Globalization is
the obscuration of
borders between nations that allow countries to interact more
freely as a result of the advancement of technology, which has
allowed trade to grow exponentially as companies can gather raw
materials from the world and market them everywhere. However, this
positive growth has negative impacts on the environment, one of which
is the global warming that people have been hearing about. There are
some solutions to this issues, such as the creation of rules on
carbon emission, the production of materials locally, and the efforts
to increase people's awareness of the dangers that the global warming
presents.
Global
warming is the increase in the world's temperature as a result of the
escalating production of green house gases, especially carbon
dioxide, that trap the heat from the sun inside the atmosphere. It
results in various environmental issues, such as increasing
sea levels, extreme weather conditions, and many more. As this is a
result of the elevating carbon production, the first logical step is
to reduce the carbon emission. The world is trying to do this, which
can be seen in the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, which is a
protocol to reduce carbon emission by the countries. However, the
world leaders, especially the USA, is not cooperating (Chandra,
2007). Furthermore, the leading world companies themselves are not
decreasing the carbon emission as per instructed. Instead, they are
concealing their carbon mapping, in which they only report the
unimportant gases as decreasing (Confino, 2013).
One possible way to
spur the companies into action is by encouraging companies with
monetary benefits (Confino, 2013). Decreasing carbon emissions is
expensive and gives abstract results such as increasing prestige and
good name, thus the companies lack the drive to try and manage their
carbon emissions. Therefore, by providing a concrete prize such as
cash prizes, companies can be more motivated in controlling their
waste materials and energy consumptions. This can also applied to the
employees, in which the company can give appreciation to the workers
who practice eco-friendly exercises.
Another policy that
can be adopted to fight the global warming is to produce materials
locally in order to reduce transportation and its pollution.
According to Chandra, the world's ecosystem is contaminated by
China's usage of coal and chemical to export their products (2007).
Therefore, by producing materials in nearby areas, the pollution that
causes the global warming can decrease. However, both the developing
and developed countries need export activities in order to survive,
because they can no longer handle the growing demands in their
countries. For developed countries, such as China, they do have
enough land to grow enough food. For example, the environmental
organization, Greenpeace, estimates that China's demand for soybean
has cleared 2.5 million acres of the tropical forest in Brazil
(Chandra, 2007). China does not have any unused lands that be used to
produce soybeans, as can be seen by its policy of one child per
family that is implemented in order to control its populace that has
grown too large. Developing countries do not have the necessary
technology and capital to produce the things that they usually import
into their countries. They even need to accept other countries
demands for raw materials to support their country, which can be seen
in Brazil where the farmers need to take advantage of China's demand
of soybean to earn money (Chandra, 2007). This is a hard issue to
tackle because it is a chain of demand and co-dependency between
countries that cannot be broken without any consequences. It can only
be done slowly. For example, China can search for nearer lands to
grow their food, which decrease the distance for import and therefore
reduce pollution. Brazil can accumulate the profit it has gained from
developed countries and also look for support from environmental
organization and slowly begin to grow and hopefully support itself.
Global warming is a
serious issue that should be addressed now. There are variety of ways
to doing this, for example by decreasing carbon emissions and
reducing exports. However, each strategy faces other challenges that
need to be addressed to with many kinds of ways. The fight against
climate change is a long and arduous one, therefore the struggle
should be supported from the the smallest community, the individuals.
Everyone needs take part in the endeavor against global warming by
doing some simple things. For example one can minimize the usage of
fossil fuel powered engines, such as cars, by instead walking or
using a bicycle. One can also use recyclable and eco-friendly
materials to decrease pollution. Little things will accumulate to
bigger things, and hopefully it can eventually affect the bigger
communities.
Resources :
Chanda, Nayan.
(2001, June 28). The Double Edge of Globalization. Bound Together:
How Traders, Preachers, Adventurers, and Warriors Shaped
Globalization. YaleGlobal.
Confino,
Jo. (2013, September 12). Report
shows companies still don't take climate change seriously. The
Guardian. Retrieved
from :
http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/cdp-report-companies-emissions-failing
