In the modernized 21st
century, globalization has played a vital role in bringing it to a current
technologically advanced state. Globalization
increased worldwide interactions, and interweaved several aspects of human
activity, improving lives greatly. Trading and the production of goods have
increased greatly over these years. However, this very same subject has caused
much controversy regarding the effects it has caused. Governance has developed
too slowly and has fallen greatly behind globalization. This results in a trail
of never-ending problems to the world. Globalization has deteriorated the fragile
world greatly environmentally. A major threat of global warming persists and
endangers life forms on Earth. Global warming is predominantly caused by greenhouse
gases, and this arises from two factors, air pollution to the environment, as
well as deforestation due to forest fires. Measures such as the Kyoto Protocol
and cloud seeding have been taken to counteract these problems. However, these
remedies have been proven insufficient due to the drawbacks.
Globalization has resulted in
increased trade and goods production
worldwide, and thus large scale industrialization, as well as a significant
increase in the number of vehicles present on the roads. This resulted in air
pollution from greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide. A
build up of these gases within the stratosphere trapped heat within the ozone layer
and reflected it back to Earth, causing a global increase in the 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 was for the included industrialized countries such as Japan, the
United States and the European Union members to lower overall emissions from
six greenhouse gases by 2010. However, this solution was highly ineffective. Nayan
(2008) stated that the US “balked at ratifying it, calling it
unnecessary and expensive.” (p.124) The US’s 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, contributes the most to the
world’s global greenhouse gases emission. Unless the US contributes to the
agreement, the pollution problem remains significant, as even with the combined
actions taken by the other countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it
would be insufficient to generate a significant reduction. An alternative
solution would be to switch to cleaner fuels, rather than reducing the quantity
of industrialization in the US. 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 from the Earth’s core. The US government
needs to cooperate, and provide incentive for industries 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 more
actions that can 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 of trees via forest fires. Having less trees mean
less absorption of greenhouse gases. The intense burning results in an
extremely large amount of carbon dioxide and dust irritants being produced.
This happens particularly in Indonesia, 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 forests 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
the lack of proper governance. The forested areas were too large for the
government to be able to arrest everyone who burns the forest. In addition,
corrupt government officials were bribed at times, allowing the companies to
continue burning the forests. 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 (Cato, 2011). Lastly, the increased rainfall from
cloud seeding might cause flooding (Cato, 2011). A plausible solution which can
be implemented by the Indonesian government will be to increase the fines
greatly for illegal forest burning. This would deter offenders from
intentionally burning the forests, due to fear of the harsher penalty. Also, it
can provide incentives for local farmers to not burn the forests, by giving
them bonuses for not burning them. 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. Furthermore, the
Indonesian government can also have a new election of the government personnel
so as to resolve the problem of corrupt government officials. With less forest
fires, there would be a reduced need for cloud seeding and the negative impact
caused by it would be reduced. In conclusion, there is much more actions that
can 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 significant, 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, there are massive floods due to icecaps melting, and there
would be 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, C. (2008). Runaway
Globalization Without Governance
Jeremy C. (2011). Pros & Cons
of Cloud Seeding eHow. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/info_8493220_pros-cons-cloud-seeding.html
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