W sprawie polityki dla zrównoważonego rozwoju

Abstract

Launched in the early 1960s, the global debate on ecological issues involves attempts both to adequately define and to solve them. The former aim at a correct diagnosis of the current ecological threats to humanity and the latter at proposing appropriate ecological strategies that would take into account mankind’s aspirations of civilization while ensuring stable and sustained growth. From the beginning, the debate had palpable political overtones manifested in the political concepts of development for particular countries, regions, and continents, and also for humanity as a whole. Within the debate, the broadly conceived postulate of partnership between man and his natural environment was adopted as the basis for proposing and implementing a program of global partnership of economy and ecology, or in other words as a political aspiration of “reconciling the inseparable demands of a healthy environment and a healthy economy for all the nations of the world.” Many attempts to manage this task include the project of “ecological capitalism” put forward for discussion by scholars and politicians, to which the present study pays special attention. The proponents of this program thus aim to reaffirm the credibility of politics, which should be understood not only as the art of achieving and wielding power, but also as the art of safeguarding human existence in a world under threat.