Globalisation and the

environment
 Life and Debt
• Impact colonialism on economic development –
economies unable to compete in world markets post-
independence
• 1944 Bretton Woods – origins – World Bank, IMF, GATT
(WTO)
• Impact neo-liberal globalisation – of policies imposed by
IMF on – agriculture - rural way of life/culture/identity
• Realities of Free Trade Zones
• Impact of debt – cripples economies
• Difficulty of following own economic policies
• Tourism – new industry/jobs - ‘new colonialism’
 Environment
• Adverse environmental flows are one of the
most negative impacts of globalisation
• Environment is inherently global
• Early thinking on globalisation ignored the
environment
• 1980s/1990s – environmental movement
brought impact of globalisation on environment
to fore as a global issues and a global
phenomenon – especially depletion of ozone
layer and global warming
 Globalisation, urbanisation and
the environment
• Key current trends:
• globalisation – global economy
• urbanisation
• industrialisation (east Asia – China)

• major impact on environment

 Environment and sustainability
• Growth of ‘sustainability discourses’ since mid-
1970s
• Growing concern – rising greenhouse gases and
resource depletion
• 2011 – population reaches 7 billion
• 2007 – 50% worlds population live in cities
• Almost all population growth in cities
• Cities 50% population but consume 75% worlds
resources
 Cities and the environment
• Since late 1990s – debate and focus on sustainability –
particularly focussed on city
• Cities – major contributors to global environmental
problems – pollution, resource depletion and land use
• Cities – 50% population, consume 75% worlds resources
and generate majority of world’s waste and pollution
• Responsible for 70% harmful greenhouse gases while
occupying 2% land area
• UN Habitat (2011) Cities and Climate Change
• And most vulnerable to impact of climate change –
coastal mega cities – sea level rise/flooding
 UN Habitat (2011) Cities and
Climate Change
• www.unhabitat.org
• Cites and Climate Change (2011)
• cites are the biggest causes of pollution
• rapid urbanisation
• especially growth mega cities in developing world/cities
of global south – Africa and Asia
• every year 67 million new urban dwellers – 91% in cities
in developing countries
• cities – especially rapidly growing mega cities in Africa,
Asia, South America – vulnerable to sea level rise and
flooding with global warming
 Global urbanisation
• Every year 67m new urban dwellers
• 91% of them in cities of ‘developing’
countries
• Urbanisation – urban growth fastest in
Asia, Africa and South and Central
America
• Growth of mega cities – over 10m people
• Especially in Asia and in Latin America
Global urban population growth
Global urban population growth
– selected cities
Cities – population over 10 million
 Key challenges – congestion
and pollution in mega cities
Congestion - Lagos Pollution – Mexico City
 Sustainable cities – urban form
debates
• Urban form and structure – decentralisation and
suburbanisation – peripheralisation - urban
sprawl
• Low density residential development
• On new and greenfield land
• Car dependent
• Unsustainable
• Low density suburban development no longer
seen as remedy for urban and inner city
problems
Urban density and petrol
consumption
Urban sprawl – Los Angeles
 Consumption – wealthiest
countries and social classes
• World’s cities produce 70% harmful greenhouse
gases – 2% land area
• Washington 19.7 tonnes of CO2 per capita 2005
• Shanghai 8.1 (1998)
• Sao Paulo 1.5 (2003)
• higher in cities in developed world
• higher amongst most affluent - India most
wealthy 1% 4.52 tonnes CO2 per capita –
poorest 405 1.11 tonnes CO2
 Challenging the ‘global’ nature of
environmental problems
• Not all parts of world equally responsible for
most pressing environmental problems – those
from developed world more so
• Key problems effect different parts of world –
such as the rise of sea levels as a result of
global warming
• Differences in importance attached to
environmental problems
• Shifting source of problems – from US to China
Map of CO2 emissions
Total national carbon emissions
• 1. US
• 2. China
• 3. Russia
• 4. Japan
• 5. India
• 6. Germany
• 7. Canada
• 8. UK
• 9. South Korea
• 10. Italy
 Neo-liberalism v alternative
environmentalist model of
globalisation
• Neo-liberalism – no impediments to free trade
• Environmentalist alternative model – priority over
economic considerations
• Efforts to create models integrating these 2 –
