Conceptualizing the global environmental challenges of our time: Technological and sociocultural aspects

Objectives. Nowadays, the global environmental agenda has become a significant factor in world politics and international relations. Along with climate change, growing demographic and technological pressures on the environment, the degradation of ecosystems, and the depletion of nonrenewable natural resources represent a single set of environmental challenges for humanity as a whole, which will remain relevant throughout the 21st century. The objective of this article is to consider the technological and sociocultural aspects of modern global environmental challenges in terms of their interconnectedness.

Methods. The article is based on the systems history method and the cycles and waves approach to studying global dynamics.

Results. Considering the main features of humanity’s interaction with the environment, the factors and nature of changes in the anthropogenic burden are analyzed to reveal the stages according to which environmentalism is shaped as part of the global political agenda. Based on a comparison of the climatic picture of the past and modernity, priorities for steering the environmental agenda as a key component of the emerging world system are identified.

Conclusions. The overall anthropogenic impact on the environment is determined by a number of sociocultural, economic and technological factors. Although the degree of this impact has been increasing throughout history, climate change as such does not have a pronounced anthropogenic nature, being driven mainly by solar and geophysical cycles. Meanwhile, the very fact that climate change has become a key element of the global environmental agenda often leads to imposing regulatory requirements and technological standards that slow down the pace of industrialization and modernization in developing countries. In the context of the emerging world system architecture, it becomes possible to rethink the environmental agenda and repurpose it to take account of the priorities of climate forecasting and adaptation to ensure environmental safety while developing environmentally appropriate nature-similar technologies.

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