Challenge future - Technical progress and globalization

Abstract

Central elements of the challenges of the future are the population, supply and disposal trap, the question of how the increasing world population will be supplied with long-lasting and effective sources of energy, raw materials and food? How do we deal with the problems of greenhouse effect, ozone hole, forest dieback, ground erosion, desertification and other environmental threats? Driven by the dynamics of the technical progress the world is in the midst of experiencing the transition from an industrial to an information society. The process of globalization is intrinsically tied to the information society and plays a vital role in the path to a new, digital development of the world. Therefore, new challenges have been added to the traditional ecological challenges at the beginning of the 21st century, which the world community must react swiftly to. © 2008 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.