correspond to its role and ensure the further development of this part in the interests of the whole.

In 1977, the third report to the Club of Rome was published under the title "International Order Revisited". Its author J. Tinbergen saw a way out in the creation of global institutions that would control global socio-cultural and economic processes. According to the scientist, it is necessary to create a world treasury, a world food administration, a world administration for technological development and other institutions that would resemble ministries in their functions; on a conceptual level, such a system presupposes the existence of a world government.

In subsequent works by the French globalists M. Guernier "The Third World: Three Quarters of the World" (1980), B. Granotier "For a World Government" (1984) and others, the idea of ​​a global center that governs the world was further developed.

A more radical position in relation to global governance is taken by the international public movement of mondialists (International Registration of World Citizens, IRWC), which was created in 1949 and advocates the creation of a world state.

In 1989, the report of the UN International Commission on Environment and Development chaired by G. H. Brundtland "Our Common Future" created the concept of "sustainable development", which "satisfies the needs of the present, but does not jeopardize the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

In the 1990s the idea of ​​a world government is giving way to projects of global cooperation among states with the vital role of the UN. This concept was formulated in the report of the Commission on Global Governance and Cooperation of the United Nations "Our Global Neighborhood" (1996).

Nowadays, the concept of “global civil society” is gaining more and more importance. It means all the people of the Earth who share universal human values, who actively solve global problems, especially where national governments are not capable of doing this.