ABSTRACT
This chapter concludes Empires of Sustainability. The first section sets out how the concept of imperialism is being used in public debate around the environmental crisis. In this context, the second section looks back over recent decades and explains how imperialisms of different kinds accelerated our world towards the crisis as they built the empire of world market globalisation. The third section then focuses on the greening of imperialisms today and how globalisation is evolving through solutions and responses to the crisis, even as its own legitimacy is being questioned. On this basis and looking to the future, a model of Empires of Sustainability is proposed. The fourth and fifth sections begin to develop an alternative to Empires of Sustainability first by explaining why social along different lines is possible and second by emphasising the importance of empowering margins to solve environmental problems. Finally, the sixth section elaborates a vision of a better alternative society. This emphasises building more harmonious people–planet relations leading to a more diverse World of Caring Places.
