So, how are globalization and the environment related?
Well, just think about climate change. Does it affect just one region or does it affect the entire planet?
Please tell me you selected the latter choice.
Since climate change (or GLOBAL warming) is happening all around the world, when one person releases carbon into the atmosphere, it affects everyone and everything on the planet (although it’ll be a tiny effect).
If an entire region or country does it, then there will be much harsher effects.
This is why a lot of people are against the coal and oil industries.
They believe that these two are some of the biggest polluters in the world, and only a handful of countries actually benefit from them economically.
But global warming isn’t the only issue. There are many more environmental harms that are affecting Earth.
Some other ones include:
- Water pollution – Polluting rivers, lakes, and oceans
- Deforestation – Mass cutting of trees for paper, cardboard, etc.
- Extinction of Species – the extinction of animals because of climate change, insects dying because of technology
- Overfishing – people mass fishing for food and industry
- Urban Growth – More people means more carbon footprints, more factory farms for food, and more natural land being converted into liveable communities
- Natural Resource Depletion – water, trees, natural land, oil
Example of the Interconnection between Globalization and the Environment
When I say farming, do you imagine something that is killing the environment?
Probably not.
But farming, specifically factory farming, is one the biggest polluting industries in the world. And the majority of them are in North America.
To satisfy your desire for a delicious hamburger, farms had to become factories.
They had to increase in size to hold more animals and had to start using technology to mass produce meat and dairy products.
But with this increase, more pollution was created.
A cow releases a lot of CO2 into the atmosphere. These things are big, they eat a lot, and as a result, they fart a lot too.
But since factory farms are constantly producing more cows so that you and people like you can have hamburgers on demand, there are a lot of cows farting.
And all of this fart is harming the environment, which you already know is a global entity.
The machines that are used to produce the cows and the vehicles that are used to transport the meat also contribute to the pollution of the air.
Additionally, factory farming is damaging different parts of the environment (not just the atmosphere).
One of the other main ones is the pollution of water sources.
When farms use excess fertilizer, the extra bits flow down into nearby water sources and pollute them.
They also treat the animals horribly, but that’s a topic for another day.
Conclusion
So with the above example, can you see how globalization and the environment are linked?
Are there any global environmental issues that you are fascinated with?
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