My critical reflection

I have always had problems in choosing the right words to relay my expressions correctly. This module definitely helped me improve my judgement on the type of words through essay writing, consultations and in-class activities. Previously, I was unaware that words such as "brought about" are not suitable for academic writing. While I still try to correct myself in the process with the guidance of the tutor, I feel that it has already been helpful in helping me with my school work. I find it very applicable to my report writing skills that sounds somewhat better now that it is more academic than before. With practise, I will continue to use this useful tool to further improve my writing skills through my tertiary study and most probably in my working life too. I hope by adopting greater depths of reading good papers, I will eventually emulate the excellent expressions and choice of words to develop my grasp on English Language.

Final Essay on Globalisation

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

In today's world, a renowned process- Globalisation, has moved the entire world through transition from where it was at just about a decade ago. The acceleration in international intercommunication  and harmonisation have evidently caused many positive impacts such as a greater flow of goods, people and ideas across borders. While globalisation is impacting the world favourably, many problems have also inevitably arisen, leaving contemporary society to question the overall impact of globalisation. A leading problem involves the environment and leading world powers such as China. The slightest carbon footprints left are bound to have consequences, sometimes only detected after generations. Thus, various means have been taken to ameliorate the situation such as seeking cleaner energy alternatives and infrastructure reformations.

Rapid expansion through globalisation has increased the air pollution levels in China tremendously, which affects the rest of the world too. Deemed as the leading world producer, yielding as much as a fifth of overall world output(Marsh, 2011), China currently suffers from a 3.8% GDP loss due to environmental degradation(Wong, 2013). Many cities have been undergoing major developmental changes in order to accommodate soaring global consumerism. An USA embassy measured a pollution particle concentration level of 800ppm(BBC, 2013), nearly thrice that of the supposedly hazardous level. With fuel burning and car exhaust emission topping the causes, China has adopted many measures to try to cope with the situation.  Comprising of the introduction of vehicles including public buses that have low emissions and consume alternative energy such as Compressed Natural Gas(CNG) in 2005. About 70000 more environmentally friendly vehicles have been permitted on roads since then too. While this may seem to be successful at first glance, this number is definitely insignificant when compared as a percentage of total cars which has been rising. Just over a course of one year since 2008, the number of personal cars have increased by 25.1%(Dong, 2012) as Chinese have greater purchasing power with their booming economy. Not only does this result in greater levels of harmful emissions but also heighten traffic jams whereby precious energy sources are wasted. The approach on tackling vehicle emission levels has proven to be ineffective with the worsening air conditions in China today. The government ought to efficiently take on stricter enforcement or adopt other measures such as curbing the volume of cars in order to successfully improve air quality. Lower levels of cars will result in lesser greenhouse gas emissions, thus ameliorating the issue.

Apart from adopting cleaner energy sources, China has also upgraded their infrastructure in order to improve the overall condition of its environment as induced by globalisation. In 2004, China was appointed as host country of the Olympic Games 2008. This motivated China to ensure the world saw them as first-class. Beijing, being their capital, underwent major development in preparation of the Olympics. Factories that utilised coal heavily like Capital Iron were culprits of high air pollution levels and were transferred out of Beijing. This generated a 30% cut in pollutant discharge(Schleicher,2012) in 2008. More roads and subway lines were built to ease traffic conditions that were previously heavily congested as a result of high number of vehicles. Public transportation that consumed CNG were also introduced and promoted on the roads so much so that private vehicles were reduced by approximately 34%(Schleicher,2012). All these measures taken to upgrade the infrastructure along with consistent road cleaning gave rise to an astounding pollution level of merely 50ppm (Zhou et al., 2010). The success of China in lifting its air quality during the Olympics has demonstrated that stringent execution of laws and measures can certainly help to accomplish goals. In the this case, China saw that the Olympics would bring about prosperity to its country, driving them to ensure the enforcements took place as they were dire at that point of time.

In conclusion, excellent governance is crucial in safeguarding the environment. Unfortunately, it appears that the Chinese leaders concentrate significantly more in the economic aspect of their country. Inevitably, the economic advancements come at the cost of the environment. In turn, this results in even more internal problems in the country. While the root of the problem boils down to the phenomenon mentioned, does this mean China had no ability over controlling its deteriorating environmental status that is now affecting the world?

