Kyle Bartok
HIST:1070 The Contemporary World
Dr. Barry Jackish
12/13/2022
The Relationship Between Key Aspects of Globalization, Pandemics, and Environmental
Economics
Through the history of human civilization, one thing that differentiates us from other
species on the planet is our ability to be interconnected with one another. As we grew in
population over our centuries of history, we grew closer and closer to each other. Most of the
reason we communicated with each other was to facilitate trade, to exchange goods for both
party’s benefits. Through that, villages, kingdoms, and countries began to have relationships with
each other and soon, the entire world was unified through these mutually beneficial relationships.
Digital technology allowed for the world to be in constant communication with each other,
allowing for easier negotiations, and physical travel across the world. This sort of connection is
known as globalization, the conglomeration of the human species into one more unified
collective of human expansion and knowledge. Of course, our interconnectedness has not always
been a good thing. Pandemics are an unfortunate outcome of our species being extremely social
with one another. Disease has been able to spread across the world within months because we are
so well connected, and this web of relationships gives us things that we never wanted. The world
has turned into almost one unified entity, taking all the good, with all the bad. Through the
globalization of the world, awakened have been the consequences of misusing our planet.
Changes to human activity has birthed the field of environmental economics, governments effort
to control the damage we do to our environment. These three things, Globalization, the history of
worldwide pandemics, and environmental economics show how interconnected our species is,
and the unforeseeable consequences for people uninvolved.
Globalization brought people together in many ways, creating a sense of cultural sameness.
“While optimistic globalizers agree with their pessimistic colleagues that cultural globalization
generates more sameness, they nonetheless consider this pattern of sameness to be a good thing.
For example, the American social theorist Francis Fukuyama explicitly welcomes the global
spread of Anglo-American values and lifestyles, equating the Americanization of the world with
the desirable expansion of democracy and free markets.” (Steger p. 87). This shows that across
the world we are all starting to have experiences more and more similar to each other. We
constantly look to other nations to compare how we act, and ready legislation based on how
certain policies work across borders. These similar experiences and ideas show that the human
condition is not too different for everyone after all.
This is translated over to how we have dealt with pandemics. The influenza pandemic of
the early 20th century circumnavigated the globe within 4 months of discovery, infecting every
known county on the earth. Everyone was faced with the same issue, each tackling it in a
different way. “When influenza first appeared in Bloemfontein, South Africa, initial reactions
were muted… So confident was the city in its ability to ward off ill health that in early October,
while flu was killing people in West Africa, the local newspaper wondered how dangerous “our
friend the ordinary common or garden influenza” could be. They soon had an answer as bodies
piled up and hospitals became overwhelmed.” (McMillan p. 96-97). Many countries looked at it
in an apathetic way. Believing that they were either healthy enough or their technology was
superior enough to where it would not be a big issue. Influenza ended up humbling much of the
world, killing at times up to 25% of the population in an area. This event in turn brought the
world to speak about the best ways to deal with these pandemics. This force of nature made the
collective world realize that they are not invincible.
Environmental Economics starts to answer the question of how we control the damage
we do to the environment that we all share. Industry is the biggest offender when it comes to
pollution, but it is also the source of money for the people. Balancing how to manage
environmental detriment with still turning a profit big enough to facilitate growth became a focal
point for the world’s economy post-industrial revolution. “However, pollution is not an
inevitable consequence of economic activity. Environmental policies can require polluting firms
to clean up their emissions and can encourage people to change their behavior.” (Smith, p. 1).
Countries realize that if they control their own pollution, not only will they fall behind
economically, but the environment will continue to be damaged by their neighboring states. This
mutual understanding has led to many countries adopting these ideals for the greater good.
These three subjects: Globalization, pandemics, and environmental economics are tied
together through their effects they have on the greater world. They show that no one country can
go at it alone and the sharing of technology, and persistent collaboration is the key to a bright
future.
In my original introduction post from the beginning of the semester, I discussed how the
study of history is the study of mankind’s past mistakes. If you go about life on your own, you
will make every mistake there is possible to make on your way to the top. But if you go at it with
others, you can share the mistakes between you, and you can learn from a mistake without ever
having to make it yourself. The theme of the world going at it together imitates how we all can
make our mistakes together. With the rise of globalization, we can easily look to other pasts and
make sure that we don’t make the same mistakes they did. Pandemics made the whole world
learn together that even though we are all different in our small ways, we are still human, and our
biology can be limiting. No matter the money or technology we have, we can still be just as
vulnerable to these diseases. Environmental economics is much more the culmination of learning
from each other. It’s a practice that is used to try and secure a better tomorrow that many
countries share. The world, whether we like it or not, is going to become more and more unified
as generations come and go, so working together is critical.