PARADOXES AND PERSPECTIVES OF SUSTAINABILITY IN THE THIRD MILLENNIUM

Abstract

Possibly as a result of the threatening and destructive effects that the two world wars brought to the world, in the second half of the 20th century, concern about planetary problems became more acute. And, in this wake, one of the emerging phenomena was the proliferation of supranational organizations and institutions focused on a concern with international issues, especially those whose impacts acquired a global scope. The cold war, competition for the hegemony of imperialist nations such as the USA and the Soviet Union, promoted a race for protagonism in the military, technological and industrial areas, advancing in an unprecedented and excessive manner the exploration of environmental resources. In search of two results at any cost, without the intention of optimizing profits, turns to the purpose of neoliberal capitalism anchored in multinational corporations, which now becomes preponderant in global terms. And if it includes the exhaustion of two natural resources, it is conditioned for greater profits. In this scenario, despite two supranational governments and institutions, it is articulated in the sense of promoting sustainable development, and periodic events will be organized to defend the environment, the initiatives implemented seem more palliative in the face of the voracity of two markets. How, then, to effectively confront this paradox? Are there effective prospects for overtaking it? The reflection brought here aims to address these issues and the implications inherent to them, starting from a discursive theoretical basis of Habermasian inspiration to analyze the phenomenon of sustainability on planetary level, from a democratic and civic perspective (cosmopolitan and active).