‘ecological modernization theory’ – neo-liberal
economic and technological development but
decline in negative effects on environment – eg
– low odour paints – pressure from
environmental NGO’s
National environmental friendliness
ranking
• 2006 ranking of 149 states in terms of
performance of air pollution, greenhouse gas
emissions etc
• Highest ranking – Switzerland, Sweden, Norway,
Finland, Austria, France
• US 39th – performs badly on greenhouse gas
(carbon dioxide) emissions that cause global
warming (US alone contributes 25% of all the
worlds carbon dioxide emissions
• China will soon supplant US as leading
contributor to global warming in world
Map of CO2 emissions
Global Environmental problems
• Destruction of natural habitats - such as
‘forests, wetlands, coral reefs and the
ocean bottom’ - deforestation – Amazon
rain forest and especially Brazil – to allow
area to be ‘developed’ for farms, grazing
of livestock – destruction has negative
effects on world as a whole – burning of
felled trees releases large amounts carbon
dioxide
Rainforest destruction
Brazilian Rainforest destruction
• Decline of fish and whales – many fishing areas in
decline or collapsed – min source of protein – switch to
meat – livestock more costly and destructive of
environment. Over-fishing – according to UN Food and
Agricultural Organization, 69% of world’s most important
fisheries can be considered ‘fully exploited’ or
‘overexploited’ – industrial fishing led to 90% decline in
tuna, swordfish, marlin – main culprit is industrial fishing
– sea bottom trawling – causes over-fishing and destroys
eco-systems - whaling – in early 1980s International
Whaling Commission (IWC) partial ban on commercial
whaling – several important whaling countries – Norway
and especially Japan – continue to hunt whales
• Decline in bio-diversity
• Decline in usable farmland – farmland soil carried away by water
and wind erosion
• Increasingly inaccessible fossil fuels (oil and coal)
• Decline in fresh water – water becoming increasingly important
global issue – concerns include water pollution, flooding, increasing
scarcity of water especially drinkable water -‘desertification’ – once
considered a public good now increasingly valuable and privatised
commodity – 1.3 billion people lack reliable access to safe drinking
water – 2.6 billion lack adequate sanitation systems – by 2030 half
worlds population faced with water security issues.
• Global climate change making some parts world wetter and some
drier – and in later more difficult to access water including southern
Europe, Middle East, Australia, south west US (dust bowl), Mexico
• Toxic chemicals – insecticides, pesticides – released into air/sea
Dry lands
 Greenhouse gases and global
warming
• Carbon dioxide emissions and role plays in
global warming
• Agreed global warming is real phenomenon with
man-made causes – especially huge increase in
greenhouse gases
• Rising sea levels as a result of global warming
(ice sheets that cover Greenland, Arctic and
Antarctica melting more quickly than thought)
• Disagreement about how quickly temperatures
are rising
African cities in risk of flooding
 Population growth
• Population and consumption growth
• Problems caused by nations with large
population and large consumption – eg US
• Increase in ecological problems due to
booming populations and economies of
China and India – and rapid increase in
their consumption rates
 India
• 1.1 billion people
• Energy consumption predicted to quadruple in 25 years leading to
huge growth carbon emissions
• Compare suburb Gurgaon – booming, heavy traffic, shopping malls,
large air-conditioned offices
• Small village – Chakai Haat- commuting distance of Gurgaon – ‘no
access to electricity grid, cooking stoves fuelled by animal waste
and bicycles main mode of transport – 3 diesel powered generators
run a few hours per night’ – many of people now work in Delhi or
new suburb Gurgaon so know about big differences in life
• Carbon footprint of India will increase
• Unlikely to be receptive to demands to cut back or slow down
growth
 Global responses
• Many global environmental problems –
especially global warming due to
economic development
• Nation states unlikely to give this up
• Leads to concept of ‘sustainable
development’
 Sustainable Development
• World Commission on Environment and
Development 1987
• Coined term and definition of Sustainable
Development as
• ‘meeting the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs’
• Bruntland Report (1987) Our Common Future.
OUP.
 Earth Summit and Agenda 21

