Globalization and Sustainable Development

Nowadays, the problems of globalization and sustainable development have been discussed in a vast scientific literature (the list of references beginning on p. 271 illustrates only a small number of existing publications). Even more numerous are the concerns raised in the mass media. However, discussions of such problems contain many contradictions and disagreements. First of all, globalization and sustainable development (SD) problems are treated, as a rule, as independent and separate. Nevertheless, the priority of the globalization problem and subordinate importance of SD problems as one of the most important aspects of globalization processes raises few doubts.

The interaction between abiotic factors and living organisms in the biosphere drives the continuous cycle of matter in nature. Different forms of living organisms absorb substances that are essential for their growth and the sustaining of life. Under this mechanism the products of metabolism and other complex mineral and organic compounds of chemical elements are discharged in the environment in the form of unassimilated food or dead biomass. As a result the stable sequence of global biogeochemical cycles underpinned biosphere evolution. Their disturbance within the second part of the 20th century posed humankind many principal questions related with unforeseen climate change due to the greenhouse effect, decrease in biodiversity, progressive desertification, etc. In reality, questions about what will happen to the Earth’s climate and the prospects for ozone layer decrease remain unresolved in spite of enormous amounts of money spent on their study (Kondratyev and Varotsos, 2001a, b; Varotsos, 2002, 2005). At present it is clear that answers to these and other questions related to nature protection depend on finding a means of creating an effective global monitoring system based on the global model of the nature/society system (GMNSS). Simulation of the biogeochemical cycles of basic chemical elements is a fundamental part of the GMNSS (Kondratyev et al., 2002; Zhu and Anderson, 2002). Exactly such an approach gives us the possibility to optimize the anthropogenic fluxes of pollutants and to determine acceptable emissions of carbon, chlorine, sulfur, fluorine, methane, and other chemical elements to the environment, when finally the ideology behind the Kyoto Protocol becomes a reality, as well as to regulate questions related with the commerce of quotas for greenhouse gas emissions (Kalb et al., 2004; Dalby, 2002; Fogg and Sangster, 2003; Kasimov et al., 2004; Kondratyev, 2005a).

On a planetary scale, all living beings in the biosphere are closely interconnected by the ways in which the mechanisms that regulate energy fluxes and cycles of substances are organized: a single biocybernetic system of the highest rank. Within the continents and oceans—the structural units making up the biosphere—processes of energy and substance transformation take place automatically. Land biogeocenoses are characterized by distributed productivity, a function in many territories that is under the control of humans and therefore depends on development of scientific-technical progress. The World Ocean now provides about 1 % of resources consumed by humankind and practically remains an element of the biosphere not under human control. This low level is connected with the insufficiently studied production processes in the oceans.

At present, many countries do not have an information system that would provide information support for environmental studies. Studies of natural-anthropogenic systems undertaken by different national and international organizations and departments are uncoordinated and the important results obtained are not always available for the mass user. Moreover, there are no single standards for presentation and storage of ecological information or for development of the technology to process it. Therefore, most experts dealing with environmental problems have scant access to new databases, and in most cases ecological information remains uncoordinated or unavailable. As a result of this lack of coordination, many scientists have no access to international ecological information services.