ABSTRACT
The theory of reflexive modernisation differentiates between the first and the second modernity. It is founded on fossil-fuel-driven economic growth and linear technological progress, which are believed to lead to wealth for the majority of the population, to solve most of its problems, and even to control and repair any self-created damage. In 1992 'sustainability' was defined for the first time by the United Nations. It was conceived as being composed of environmental, social, and economic pillars. That the transgression of the climate change boundary has been largely provoked by human civilisation in the industrialised countries, is no longer a sheer assumption of hard-core environmentalists but has become a mainstream scientific fact. System theory directs the attention to economic growth's detrimental externalities undermining the Earth's carrying capacity. Whether humankind manages to operate within the planetary boundaries depends on its capacity to understand what is at stake and its willingness to change the way the economic and political systems work.
