Humans are sleepwalking to the end of the Earth

The polar ice caps are melting!

Ice caps are making way for new spaces in the Antartica, for example a waterway in 2005 may not be there anymore in 1998. Since 1960, Anvers Island's glacial mantle has pulled its skirts in by about 30 ft annually.

This is the making of a global phenomena- Global warming.

Earth is unstoppably entering a heat wave that could last centuries, although we don't feel it, or think a few degrees change will not change our lives drastically.

Although computerized models do not show that the arctic climate is increasing more drastically than other areas in the world, since the 1940s, temperatures have increased 3-4degrees Farenheight on average annually, and in winter (shockingly) 7-4degress Farenheight in the southern hemisphere! In the winter, the rate of global warming is ten times global average.

If we think that it is nothing to worry about, we are wrong because the climate change predictions made 30 years ago are the problems we are facing now. In two years, 1 000 square miles of the Larsen Ice Shelf have collapsed and is beginning to disintegrate more & more.

It's not the work of one man alone but of the whole world. Deforestation in Indonesia can indirectly cause the ozone layer crisis. I think it is time we wake up so that we don't walk off the edge of the earth.

http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/pha0213l.jpg
http://www.palmerstation.com/history/6575/francais1.jpg
http://igloo.gsfc.nasa.gov
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/7/75/250px-Larsen_B_Collapse

Wealthier is healthier?

They say globalization is bad for the environment, but not according to this chart I got from the EPI website. The EPI measures environmental results at the natural level, gauging air and water quality, greenhouse emissions and land protection. It was designed to permit cross-national comparisons of the effect of government policies on the environment and includes both measures of current environmental performance and rates of improvement.

"Wealthier is healthier" says this chart, which shows the top globalizing countries in the world, with high environmental protection.

Is this true?

Of course, in order to have environmental sustainability, there has to be economic sustainability. Increasing wealth and affluence is required for environmental improvement to occur. Economic growth pollutes & damages the envionment initially, but will help the environment to recover with new wealth & technology.

Wealth changes consumer demand for environmental quality as big companies fight to maintain high environmental standards, like increasing concern for safer drinking water and cleaner environment like proper sewage disposal. The rise in financial resources means that people can create the technology to ensure environmental protection, and can even impose appropriate rules on polluters.

According to the WTO, the lack of environmental protection usually happens in countries with low income. Economic progress will reduce health problems like poverty and will enable countries to shift from entertaining immediate concerns to focusing on long-term sustainability.

This shows that economic growth can promote environmental sustanability in the long run.

However, I think that the question is, how long would we have to wait to reach that point of environmental utopia, a world where technology and the whales live hand in hand?

Although now statistics show that those rapidly globalizing countries maintain high environmental protection, there is still a possibility that globalization and environmental protection are not directly linked to eachother. In my opinion, it is the highly globalized countries that stand superior to the low-income countries, giving them the authority to bully the less-fortunate countries.


I do not believe that all large companies dispose of their wastes properly, because that would mean an economic suicide on their part. Instead, they dump them onto the smaller companies, powerless and unable to do anything but do the dirty work for the giants. This way, we maintain the notorious label associated with globalization, "The rich gets richer, the poor gets poorer".

The bigger corporations continue being big because they do not have to bother about their unwanted materials and economic crises, and at the same time put on a mask about their perfect environmental protection. Whereas the small companies clean up the mess of the big ones and get less global recognition.

Is this the reality behind the numbers and figures on the chart?


Bibliography
http://www.atkearney.com/shared_res/pdf/Measuring_Globalization_S.pdf

Increased wealth = environmental protection?

If you look at the long term effects of globalization, the growing industry and growing wealth will benefit environmental protection in the future.

But the hard reality: Profits go to global corporations.

Trade has evolved from just a simple transfer of goods to economic activity that directly serves the efficiency needs of the largest corporations by allowing expansion of corporate markets.
Organisations like the World Trade Organization (WTO), World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) are the instruments of globalization that control many nations, by creating rules and principles that require nations to conform to them, and eliminating any obstruction that restricts or limits trade.
Yes, unfortunately, we now live in a world where profit is placed before people and planet.

Let us take the WTO for example. WTO is the most powerful and most secretive international bodies, representing the rules-based regime of the policy of economic globalization. It operates on the principle that commercial interests should supersede all others, including environmental protection and human rights, which are viewed as obstacles that hinder trade activity.

With the abolishment of these obstacles is when harm is done.

World Trade
For example, US issued the Clean Air Act in 1970, to reduce air pollution and protect air quality, when high standards were set against polluting gasoline. However, the WTO ruled against the reformulated gasoline regulations of the US Clean Air Act because it was non-compliant to WTO principles.

The WTO also favours machinery and chemical intensive global farming methods to primitive methods. Caribbean bananas are usually grown on small farms. However, in 1997, the WTO made a decision that meant that local producers would have to compete with large businesses like Chiquita, one of the major multinatonal corporations. Environmental, labour and health standards fall to a low as laws are designed so that it doesn't obstruct the nations' trade and economy.

For example, in 1998, the Canadian government banned the gasoline additive, MMT, a manganese compound, which when burned in automobile engines, results in manganese air pollution. Excess amounts of airborne manganese are toxic when breathed in. However, this was soon lifted when the North American Free Trade Agreement felt that the ban was not necessary and only caused losses to the MMT companies.

Global transport
In a global economy, countries do not have to worry about getting their resources because with the emphasis on export-oriented production and increased transport and shipping methods, everything is easily and readily available from other countries.

