Читать книгу Sociology - Anthony Giddens - Страница 268

Look again at the five social and institutional structures that constitute an ecologically modernist approach to environmental problems. List them in order of current progress – which structure has been transformed the most and which the least? What obstacles are harder to overcome in transforming social structures in environmentally sensitive directions?

Even the strongest advocates of ecological modernization accept that rescuing the global environment will require changes in the levels of social inequality that currently exist. Poverty is a prime contributor to practices that lead to environmental damage, and people living in conditions of economic hardship have no choice but to make maximum use of the local resources available to them. What will be needed are ‘just sustainabilities’ (Agyeman et al. 2003; Smith and Pangsapa 2008). Achieving ecological sustainability demands that concerted international efforts are made to tackle global inequalities as a necessary condition for environmental protection.