(716 words)

References:

BBC, (2013, January). Beijing air pollution soars to hazard level. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-20998147

Dong, C., Huang, G.H., Cai, Y.P., Liu, Y., (2012, January). An inexact optimization modeling approach for supporting energy systems planning and air pollution mitigation in Beijing city. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/science/article/pii/S036054421100689X?np=y

Marsh, P., (2011, March). China Noses Ahead as Top Goods Producer. Retrieved from http://www.cnbc.com/id/42065544

Mathews, J., (2007, August). Seven steps to curb global warming. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/science/article/pii/S0301421507000663

Schleicher, N., Norra, S., Chen, Y., Chai, F., Wang, S., (2012, June). Efficiency of mitigation measures to reduce particulate air pollution—A case study during the Olympic Summer Games 2008 in Beijing, China. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/science/article/pii/S0048969712004974

Wong, E., (2013, April). Air Pollution Linked to 1.2 Million Premature Deaths in China. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/world/asia/air-pollution-linked-to-1-2-million-deaths-in-china.html?_r=0

Zhuo, Y., Wu, Y., Yang, L., Fu, L., He, K., Wang, S., Hao, J., Chen, J., Li, C., (2010, June). The impact of transportation control measures on emission reductions during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Retrieved from http://ac.els-cdn.com/S1352231009009157/1-s2.0-S1352231009009157-main.pdf?_tid=66ad25e6-33f9-11e3-8836-00000aab0f26&acdnat=1381663381_cdf5a59d06440f6b92d2bb3033ba75c5

Globalisation Essay Draft 1

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

In today's world, a renowned course- Globalisation, has shifted the entire world leaps and bounds away from a place it was at just about a decade ago. The hike in international intercommunication  and harmonisation have evidently brought about many positive impacts such as a greater flow of goods, people and ideas across borders. While globalisation is at its course of impacting the world favourably, many problems have also inevitably risen that make contemporary society question the overall impact of globalisation. A leading problem involves the environment and leading world powers such as China. Slightest carbon footprints left are bound to have consequences, even if it takes years. Thus, various means have been taken to ameliorate the situation such as seeking cleaner energy alternation and infrastruction reformation.

Rapid expansion through globalisation has increased the air pollution levels in China tremendously, which affects the rest of the world too. Deemed as the leading world producer, churning as much as a fifth of overall world output(Marsh, 2011), China currently suffers from a 3.8% GDP loss due to environmental degradation(Wong, 2013). Many cities that have been undergoing major developmental changes in order to accommodate to soaring global consumerism. An USA embassy measured a pollution particle concentration level of 800ppm(BBC, 2013), nearly thrice that of the supposedly hazardous level. With fuel burning and car exhaust topping the causes, China has adopted many measures to try to cope with the situation.  One of which was the introduction of vehicles including public buses that have low emission and consume alternative energy such as Compressed Natural Gas(CNG) since 2005. About 70000 more environmentally vehicles have been on the road since. While this may seem to be successful at first glance, this number is definitely insignificant when compared as percentage of total number of cars that have been rising. Just over a course of one year since 2008, number of personal cars have increased by 25.1%(Dong, 2012) as Chinese have greater purchasing power with their booming economy. Not only does this results in greater levels of harmful emissions but also heightened traffic jams whereby precious energy sources are wasted. The approach on tackling vehicle emission levels has proven to be ineffective with the worsening air conditions in China today. The government ought to efficiently take on stricter enforcement or adopt other measures such as curbing the volume of cars in order to successfully improve air quality.