Of course, this also has its negative environmental effect.

Firstly, in order for the global transport system to be efficient, it requires global infrastructure like airports, oilfields, railways and highways. Most of these require alot of space, so natural habitats like forests and wilderness are exploited to make way for these developments. This, in turn, results in the destruction of the natural ecosystem of the habitat.

It is estimated that the increase in global transport is the largest contributor to climate change. For example, ocean shipping (which carries up to 80% of the world's goods) and air transport contribute to pollution.

The increase in global transport also means the increase in spread of organisms. Health crises increases as rats/bacteria/mosquitoes/exotic seeds travel around the world thanks to the efficieny of global transport. This is of course, inevitable if global transport and trade is to be continued.

Industrial agriculture
Industrial agriculture is an efficient way of food production. However, it contributes to air, water and soil pollution as chemical pesticides and machinery destroy the soil and toxify rivers. The UN has reported that 1 billion people on Earth lack access to drinking water. Despite the growing population of the Earth, water consumption rate is increasing to be higher than half the population. Only 15% of the global fresh water supply is used by human, and 65% is used for industrial agriculture.

And how is the lack of access to drinking water combated?

Instead of conserving, exploitation rights are sold to corporations; most of the water go to industrial users, rather than rural users.

Agribusiness tends to eliminate small farms and farmers, as small farms are merged into large corporate farms. This also gives rise to the problem of unemployment as small farmers are left with limited jobs. This monoculture also results in the loss of crop diversity; it has been reported that the world has already lost up to 75% of crop diversity.

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After examining the detrimental effects globalization can have on our environment, many will argue that it is inevitable. Yes, it is inevitable now, because we cannot possibly throw away all our machines and factories and turn back into rural farmers milking cow. However, I think that things could have been different if the world hadn't turned to this face of globalization just yet.

But then, of course, there are the long term effects which will hopefully show us some significant changes.
Only time wil tell.

Bibliography
http://www.fdimagazine.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/624/The_evolution_of_trade.html
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/wto/OpposeWTO.html
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/wto/
http://www.citizen.org/trade/wto/Dispute/articles.cfm?ID=5499
http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/1998/07/20/mmt980720c.html
http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Bananas.asp
http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2005&m=August&x=20050811133827ASrelliM0.6663172
http://home.ica.net/~fresch/ndp/ethylmmt.htm
Globalization - Opposing Viewpoints, published by Greenhaven Press

Environmental protection = Barrier to trade?

This picture that I drew shows that environmental protection can be seen as a barrier to trade. It's a sacrifice for us - the environment or wealth/happiness?
Some believe that trade will slowly lead to environmental protection in the future, because with globalization and the increase in technology, we can come up with new ways to save the surroundings.

The question is: By then, would it be too late?

We all share one environment

Yes, one thing that is definitely global is the environment. We all share one environment and depend on it for survival. We also depend on eachother's ability to protect the environment, because whatever happens at one place will affect another.

In the world, though there may be disasters that strike one region, the impact may be large enough to affect the rest of the globe. An example is the Mount Pinatubo eruption that occurred in the Philippines in June, 1991. Within the nine hours of eruption, hundreds were killed & thousands were forced to evacuate from heir homes. What appears to be more devastating is that the millions of tons (15 to 30 million tons) of sulphur dioxide discharged into the atmosphere, as a result of the eruption, caused a decrease in temperature worldwide for the next two years. In 1992/1993, the temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere was reduced 0.5 to 0.6°C and the entire planet was cooled 0.4 to 0.5°C, and at maximum, 0.73°C.

Global effects include floods that occurred in 1993 along the Mississippi River and drought in the Sahel region of Africa. In 1992, the USA experienced its third coldest & wettest summer in 77 years. Remarkable sunrises & sunsets were seen around the globe following the eruption, due to the blocking of the sun by the discharge ejected into the atmosphere. It has been claimed that the impact of the eruption is even greater than that of El Nino.

The World's Deadliest Eruption

Another event that brought great impact on the world is the Mount Tambora eruption in April 1815 in East Java, also known as the most disastrous volcanic eruption since the 1700s. The eruptions occurred on a span of a few days, and the effects were devastating. Hot pyroclastic flows cascaded down the mountain, wiping out the whole village of Tambora. The veil of ash in the atmosphere spread to West Java and South Sulawesi just the day after. Nitrous odour filled the air, accompanied by tephra-tinged rain that fell mercilessly on neighbouring regions. Fine ash particles stayed in the atmosphere for months and with the help from longitudinal winds, the particles were spread around the globe, causing an optical phenomena. The eruption released sulphur into the atmosphere, contributing to global climate anomaly, leading to climate change. For example, it led to the Year Without Summer (1816) -- the coldest year in the Northern Hemisphere, where Summer was cold and Winter was stormy. Extreme cold temperatures ruined crops, for example, in North America. Climate anomaly caused a Typhus Epidemic in Southeast Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. Much livestock died in New England during Winter in 1816-1817. Cold weather and heavy rain also resulted in failed harvest in the British Isles, causing famine, also known as the worst famine of the 19th century in European cities. In Germany, this was the crisis and food prices rose sharply.

Isn't it amazing how an event so small can leave such a major impact on other countries, miles and miles away?
We owe it all to globalisation & the interdependency of everyone on the globe.

I will go into further detail about globalisation itself & its direct effects on Earth during my next post. In the meantime, Goodbye :)

Bibliography:
http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa030901a.htm
http://www.beringia.com/climate/images/volcanoes-pinatubu.jpg
http://www.search.com/reference/Mount_Tambora