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GLOBAL SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY AND WORLD GOVERNMENT:
REQUIREMENTS FOR WORLD PEACE
Fernando Alcoforado*
The world faces two major threats. One of them, of an economic nature, concerns the
general crisis of the world capitalist system that tends to lead the global economy to
depression with the failure of governments, business bankruptcies, mass unemployment
and even a new world conflagration. Another threat, environmental, is represented by
the uncontrolled increase of the planetary population, the depletion of the planet's
natural resources, the scarcity of water, the overcrowded cities and the catastrophic
global climate change during the twenty-first century that tends to have serious
repercussions on economic activities and increased social problems of humanity with
the generation of internal and international conflicts.
About the threat of an economic nature, it can be said that the current crisis is worse
than that of 1929-1933, because it is absolutely global. The international financial
system no longer works. According to Hobsbawm, to be a shift towards a new world
economy, it will take much time. The global economic crisis which was installed in
1929 only ended with the outbreak of World War 2. Today, humanity will have to face
a new world conflagration to save the world capitalist system? The current depression
can lead, according to Hobsbawm, a new world system. We have to redesign everything
into the future (HOBSBAWM, Eric. En la tercera crisis. Interview Eric J. Hobsbawm.
Magazine "El Viejo Topo" available on the website <www.elviejotopo.com>, 2009).
About the threat of an environmental nature, one of its fundamental problems
concerning the exhaustion of natural resources of the planet that resulted from the
excessive growth of the world population that increased, from 1800 to 2010, seven
times (from 1 billion to 7 billion inhabitants) and from the exponential growth of world
GDP that grew 112 times from 1750 to 2010. If the escalating demand for natural
resources continues at the current pace in 2030, with a global population estimated at
8.3 billion people, it will need two Earths to satisfy it. One indisputable fact is that
mankind has consumed more natural resources than the planet can replenish.
The current rate of consumption of the planet's natural resources is a threat to the future
prosperity of mankind. Over the past 45 years, global demand for natural resources has
doubled, because of rising living standards in rich and emerging countries and the
increasing world population. Today humanity uses 50% of the world's fresh water. In 40
years will use 80%. The geographical distribution of freshwater is uneven. Currently
one third of the world population lives in regions where it is scarce. Water scarcity can
be a major source of conflict in the twenty-first century. Their scarcity in several
countries, mainly in Africa and the Middle East, could be the main cause of economic
and even military conflicts [VEJA.COM. Cai do Céu, mas pode faltar (Falls from
Heaven, but may lack). Available on website <http://veja
.abril.com.br/300108/p_086.shtml>].
The competition for mineral resources such as oil is currently the largest potential
source of global conflicts. The growth in demand for oil will outstrip supply in 2020 or
2025 overall, pointing out that the world is experiencing "the twilight of the oil," that is,
a time of transition between abundance and scarcity. The dispute over mineral
resources, particularly by oil that remains, will lead to a permanent state of war,
characterized by the presence of major powers in their regions [BRAFMAN, Luciana.

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Disputa por petróleo leva a estado de guerra permanente (Dispute for oil leads to a
state of permanent war). Available on web site
<http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/fsp/brasil/fc1710200520.htm>].
Another major problem affecting the future of humanity relates to overcrowded cities,
which became the main habitat of mankind. For the first time in human history, more
than half of the population is living in cities. This number, 3.3 billion people, should
surpass the 5 billion in 2030. In the early twentieth century the urban population did not
exceed 220 million people. Much of the global environmental problems originated in
cities which make it difficult to achieve sustainability at the global level without making
them sustainable [BEAUJEU-GARNIER. J. Geografia Urbana (Urban Geography).
Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 1980].
The increasing expansion of urban areas has contributed to the growth of negative
environmental impacts. It should be noted that 70% of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
are expelled from the urban concentrations, and so the discussion of models of
sustainable cities is a central theme to combat climate change. In 2010, the urban
activity was responsible for the issuance of 25 billion metric tons of CO2 in the
atmosphere, compared to 15 billion in 1990. If there are no changes in these patterns,
this rate will be 36.5 billion in 2030.
Another huge problem for humanity relates to global climate change that will occur as a
result of global warming resulting from the greenhouse effect caused by the retention of
heat in the lower atmosphere of the Earth caused by the concentration of gases of
various kinds. It is due to this natural phenomenon, the greenhouse effect, which have
an average temperature of the Earth in the range of 15 º C. If nothing is done by 2030 to
reverse global warming, the average temperature of the Earth should evolve from 15 º C
to 19 º C with its disastrous consequences of the climatic point of view as the melting of
the poles and ridges, rising sea levels and multiplication of hurricanes, among others.
With the current development model there is no way to overcome the global economic
crisis that tends to bring the world to a new world conflagration, and prevent
degradation of the planet's environment that tends to generate internal and international
conflicts. To overcome this problem, it is necessary to adopt a new economic model that
reconciles the demands of development with the environment. The two threats,
economic and environmental, tend to produce a real crisis of humanity that makes it
becomes imperative to build around the planet a new global sustainable society different
from today society where all countries act interdependently and rationally with common
objectives on a global scale without which it may be put into question the survival of
humans and life on Earth.
For all these reasons it becomes imperative to implement a sustainable society on a
global scale that is one that meets the needs of the present generation without
diminishing the chances of future generations to meet them and thus contribute to build
world peace. How to build a sustainable global society? The new Global Sustainable
Society can be born based on pressure from the international community for their urgent
necessity, or else come after disasters that may occur in environments economic, social
and ecological world and the wars in cascade that may grow in the future, if nothing is
done.
The new Global Sustainable Society should be able to regulate the world economy and
international relations based on a Social Contract Planetarium to promote global

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economic prosperity based on the model of sustainable development for the benefit of
all human beings. The Social Contract Planetarium should result from the will of the
UN General Assembly, the new World Parliament, which would elect the World
Government representing the will of all peoples of the world. With a world government,
it will be possible to end the war and the bloodshed that has characterized the history of
mankind throughout history. In these circumstances, all countries of the world have
shared their sovereignty among themselves through parliament and government
worldwide.
* Alcoforado, Fernando, engineer and doctor of Territorial Planning and Regional Development from the
University of Barcelona, a university professor and consultant in strategic planning, business planning,
regional planning and planning of energy systems, is the author of Globalização (Editora Nobel, São
Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo,
1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do
desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Barcelona,
http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel,
São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era
Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social
Development-The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Muller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG,
Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (P&A Gráfica e Editora,
Salvador, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global
(Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011) and Os Fatores Condicionantes do
Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), among others.