Week 2
Globalization & Physical Environment
-A good general definition for globalization?
-“The growing interconnectedness of people and places through converging processes of
economic, political, and cultural change.” (pp. 1)
-Arguments in Favor of Globalization:
-Logical expression of modern international capitalism that will benefit all nations by
increasing global commerce and wealth.
-Wealth created by globalized economy will “trickle down” to help even the poorest
nations.
-Encourages the beneficial spread of new ideas and technologies.
-Influx of trade goods into an economy will force inefficient local industries to improve
in order to compete with trade goods.
-Even the spread of “sweatshops” seen as beneficial, as they give poor people economic
opportunities they formally didn’t have. (we will come back to this issue in a few
minutes)
-Pro-globalization people point out that countries that open themselves to the global
economy have done well (Thailand and Singapore) while those that isolate themselves
(Myanmar(Burma) or North Korea) experience little to no economic growth and extreme
poverty.
-The World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the biggest promoters of globalization.
The WTO’s official mission is to supervise and liberalize international trade. They try
and lower trade barriers and settle international trade disputes. “Essentially, the WTO is
a place where member governments go, to try to sort out the trade problems they face
with each other. The first step is to talk. The WTO was born out of negotiations, and
everything the WTO does is the result of negotiations.” In the end the WTO has little
real power to solve disputes it simply provides a form where nations can negotiate their
trade disputes.
(Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, Nepal, Cambodia, and Vietnam have joined since this map was
made in 2003)
-All of these pro-globalization arguments are very capitalist. Do not take things like
traditional cultures into account.
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-Arguments Against Globalization:
-Globalization is not natural but is instead a policy forced on the world by free-trade
capitalist countries (U.S., Japan, and Western Europe).
-Globalization increases the distance between the rich and the poor, a lot of evidence
does suggest this is happening around the world. Richest 20% of world’s people
consume 86% of world’s resources. Poorest 80% consume only 14% of world’s
resources.
-Globalization promotes free-market export economies at the expense of localized
sustainable activities. Forest example: In Brazil & Paraguay many cut down trees to
produce lumber or beef for world market rather than growing yerba mate in the forests.
-Globalization creates an unstable economy that is venerable to fluctuations in stock
markets.
-Also creates bubble economies in developing nations by pumping money into their
economies. This can temporarily inflate values of things like real estate and when these
values go back to normal levels, as they usually do, this can cause a depression.
-In the end, as your book states, both the pro and anti globalization factions probably overstate
their cases. Globalization does cause some problems but it also has done some good things as
well. In reality, globalization is happening whether we want it to or not so instead of just taking
a full on anti-globalization stance it is probably more effective to figure out the best way for both
nation states and international organizations to manage globalization in order to reduce the
creation of economic inequalities and encourage the protection of natural resources.
-Seattle Syndrome video. This is a video dealing with the complex topic of sweatshop labor,
most of which takes place in Asia. This video focuses on the Philippines, which are technically
in Island Southeast Asia. Seattle Syndrome refers to the massive protests against the WTO
meetings in Seattle in 1999. Most of protestors were upper class white college students who
were protesting against globalization and specifically sweat shops. The video explores whether
or not the protesters are actually doing more harm than good.
-So what do you guys think? How does this video fit in with our discussion of pros and cons of
globalization? Do you think the protestors are doing some good or could they actually be hurting
some poor workers if their protests got some textile plants to shut down?
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-Population:
-The global population of humans is larger than it ever has been and it is growing at an incredible
rate. It is growing especially quickly in the developing world, 90% of growth.
-This map shows population hotspots. Notice how there are very high populations in places like
China, India, and Indonesia. There is also rapidly growing populations in West Africa.
-Population pyramids. Notice how the chart for rapid growth has higher percentages of young
people who will be entering their fertile child growing years soon. While lower or negative
growth has equal or even lower percentages of young people. Make sure you understand how
these work. I may put one on your midterm and ask you whether it shows rapid growth, slow
growth, or negative growth. (pp. 14)
-Sometime in 2011 the world’s population will reach 7 billion. In 1960 it was 3 billion so in 50
years the world’s population has more than doubled. Lets take a look at how the world’s
population has gotten so large.
-There are four phases of process known as demographic transition that societies go through as
they modernize; they are outlined in your handout. Basically what happens, as death rates
decline with modernization birthrates remain high causing a population boom.