• 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development

– Rio de Janeiro – the ‘Earth Summit’
• Watershed in alerting media and public to need for
sustainable development
• Produced lengthy declaration – Agenda 21 - laying out
sustainable development principles
• Chapter 7 of Agenda 21 – directions for sustainable
urban development
• Creation UN Commission on Sustainable Development
• 2000 Millennium Development Goals agreed to meet by
2015
Sustainable development
 Sustainable development
• Origins – 1987 report to UN by World
Commission on Environment and Development
(1987) ‘Our Common Future’
• ‘involves economic and environmental changes
that meet the needs of the present, especially of
the world’s poor, without jeopardising the needs
of the future’
• Key event – 1992 meeting in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil- Earth Summit – or UN Conference on
Environment and Development – advanced
concept of sustainable development
 Globalisation and sustainability

• Number of dimensions to link between globalisation and

sustainability
• Economic – does economic development irretrievably destroy the
environment or increase desire and ability to control this?
• Technology – produces environmental degradation or the
possibility of reducing the damage
• Awareness – global media – led to greater awareness of
environmental problems and their causes or whether consumerism
pushed by global media blinds people to this issue?
• Politics – of environmentalism with some global organisations
(WTO) pushing for more economic growth while many others
(Greenpeace) are seeking to reduce it or limit its negative impact on
the environment
 Dealing with climate change
• Evidence fossil fuels are major factor in global warming
• Many corporations and some governments resist taking
action to limit fossil fuel emissions
• 1997 Kyoto Protocol – ratifying nations would have been
required to reduce emissions by 2012 to 5% below 1990
level
• Created ceilings for carbon emissions of developed
countries but none for developing countries including
China and India
• US did not ratify Kyoto Protocol and in 2001 Bush
rejected it as hurting US economy and unfair
Kyoto Protocol
 China
• US wants to see developing countries and
especially China reduce emissions
• China see problems as resulting from what
developed countries have done to environment
• China’s view – now its time to catch up - to
industrialise and develop more of a consumer
society
• China already world’s 2nd largest producer of
greenhouse gases – due to rapid industrial
development and fact 70% of China’s energy is
from coal-fired power stations
 Other policy options
• Global carbon tax – more recent
proposal – businesses would pay a tax
based on amount of carbon emissions
from use of fossil fuels
• Idea – economic costs would motivate
them to modify production processes to
reduce carbon emissions
• Carbon neutral – to generate no ‘net’
increase in greenhouse gases
Alternative fuels and power sources
• Hybrid technology – electric car
• Ethanol – growing interest in alternative fuels to gasoline – US is large and
growing producer of ethanol – Brazil is larger in both production and use
940% of Brazil’s non-diesel gasoline consumption is ethanol)
• Major current source is corn – pushed up price 9impact on corn prices – eg
Mexico dependent for staples tortillas)
• US seeking to forge partnership with Brazil on ethanol – becoming ‘political
football’ – plus US levies 54 cent a gallon tariff on most imported ethanol
• Concern biofuels such as ethanol may increase problem of greenhouse gas
emissions – refining and transportation plus rainforests and grasslands
reduced to produce biofuels – more deforestation in Brazil to create more
farm land and less devoted to food production
• Palm Oil – massive deforestation in Malaysia and Indonesia
• Solar Power
• Wind and wave power
 Issues arising
• Technological ‘fix’ – finding new
technologies easier than getting people to
consume less – many industries interest in
continuing consumption
• ‘geo-engineering’ leaved untouched the
causes of global warming
• Solutions are very expensive