Third Millennium for Humanity?: The Search for Paths of Sustainable Development

An increasing world population with an ever greater need and greed strains the world's finite resources to exhaustion: Atmosphere, water, soil and genetic resources are being used and destroyed at an alarming pace. The Forum Belem I conference succeeded in bringing together a group of international administrators, businessmen, policy makers and scientists to identify emerging concepts that combine resource use with conservation and replace wasteful and destructive consumption with the use of renewable materials and non-destructive technologies. Intelligent changes in technological processes together with a transformation of political, social and institutional thinking are proposed, indicating paths toward sustainable development. A vision is given of incipient approaches toward world sustainability allowing mankind to live and prosper throughout a third millennium.