Week 8- Globalisation essay draft 1

Globalisation can be defined as the increasing cross-border interaction and integration of various aspects of human activity. Based on this view of globalisation, identify one problematic area of the phenomenon and discuss its influence on contemporary society. What actual or possible means are there to ameliorate (improve) the issue highlighted?

In our modernized 21^st century world, globalization has played a vital role in bringing it to the current technologically advanced state.  Globalization has increased worldwide interactions, and interweaved several aspects of human activity, improving our lives greatly. Trading and the production of goods have increased greatly over these years. However, this very same subject has brought about much controversy on its effects it has caused. Governance has developed too slowly and lagged greatly behind globalization. This resulted in a trail of never-ending problems to our world. Globalization has deteriorated our fragile world greatly environmentally. A major threat of global warming persists and endangers life form on Earth. Global warming is predominantly caused by greenhouse gases, and this arises from two factors, air pollution to the environment, as well destruction and removal of trees that absorb greenhouse gases, via forest fires. Measures such as the Kyoto Protocol and cloud seeding have been taken to counteract these problems respectively. However, these remedies were proven insufficient due to the drawbacks present at hand.

Globalisation has resulted in an increased trade and production of goods worldwide, and thus a large scale industrialization, as well as a significant increase in the number of vehicles present on the roads. Air pollution of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide arises. A build up of these gases within our stratosphere causes heat to be trapped within the ozone layer, reflecting heat back to Earth and causing a global increase in our world’s temperature, endangering every life form present.  A solution to this was the Kyoto Protocol agreement that was negotiated in December 1997 and activated in February 2005. The objective of it was for the included industrialized countries such as Japan, the United States and the European Union to lower overall emissions from six greenhouse gases by 2010. However, this solution was highly ineffective. Chanda (2008) pointed out that  the US  “balked at ratifying it, calling it unnecessary and expensive.” (p.124) The US’ refusal to adhere and cooperate has nullified the effects of the agreement. This is because, the US, being one of the world’s largest industrialized countries, contributed the most to the world’s global greenhouse gases emission. Unless the US contributes to the agreement, the pollution problem remains largely at hand as even with the combined actions taken by the other countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it  would be insufficient to generate a significant impact on the reduction. An alternative solution would be instead of reducing the quantity of industrialization in the US, but to switch to improved quality of industrialization instead. This can be done by the usage of alternative cleaner energy sources which are found naturally, instead of burning coal and fossil fuels to power factories. These alternative energy sources can include solar energy, wind energy, as well as geothermal energy. Solar energy can be freely obtained through the usage and installation of solar panels to absorb heat from the Sun. Wind energy involves usage of wind turbines to capture energy by the rotational motion of the turbines. Geothermal energy can be obtained by capturing heat energy found from the Earth’s core. The US government needs to cooperate, and provide incentive for industry companies to switch to the alternative cleaner energies. This can be done by issuing government grants to allow them to establish the devices required. In conclusion, there is much room for actions to be taken by the US government in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to alleviate the pollution problem and global warming.

 

Globalisation has also led to the uncontrollable destruction and removal of trees that absorb greenhouse gases, via forest fires. The intense burning results in an extremely large amount of carbon dioxide and dust irritants being produced. This happens in Indonesia in particular, where forest fires occur on a large scale. The root of the problem arises from both the naturally dry season, as well as the traditional “slash and burn” culture of traditional Indonesian farmers and companies. These offenders burn the forest illegally in order to achieve fertile land for production of crops to trade internationally. The recent dry season in July this year escalated the problem greatly, pushing Pollution Standard Index (PSI) levels to well over 400. The Indonesian government collaborated with countries like Singapore in order to identify the hotspots via satellites, in an attempt to minimise the impact via inducing rain though the usage of silver iodide crystals in cloud seeding. However, this was insufficient as the root cause of the problem still largely remained, due to lack of proper governance. The forested areas were too large for the government to be able to nab everyone who burns the forest. In addition, corrupt government officials were bribed at times, allowing the companies to continue burning the forests in return. Furthermore, cloud seeding had a great negative impact to the environment as it is not known to cause any serious long term adverse effects on life forms. Lastly, the increased rainfall from cloud seeding might cause flooding (Cato, 2011). A plausible solution which could be implemented by the Indonesian government would be to increase the fines for illegal forest burning greatly. It can provide incentives for local farmers to not burn the land, by giving them bonuses for not burning the forests. In addition, it can also provide them with the equipment to clear the land via a less environment-damaging method, and set quotas for the maximum amount of trees cleared yearly. Lastly, the Indonesian government can also have a re-election of the government board so as to resolve the problem of corrupt government officials. With less forest fires ongoing, there would be a reduced need for cloud seeding and the negative impact caused by it would be reduced. In conclusion, there is also much room for actions to be taken by the Indonesian government to reduce forest fires to alleviate the problem of haze and global warming.

All in all, the problem of global warming remains at large, and threatens our future world greatly if nothing is done about it. There is much that can be done by governments in solving both the Industrial pollution, as well as the forest fire problems.  Imagine the consequences when our future world is 5 degrees hotter, massive floods due to icecaps melting, and extinction of several animal species that are unable to survive at an increased temperature.  Our next generation would not live to see and know what a white tiger is.

Reference List

Nayan Chanda (2008). Runaway Globalization Without Governance

Jeremy Cato, 2011, Pros & Cons of Cloud Seeding  eHow. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/info_8493220_pros-cons-cloud-seeding.html