-Phase 1 – Preindustrial (no true examples of this in the world today, war torn Rwanda
in the 1990’s is the last example): The birthrates and death rates are both high so they
cancel each other out and population remains low. You get a young population of a
constant size.
-Phase 2 – Boom Begins (Nigeria, Uganda, Angola): With the beginning of
modernization sanitation and health care improve and the food supply become more
predictable so death rates drop. However birth rates remain high and as a result the
population grows rapidly.
-Phase 3 – Still Rising (India, Brazil, Bangladesh): Death rates decline even more in an
increasingly modern society. Birthrates start to decline as women gain more access to
birth control and education. Population still rising from boom phase because there are
still so many young people.
-Phase 4 – Leveling Off (Japan, Russia, Italy, China): Death rates remain low or increase
slightly due to aging population. Birthrates drop to replacement level or below and
populations begin to stabilize.
-The U.S. is in-between states 3 and 4 as we have a relatively high birthrate but an increasingly
aging population.
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-Population growth has many effects on the world. One of which is increased urbanization of the
world’s population. This map shows projected growth for some of the world’s largest cities.
Rapid urbanization especially in the developing world can lead to many problems and
populations quickly outstrip the development of basic services (like water, sewage disposal, and
electricity). Many squatter settlements or shantytowns develop.
-Lima as an example. Surrounded by desert so people just settle there until large enough
population to demand services. Lima really grew during 80’s due to a brutal civil war
between government and Maoist terrorist group. But continues today as people move to
city to make money. Peru has some other cities but Lima has the most opportunities so it
continues to grow rapidly. Similar situations all around the world especially in Latin
America, Asia, and Africa.
-Culture Change:
-In my opinion one of the strongest arguments against globalization is the cultural one.
Globalization often times encourages conformity to a global culture. Blue jeans, Coke,
and cell phones are desired all over the world. Adoption of these modern things
sometimes comes at a cost to traditional cultures.
-Some governments as they are brought into the modern world force traditional
societies to modernize. In Africa some governments strongly encourage/force
some traditional hunting and gathering groups like the !Kung San to start adopting
farming and other so called modern practices.
-These people actually had to work hard as farmers and quality of life went down.
-How does this compare to the forcing of the Lakota onto reservations, do you see
that process as an early case of globalization?
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Globalization & Physical Environment
-So now we are moving on to the entirely different topic of the world’s physical environment.
We will start by talking about climate and weather patterns, move onto a discussion of different
environments throughout the world, and end with a discussion of global warming.
-Weather vs. Climate:
-Weather is the short-term expression of atmospheric processes. So it is what is a
happening now on a day-to-day basis. (Short-term)
-A region’s Climate is determined by recording regular observations about a region’s
weather over a long period of time. Over time statistical averages of the observed
weather patterns help to provide a picture of a region’s climate. You generally need to
look at weather patterns for a period of at least 30 years to accurately describe a region’s
climate. (Long-term)
-Many people especially in the popular news media confuse these two terms. For
example this past year the east coast of the U.S. experienced some very extreme weather.
-In the winter unprecedented snowstorms hit the mid-continental east coast and
places like Baltimore and Washington D.C. got several feet of snow, these areas
usually receive little if any snow in an entire winter. Opponents of global
warming theories, most of whom were not climate scientists, popped up all over
the news channels saying that this was proof global warming is a myth.
-In June a major heat wave hit the New England and there was a week or more of
100-degree heat with very high humidity. I was there and it was horrible. During
this heat wave many supporters of global warming theories, most of whom also
were not climate scientists, showed up on the news channels saying the heat was
proof global warming is real.
-In these cases both sides were wrong. Global warming is a climatic phenomenon
that has to be studied in the long term over decades. One snowstorm or one heat
wave is not proof of anything. To prove or disprove global warming one needs to
investigate climate patters over long periods of time. We will discuss the topic of
global warming in more detail at the end of today’s class.
-Climate scientists have been investigating weather patterns for pretty much the entire world for
much longer than 30 years so they have developed pretty reliable maps denoting the climates of
the world’s regions. Lets take a look at a world climate region map. What patterns do you see
on this map?
-So the climate map shows the type of weather we expect to see in each of these regions. For
example: dry in deserts, wet year round in tropical rainforests, hot with heavy predictable
seasonal rains in monsoon areas, distinct wet and dry seasons in tropical savannas, and cold with
short summers in the tundra.
