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.

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