Economic globalization and environment change Essay

Ever since the evolution of globalization, which began in 1990s, Asia and Europe have been benefiting with industrial success and economic development. As a matter of fact globalization is lead by United States under the leadership of WTO and United Nations. Globalization has developed a business network connectivity through Internet technology bringing global businesses to a single platform enabling exchange of goods, services and technologies. Globalization operates on predetermined success followed by global norms of business principles, bringing a change in global civil society at a macro level. Some of the benefits of globalization are, increased employment opportunities in computer technology, opportunities to commence new businesses, scope for finding new customers through Internet. Globalization is not similar to internationalization, which reinstate a fact that in order to encourage globalization, political and economic processes of nations also have to be globalized to be in tune with globalization. Globalization can be successful, only when a nation’s economic policies are globalized. This once again reinstates a fact that there is a clear and close interconnectivity between globalization and economic development of nations. Economic globalization expands businesses, industrial sector, technology sector, science and research. Economic development strengthens the financial capacity of nations whether it is through export of goods or by a rise in stock market. Certainly, there is a huge impact on global civil society who directly or indirectly, participate and reciprocate by contributing a portion of service to the nation. International global political economy (IPE or GPE) is it in any way related to globalization? In this regard, â€Å"It is generally agreed that the 1970s have seen fundamental changes in the way in which the international political economy is organized, leading to a more global approach both in IPE/GPE and environment†. (Strange 1996; Scholte, 1993; Mittleman, 1997, Lipschutz, 1996). Further, it is important to understand what the ‘global’ definition states. â€Å"the encompassing of the whole globe rather than just regions. Therefore, it would not be technically, geographically, or indeed spatially correct to use the term globalization for economic, social, or political phenomena that affect only part of the (inhabited) world, as many authors do indeed propose†. (Gabriela Kutting, 2004). The environmentalism celebrated its anniversary in the year 2002 conducted by United Nations Conference on Economic Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro. This was followed by 1971 Earth Day which framed the importance of global civil society. And it was 40 years since Silent Spring (Carson 1962) began the consciousness-raising work that many now credit with the birth of environmentalism as a social movement in America. †( Sheila Jasanoff, Marybeth Long Martello. 2004) â€Å"The concept â€Å"global† in contemporary environmentalism remains in this respect as essentially contested as are â€Å"liberty† and â€Å"accountability† in democratic politics†. â€Å"For now the struggle to define â€Å"global† may be one of the best avenues we have for engaging in a meaningful politics of globalism. (Sheila Jasanoff, Marybeth Long Martello, 2004) Protecting environment is an important aspect in global perspective. Conservation of forests, protection of wildlife, natural resources, controlling population, construction of dams, transport and infrastructure of states, are some of the basic criteria of a well developed nation, for which governments allocate a portion of budget every year. Global warming is also due to the cause of excessive industrialization and industrial pollution. Glaciers are also one of the causes, to the rise of water level in seas and oceans, causing floods, cyclones or other natural disasters to environment. United Nations has particularly been following up with island states in order to minimize the impact of the UN Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction. In simple form to explain, economic globalization leads to emission of more hazardous industrial gas, green house gases and automobile pollution. As a result of this, the health of environment is damaged bringing new sicknesses and epidemics such as SARS to people. There is a particular concern in 21st century about protecting environment above the parameters of economic development through globalization. From the times of 1940, when the actual industrialization began in United States till the present date, when globalization and industrialization has reached its peak and is still growing at a robust rate, a significant concern has emerged about global warming and about emission of green house gases, the causes of which have to be dealt with on an emergent need, which if ignored, may further deteriorate environment in a vast measure. This discussion of economic globalization and environment change are affecting each other, and it is important to give due consideration to each issue as a separate identity i. e. economic globalization advantages, disadvantages and its impact. Similarly the changes in environment, its negative impacts and effects and how these can be prevented. Especially environmental system brings huge unforeseen losses, such as loss of human lives in Tsunami (2004), Katrina ((2005), epidemics and loss of industrial houses and businesses, and in view of these, funds for disaster management have to be adequately provided. A periodical report of economic globalization and its impact on global civil society and above all, environment change must be followed by United Nations, WTO and World Bank in order to monitor, organize globalization and environment. The present world population is crossing the limit of six billion, which reveals a fact that, it is important to protect environment for the safe and secured health of its people. Further economic development has further disadvantage with devaluation of currency and inflation. Globally accepted currency for exchange of goods and services is admittedly U.  S. Dollar. A nation’s financial strength is determined by its regional currency exchange with U. S dollar. When U. S. dollar is devalued, it has a greater impact on all those nations, which are in trade with United States. â€Å"At the beginning of 1970s, Americans faced two economic problems: declining competitiveness and rising inflation. In 1971, for the first time in the twentieth century, the United States posted a trade deficit, meaning that Americans purchased more goods from other countries than they sold to people living in those countries†. Robert K. Schaeffer, 2005) Further U. S spends huge amounts on wars such as Iraq (2003) and disaster management for Katrina (2005) which further adds to the deficit of U. S. budget. These unforeseen events, lead to an excessive monetary pressure on governments resulting in deficit budget and in slowing down the growth in economy, resulting in inflation. This further puts work pressure on workers of industries to produce more output as compared to the regular working hours. Whenever there is a crisis in government, the negative impact of crisis affects its population both financially and at emotional level. â€Å"On August 15, 1971, President Richard Nixon confronted both problems simultaneously. To improve U. S. competitiveness, he took steps to devalue the dollar in relation to currencies in Western Europe and Japan. And to fight inflation, he introduced price and wage controls, which were designed to limit wage raises and price increases. The Nixon shocks, as these were called in Japan, marked the beginning of U. S. efforts to solve two serious economic problems†. (Robert K. Schaeffer, 2005) There is financial crisis existing in all parts of the world. The World Bank and other respective regional Central Banks have been funding nations, to use funds in order to sustain financial crisis. Conclusion Protection of environment vis-a-vis economic development along with globalization are equally important for global economy whereas appropriate measures have to be considered.