Apart from adopting cleaner energy sources, China has also upgraded their infrastructure in order to improve the condition of their environment as brought about by globalisation. In 2004, China was also appointed as host country of Olympic Games 2008. This became a great propelling drive for China to ensure the world saw them as first-class. Beijing, being their capital, underwent major development in preparation of the Olympics. Factories that utilised coal heavily like Capital Iron that are culprits of high air pollution levels were transferred out of Beijing. Just this itself brought about a cut in 30% of pollutant discharge(Schleicher,2012) in 2008. More roads and subway lines were built to ease traffic conditions that were previously bad due to the large vehicle numbers. Public transportation that consumed CNG were also introduced and promoted on the roads so much so that private vehicles were reduced by about at least 34%(Schleicher,2012). All these measures taken on boosting the infrastructure along with consistent road cleaning gave rise to an astounding pollution level of merely 50ppm (Zhou et al., 2010). The success of China in lifting her air quality during the Olympics has demonstrated that stringent prosecution of laws and measures can certainly accomplish their goals. In the this case, China saw that the Olympics would bring about prosperity to their country, driving them to ensure the enforcements took place as they were dire at that point of time.

Excellent governance is crucial in safeguarding the environment. Unfortunately, it seemingly appears that the Chinese leaders concentrated significantly more in the economic aspect of their country. Inevitably, the economic advancements came at the cost of the environment. In turn, this brings about even more internal problems in the country. While the root of the problem boils down to the renowned phenomenon mentioned, does this mean China had no ability over controlling its deteriorating environmental status that is now affecting the world?

Word count: 708

References:

http://www.sciencedirect.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/science/article/pii/S0301421507000663

http://www.sciencedirect.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/science/article/pii/S036054421100689X?np=y

http://www.cnbc.com/id/42065544

http://www.sciencedirect.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/science/article/pii/S0048969712004974

http://ac.els-cdn.com/S1352231009009157/1-s2.0-S1352231009009157-main.pdf?_tid=66ad25e6-33f9-

11e3-8836-00000aab0f26&acdnat=1381663381_cdf5a59d06440f6b92d2bb3033ba75c5

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/world/asia/air-pollution-linked-to-1-2-million-deaths-in-china.html?_r=0

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-20998147

Reader's Response- The Double Age of Globalisation

In his article "The double edge of globalisation", Nayan Chandra suggests that there are many factors contributing to the environmental challenges we are facing today. Although many blame globalisation, author points out that other factors such as poor world governance and  increased consumerism that are the root of the problem.

In paragraph 7, author mentioned that heightened consumerism has brought about environmental issues. This statement is accurate and can be further explained by the increased affiliation between countries and growing world population. As supported by Reuters in 2013, there is also a growth in global income levels and purchasing powers of consumers which is why consumers are able to afford greater quantities. This propels the expansion of demand for raw resources to generate the respective products desired by the world. Hence, such excessive lost in natural resources like non-renewable energy and iron ores emerges environmental complications.

However, this statement can also be flawed due to a bias basis of comparison. In the past, before globalisation gave rise to increased global awareness through media communication improvements, it could be that information had not been made as readily available as it is today. Hence, details available for  study on population size, total consumption may not match to reality. As such, this would mean that the ratio of consumerism levels to population had always been about constant, only with increased movement and exchange of goods around the world now as a result of globalisation.

All in all, the article had pointed promptly that the globalisation phenomenon should not be blamed solely of causing issues in the environment. Rather, it is a channel whereby many irresponsible human activities occur in great scales.

References:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/23/ca-linear-technology-idUSnBw236556a+100+BSW20130723

http://ezinearticles.com/?Different-Types-Of-Data-Communication-Media&id=6601652

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1874521/

The Double Edge of Globalisation Summary (Final Draft)

Today, globalisation has brought about communication improvements that allowed protesters to promote their stand and transmit environmental news quickly across all borders. The redundant efforts of blaming international firms of being the cause of environmental problems, should be diverted to promote international long term growth, pollution and environmental controls.

The concern of globalisation causing environment problems is not valid unless it means magnified world trade or the misuse of foreign production sites of international firms in countries with little execution of environmental legislation. It has been discovered that the latter might not be true as transnational companies tend to be more environmentally-friendly over local companies and are inclined to invest because of large markets. Studies have also shown that about a fifth of the total world carbon emission is a result of deforestation for agricultural and trade purposes.

