Abstract

Marx argued, we recall that capitalist society suffered from in-built contradictions, which would lead to its demise in time. Today, the globe faces another major kind of contradiction: rapid economic development against ecological sustainability. The relationships between economic growth and environmental sustainability have been much debated: Can they be combined to give both prosperity and environmental protection?  On the micro level, many projects show that this is indeed possible. But on the macro level, global emissions of greenhouse gases follow the advancement of country affluence closely. The link is the constantly increasing need for more energy, provided by fossil fuels.

Key words: Ecological sustainability, greenhouse gases, GDP total and per capita, energy consumption, economic growth versus environment sustainability: micro versus macro aspects.