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Globalization & Physical Environment
-Sometimes some these regions experience abnormal weather that can really disrupt life there.
Since this class is suppose to focus on globalization I want to talk about a localized abnormal
weather phenomenon that actually affects the entire world.
-El Niño
-How many of you have heard of El Niño before?
-I will give you a very basic definition of what it is and then we will watch a short video that
hopefully will explain it better than I can.
-Normally the pacific cost of Peru is bathed in a very cold ocean current known as the Humboldt
Current. This current is cold because it is an upwelling of water from the deep ocean. This cold
current is very nutrient rich and thus supports vast schools of anchovies and sardines, which are
very important for the Peruvian and to some extent the Chilean economy.
-Every 7 to 10 years warm equatorial water comes down and bathes the normally cold Peruvian
coast with tropical water. This happens because trade winds blow water west and it pools up
near Island South East Asia. Every once and a while, not really a very regular pattern, this pool
of warm water gets big enough where it starts moving back toward South America and pushes
the cold Humboldt Current further south. This is known as an El Niño event or in the scientific
community the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO).
-Normally the Peruvian coast is the driest desert in the world and it rains higher up in the Andes
Mountains. During El Niño years there are torrential rainfalls on the coast that cause major
flooding. Also the sardine schools all go away and are replaced by tropical less commercially
exploitable fish temporarily devastating the Peruvian fishing industry.
-Every El Niño event is different some are strong and some are weak. Every once in a rare while
we have huge ones known as a mega Niño.
-So lets watch a the video and then we will discuss how this seemingly local weather
abnormality actually effects the whole world.
-In 1973-73 a major El Niño hit. This event caused the Peruvian anchovy fishmeal industry to
collapse.
-U.S. chicken farmers had to find another food source for their chickens and turned to soy
meal. Soy prices rose and as a result U.S. farmers planted more soy than wheat.
-At the same time strong droughts hit Africa’s Sahel (region south of Sahara), India,
Australia, China, and the Soviet Union.
-So right when world needed more wheat U.S. started producing less so there was a
scarcity of grain on world markets. Raised concerns about worldwide food shortage.
-This was the first time scientists put figured out that these droughts were related to El
Niño, so a worldwide effort went into predicting the events.
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Globalization & Physical Environment
-In 1982-83 an even stronger El Niño hit. It acted differently than the 1972-23 event so scientists
had trouble predicting it. They still lacked the satellite technology of today then.
-This event devastated the coasts of Peru and Ecuador
-Strong storms devastated southern California causing $1.8 billon in damage. Warming
of Pacific there destroyed the squid industry.
-Drought in the central U.S. reduced soy bean and corn production.
-South Africa hit by major drought dropped grain production by almost 50%, many in the
poor townships starved.
-Northeastern Brazil devastated by drought and economic devastation and south Brazil
had record rain and much flooding.
-Drought in Island Southeast Asia dried up some rainforests and a disastrous fire broke
out in Borneo and burned three and a half million acres of forest. The smoke cloud
reached to Singapore and airline flights had to be diverted. Some call this one of the
worst environmental disasters of the 20th century.
-Australia also hit by major drought that affected 60% of its farmers.
-Overall this event cost world over $13 billion and at least two thousand people were
killed by events directly related to the El Niño.
-This El Niño caused intensive research into trying to predict these events. An international
group made up of the U.S., France, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan put together the Tropical
Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) array of about 70 anchored temperature monitoring buoys across the
pacific. They also have a force of about 2500 free ranging buoys that mostly come from the U.S.
-These monitoring systems along with new satellite technology help us to better predict El Niño
events.
-This did help in many regions. For example during a minor El Niño in 1987 the Ethiopian
government encouraged people to plant early to take advantage of Feb. – May rains. The
bumper crop produced helped to save thousands of lives when the predicted drought hit during
the season when summer rains normally come. Crops were lost and cattle died but no people
died of starvation due to predictions and good planning.
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Globalization & Physical Environment
-Still even though it was predicted the 1997-98 El Niño was very strong and caused a lot of the
same problems worldwide.
-Peru was especially hard hit, the major city of Trujillo was devastated by flooding.
-In Northeastern Brazil drought hit again as predicted but government didn’t really do
much to help as rich landowners monopolized aid. So the poor rose up and started
looting stores. The president had to respond with aid to the region in order to be
reelected.