Some comment that globalisation does not merely expedite but becomes a passage for other factors to cause greater scale of forest clearing. With globalisation comes higher consumption, in turn millions of acres of forest were cleared, especially since national and international leaders have not successfully encouraged environmental protection. Prime producers have a growing demand for resources from countries to meet the multiplying global food demand. To provide this, increased energy burning causes both land and water pollution worldwide. On top of that, many have became victims of floods due to increased temperatures. Evidently there exists a correlation between non-environmental economic growth, heightened trade and industrialisation.

Air pollution is another consequence that can potentially lead to acid rain elsewhere in the globe. It is appalling how advanced technologies are not able to function as a tool of aid to overcome these problems in such situations. Worst, despite the chance of preventing these problems with global efforts, there seem to be no urgency to tackle the increasing temperatures. Enforcement by nations that signed the Kyoto Protocol is not persistent and USA, topping the greenhouse gases emitter list, declined to sign the protocol too.

The recent improvements in  communication media has made the world a more interconnected place as information can be disseminated efficiently worldwide. This increases the world awareness of matters concerning environment. It is internationally known that global warming could possibly contract world economy, promote social and monetary destruction equivalent to the ones in the World Wars and Great Depression.

Affiliation between countries is so extensive now that isolated countries can cause a massive problem associated to global health in the long-run. United Nations has demonstrated an incapability to confront the world's troubles. Nonetheless, the world's key leaders' impotency and unwillingness to lead UN is essentially the essence of the problem. Had it been otherwise, the consequences of globalisation could be avoided.

(Total word count: 449)

The Double Edge of Globalisation Summary Draft

Instead of blaming international firms for causing climate differences, deforestation and not being environmental-friendly, protesters should attempt to promote international long term growth, pollution and environmental controls. Many factors contribute to these problems such as globalisation and consumerism. Today, communication improvements not only allow protesters to transmit environmental news quickly across all borders but become a platform to present their ideas worldwide. Ironically, this platform protesters are using is a result of globalisation.

The concern of globalisation causing environment problems is not valid unless it meant magnified world trade or the misuse of foreign production sites of international firms in countries with little execution of environmental legislation. It has been discovered that the latter might not be true as transnational companies tend to be more environmentally-friendly over local companies and are inclined to invest because of large markets. Studies have also shown that about a fifth of the total world carbon emission is a result of deforestation for agricultural and trade purposes.

 

Some comment that globalisation does not merely expedite but becomes a passage for other factors to greater scale of forest clearing. With globalisation comes higher consumption, in turn more clearing of forests are done. National and international leaders have not successfully encouraged environmental protection. Millions of acres of land have been cleared to meet the world's food demand. Prime producers of the world like China have a growing demand for resources from countries like Brazil to meet the multiplying global food demand. The problems here arise as increasing number of forests are cleared and that  land and water pollutions are incurred worldwide to provide this. Burning of energy in China has polluted other parts of the globe too.  

With recent improvements in  communication media, the world has became a more interconnected place as information can be disseminated efficiently worldwide. This increases the world awareness of matters concerning environment. The world knows that global warming could possibly dwindle world economy and lead social and monetary destruction equivalent to the World Wars and Great Depression. On top of that, many has became victims of floods due to increased temperatures. Evidently there exist a correlation between non-environmental economic growth, heightened trade and industrialisation.

Furthermore, greater pollution is the consequence of increased trade and consumerism.  Not only does this include land and water pollution but also air that can potentially lead to acid rain elsewhere in the globe. It is appalling how the advanced technologies are not able to be a tool of aid to overcome these problems in such situations. Worst, in spite of the probable chance of preventing the problems with world effort, there seem to be no urgency to tackle the increasing temperatures. Enforcement by nations that signed the Kyoto Protocol is not persistent and USA, topping the greenhouse gases emitter list, declined sign the protocol too.

Affiliation between countries is so extensive now that standing solitary can cause a massive problem associated to the world's health in the long-run. UN demonstrates an incapability to confront the world's troubles. Nonetheless, the world's key leaders' impotency and unwillingness to lead UN is essentially the essence of the problem. Had it been otherwise, the consequences of globalisation could be avoided.

Aloha weeeeee 
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