Lanz Lacandalo Global Environment Politics

PS4A Prof. Eric Daniel De Torres

THINKPIECE
Human behavior is a driving factor in influencing the geopolitics of the world,
which all have the nature of lusting for power and maintaining their material trophies
(Lai, N; 2018). And as the 15th century entered, this type of geopolitical behavior,
colonialism, we're strived mainly by the monarchial West and east countries, which is
ongoing to this day. Many are motivated to preserve their cultural identity that is shared
only in the cultural sphere. There are several motivations for colonization to arise as a
world order. Be it to hunger themselves by grabbing resources to strengthen their grip,
preserving their power by conquering another sovereign state to amass natural
resources for producing essential goods and other products they sell, and their
agricultural ability to redistribute them. Powerful nations have the technological means
to make them in large quantities. But the industrial revolution that brought forth
competition of mass-producing products for the benefit of their economies and power
projection, which still prevails to this day, has come with a cost.

Due to Co2 emissions brought by factories, leaders who have ambitions to

alleviate the people's lives through urban development and provide space are using
more landmass, which leads to deforestation. It has led us to pay the price for our
progress as humans. Our actions have created a Great wound on the Earth; now, in the
21st century, karma has come to us. Examples are the 2020 Australian forest fires, the
unclean water systems in Africa, and the heat waves are just some of I can mention
how Earth is taking revenge on humanity by slowly killing us. We do have some actions
by World Governments implementing laws and multilateral agreements like the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a sub-body of the United Nations
that exists to do a comprehensive on climate change. But despite these actions, is the
world's superpowers doing enough? Do the world's superpowers' systematic
exploitation of the environment change if we apply the framework of GPT in addressing
the environmental problems we face as humans?
This paper will discuss the following:
 Western Colonization
 The rise of China
 Is Green Political Theory formidable framework?

WESTERN COLONIZATION
As their political power grew and expanded, competition became prevalent
between the colonial powers. Their capabilities of developing west and eastward are
now ripe, attributed to the immense funding of monarchies to explore the New World
like Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan. The accumulation of resources
tested their rivalries by finding new trade routes and evolving from the ancient method
of slow land routes. Starting from the 15th to the 19th century, the predominant empires
that had a quest for grabbing more spices and other essential resources came from the
West—mainly Spain, Portugal, and the most dominant empire which controlled 90% of
the world's countries during its prime (Estes; 2012), Great Britain.

During its peak, the British Empire controlled large swathes of Europe, Africa,
and Asia. They have an extensive network of trade routes for the transportation of
essential industrial and agricultural needs. But despite its glorious success in flourishing
its economy and amassing the largest territory in history, they've utilized savage tools.
Even if the United States was infamous for the enslaved Black people they used to
cultivate the cotton industry, the British empire relied on slavery at a massive global
scale. The two we’re notorious for environmentally degrade the landscape from the
lands they’ve occupied. India was a victim of the environmental degradation labeling
many of the forests as useless for cultivating wealth. A signature act of vacuuming the
environment for profit was mastered by the Empire. The boom of the economy and
speedy production of the people attributed to the mercantile economic system in which
governments have absolute control in managing the economy. Since it vacuumed
resources, it needed many infrastructures to produce products in a speedy pace. But
factories exhume toxic chemicals in the air. Air toxicity was on the rise leading to
respiratory related sicknesses.

RISE OF THE EAST (CHINA)

Historically, China has been the most exploited country in Asia. Many European powers
had abused the Chinese to acquire the unique resources they had at their disposal.

In 1945, after World War 2, a civil war ensued Between the KMT, headed by Chiang
Kai-Shek, and the People's Liberation Army, headed by Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong was
a prominent leader in the PRC as he waged a revolution guided by the principles of
Marxist-Leninism to fight against western imperialism, which they eventually won in
1949. Mao promised a socialist utopia in China free from imperialism pursuing an
independent economic development. The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural
Revolution attempted to utopianizing the lives of the Chinese. But those programs
backfired and resulted in the opposite. Due to Mao's radical and oppressive approach,
the implementation was flawed because of the "grain first," as peasants at the time were
pressured to till land everywhere, even on mountain slopes, eventually leading to the
ecological degradation of the country (Smil, 1991). The relationship between man and
nature didn't even reciprocate as the Chinese pushed on cultivating unsuitable lands.
Collectivization brought by the Marxist theory was boxed solely for the enrichment of
human lives by metabolizing resources which lacked oversight of the environmental
aspects (Barry, 2014). Mao’s drastic agricultural policies resulted in the deaths of 65
million people brought by the famine. After his death, Deng Xiaoping came to power,
The Dengist economic reforms and the transition from a centrally planned economy to a
Market-based one.

The Dragon basically roamed again the Earth while this time, it can now roar and burst
its flames. An opened economy and joined the
GREEN POLITICAL THEORY (APPLICABLE OR NOT?)
Green Political Theory is a framework capable of addressing environmental pollution
attributed to the environmental degradation that flourished by colonialism brought by the
Western imperialists and the economic metabolism brought by the Maoist doctrine in
China. GPT showed the consequences of anthropocentric behavior concerning the
environment. The rival superpowers may have some accountability for their activities.
However, it is shallow since they are still competing against each other, and it
reminisces the era of Industrial Evolution only today it is more enhanced because of
technological advancements.
REFERENCES
21, A. V. |S., & Varanasi, A. (2022, September 23). How colonialism spawned and

continues to exacerbate the climate crisis. State of the Planet. Retrieved February 26,

2023, from https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2022/09/21/how-colonialism-spawned-

and-continues-to-exacerbate-the-climate-

crisis/#:~:text=Rising%20global%20inequalities&text=For%20the%20first%20time%

20in,driver%20of%20the%20climate%20crisis.

Barry, J. (2014). Green Political Theory. Political Ideologies: An Introduction, 153–178.

Retrieved from: https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/publications/green-political-theory