-Philippines were devastated by drought as was Indonesia and fires reminiscent of those
in Borneo broke out.
-Using predictions before the breakout of this El Niño both Peru and Ecuador borrowed money
from the World Bank anticipating they would need relief funds.
-Other places made some advanced preparations as well, like early harvests in Cuba. However
despite the predictions the results were still devastating.
-So I hope this has giving you a good example about how the world’s weather patterns are all
linked into a global system. A seemingly localized event can have worldwide effects.
-Some of the international cooperation used to predict El Niño events is an example of how
globalization can help the world. The problem is that these events can only be predicted.
Different regions can’t be forced to listen to the predictions. For example the Indonesian fires in
1997-98 were preventable but the government didn’t do that good of a job getting to word out
about burning fields during those years (normally burned them and expect monsoon rains to put
out fires, gov. should have warned people monsoon wasn’t coming).
-Lets move on now to talk about some different environments around the world and how
globalization can affect them. Here is a map of the world’s bioregions.
-Tropical Rainforests are rich environments found mostly in equatorial zones. There is a lot of
bio-diversity in rainforests. Most of nutrients found in plants and not in soil, so not good for
farming.
-However forests are being cut down in large patches to make agricultural fields, cattle
pastures, or to produce lumber. Tropical hardwoods are worth lots of money.
-Global demand for beef and lumber one reason many rainforests being cut down.
-Madagascar Rose Wood example. Is it their right to cut down their forest to make a
living or should we step in since this isn’t sustainable?
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Globalization & Physical Environment
-Deserts & Grasslands are closely related to each other and their boundaries often fluctuate
depending on weather patterns. Deserts get less than 10 inches of rain a year, grasslands get a
little more.
-Grasslands can revert to desert quickly. Dust bowl in the 1930’s. Happening in all over
Africa as we speak.
-Farming marginal lands can make the situation worse. Australia is the driest inhabited
continent in the world but it has been producing the majority of the world’s rice as a cash
crop to meet global demand. Rice needs lots of water so they have to use lots of
irrigation. This is leading to the drying up of rivers and the desertification of land that
was formally just dry grassland. Water in Adelaide tastes like salt water.
-Temperate Forests are common throughout much of the northern hemisphere. Hardwoods are
found in lower elevations and lower latitudes and softwood evergreens are found at higher
elevations and higher latitudes.
-Logging industry big business in North America especially due to new global demand
from China and Japan. So global demand driving a controversial industry in the U.S. and
Canada.
-Some say we can lessen the impact on N. American forests by tapping into the vast
Siberian forests of Russia. This might help N. America but how would it affect the
environment in Siberia. Shows how globalization effects the environment in many ways.
-Global Warming:
-Very controversial topic in U.S. that unfortunate has gotten tied up in politics. I wish
that Al Gore never got involved; maybe then people could talk about the issue rationally
here.
-The truth is that the scientific evidence for global warming is irrefutable. Average
temperatures are rising and changes are happening throughout the world. So this doesn’t
mean heat waves, it means over the course of years and decades temperatures are slightly
higher.
-How the greenhouse effect works:
-Humans produce byproducts like CO2 and these go into the atmosphere.
-These gasses allow less solar radiation to reflect off of the earth and average
temperatures rise.
-Some effects:
-Loss of mountain glaciers, which supply water to huge populations in South America
and Asia. Without this water source huge populations will have to move.
-Rising sea levels will cause some populations to move. Many Polynesian Islands are
very venerable, so is Bangladesh. Even some U.S. cities like New Orleans, Miami, and
New York could be profoundly affected.
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Globalization & Physical Environment
-Rising temps could bring back dust bowl conditions to U.S. Great Plains, the bread
basket of the world. Would have to shift growing north to Canada or even to Russia and
the soil in those places isn’t as good.
-There are a lot of global issues about Global Warming that are controversial. The U.S., Western
Europe, and Japan produced most of the greenhouse gasses that are causing problems today. So
some developing countries like China and India don’t like us telling them to cut back on their
emissions. They think they should have a chance to develop like we did.
-So what do you guys think? Is there a global solution to help stop global warming?
-We can’t undo the damage that is already done; the earth is going to get warmer. Possibly we in
the U.S. need to lead by example and show other nations how to live more responsibly.
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