Abstrakt
The human-induced deterioration of environmental conditions has become one of the most important challenges humanity have ever faced. The scope of potential ecological crisis might have significant consequences for the society and its ability to provide decent life for all.
It is argued in this paper that international solidarity cannot be achieved without tackling environmental degradation. In consequence the global environmental justice has to be integral part of any progressive concept of international solidarity.
In doing so, we have to uncover the roots of these processes which decrease the global ecosystems' capacity to support life. It is the aim of this paper to contribute to this ongoing debate.
Inspired primarily by the work of Karl Polanyi it explores the causal relationship between the practices inherent to the modern global economy on the one hand and the processes of environmental degradation and their social consequences on the other. Moreover, it is suggested that the environmental contradictions within the modern capitalist economy provide new opportunities for progressive forces to muster novel, global social movement with the ultimate aim of re-embedding transnational economic practices into social and environmental systems.