Abstract
The socio-economical pattern of development in the industrialized countries cannot be established globally or for long periods because of resource-economy reasons and the functional, quantitative limitations of the ecological systems. For the industrialized as well as the developing countries arises therefore the necessity to find new paths into the future. Here the concept of "Sustainable Development" comes into focus. Sustainable development furthers socio-economical development, allows an establishment of permanent prosperity, and preserves its basis, namely our ecological life base, by preventing its exploitation and destruction. The consequently necessary reduction of emissions and reduced exploitation of ecological resources is intended to be achieved mainly by a scientifically and technically induced increase of the resource- and energy-productivity as well as by stabilizing the population. The ethical incorporation of these problems is urgently needed but quite challenging, insofar as the significant ethical questions are intertwined into complex dynamics of the social and ecological systems.