Humanity at the crossroads: The globalization of environmental crisis

As described in this special issue, the world is facing a series of environmental crises that reach into every corner of the globe. This is primarily due to the unprecedented growth of the human population and the world economy over the past 60 years. In the 50 years between 1950 and 2000 the world economy grew 2.5 times in terms of GDP. This was mostly driven by the exceptional population growth pushing humanity’s number from 2.5 billion in 1950 to over 6 billion in 2000 (McNeill, 2000, pp. 6–8). The environmental, social and economic challenges that this poses are all interconnected and can not be treated separately. To help to understand the profound changes that are affecting the global environment, the authors in this special issue of Globalizations provide a rich palette of topics addressing the variety of environmental crises now facing humanity.

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