Globalizations Impact On The Environment - Case Study Example

Globalization’s Impact On The Environment .Globalisation is a practice of interacting and mixing or assimilation among people, companies and governments of different countries whose significant feature is international industrial and financial business structure. Globalisation may be thought of as the widening, deepening and speeding up of worldwide interconnectedness in all aspects of contemporary social life, from the cultural to the criminal, the financial to the spiritually. More formally, globalisation can be categorized as a process that embodies a transformation in the spatial organization of social relations and transactions (Wiley, Nandi & Shahidullah 1998, p. 21). Hyperglobalism conceive globalisation as a new age of economic integration that is characterized by open trade, global financial flows as well as multinational corporations. Hyperglobalism is driven by capitalism, communications and transportation technology, integration into one world market and it is increasingly eroding state power and legitimacy. Probably the largest body of opinion - and one that spans the entire politico-ideological spectrum - consists of what might be called the hyper-globalists, who argue that we live in a borderless world in which the 'national' is no longer relevant (Dickens 2008, p. 6). The so said social relations and transactions are assessed in terms of their extensitivity, intensitivity, velocity and impact and the rate at which they generate transcontinental or interregional flow and networks of activity, interaction and exercise of power. The purpose of this study is to analyze idea of ‘globalisation’ and some of the key orthodox and radical theories and points of view surrounding it in the economic, political and particularly social sphere and how globalisation is having both positive as well as negative impact, and at the same a very influential impact. Forces causing globalisation The policies and technological advancement have opened up many domestic and international economies unlike during the Second World War. The adoption of free market economic systems by many governments has amplified their industrious potential within years and created numerous of opportunities for both international trade and investment. There negotiated reduction of barriers to trade by governments and the establishment of international agreements that promotes trade in goods, services and investment have also initiated the globalisation process. Corporations have benefited from overseas markets by constructing new foreign factories and through establishment of marketing and marketing arrangements with foreign associates. Among the many economic based movements, globalization is the one which had and is still having major impact on the economic development of many countries and its people worldwide. “The word globalization marks a set of transitions in the global political economy since the 1970's, in which multinational forms of capitalist organization began to be replaced by transnational” (Appadurai, cited in Meyer and Geschiere 1999, p307). Economic part of globalization is the key because with the whole world becoming a kind of global village, barriers between the countries are broken with integration happening mainly in the economic aspects. In this scenario, foreign organizations, using the globalization plank, have entered and will also enter various sectors of the businesses leading to the establishment of many industries and thereby having an impact on social change. But, the fact is, the entry of countries into various territories and thus making impact on the culture was an age old phenomenon, which took place under the guise of imperialism. That is, after Vasco da Gama found the sea route to India, circumventing the Cape of Good Hope, major European countries from the initial years of 1500’s moved in large numbers to develop trade relations. (Gopinath 2008, p16). This trade turned into imperialist leanings due to the weakness of the Asian as well as African countries and in course of time lead to the formation of social change in a basic and minimal scale. This negative act of imperialism continued throughout the 20th century and only after the advent of globalization, this entry into foreign territories acquired positive meanings. Role of businesses in aiding globalisation focusing on the economic aspects Now, in the post industrialization era, organizations or firms cannot remain “static”. They has to keep on moving breaking ‘boundaries’ both geographically as well as economically, to actualize the opportunities and emerge successful. That is, with every firms wanting to expand their geographical reach and make an imprint in various markets, there will be enough opportunities for it, to initiate an entry into a foreign market. This economic aspect of globalization clearly creates and impacts social change. Creates in the sense, the entry of foreign firms leads to workers from many countries or background working together and this also creates basic social change. Organizations operating internationally or MNC will be composed of workers from three national or country categories. The employees from the parent country where the firm is usually headquartered or based (or came from) are called Parent Country nationals (PCNs). The employees from the host country where a subsidiary or MNC may be located are called host country nationals (HCNs). Finally, there will be third or other countries which may be the source of labor, finance, research and development, and the employees from these countries are called third country nationals (TCNs) (Scullion 2007). These entry of foreign firms, employees and thereby its products and services will make a major impact of social change. Globalisation, Free Trade approach and neoliberalism The blurry perception of globalization has been clearly explained in financial vocabulary. Corporate globalization may be viewed as the movement of items, services and money assets or savings across global boundaries. In this manner, globalization has turned out to be a predominately ‘financial umbrella’ of the world, with national organisations developing into international corporations, and countries are no longer seen as self-governing and closed monarch states, but as a fraction of single large financial system with their Free Trade regimes. From earlier times, during international trade certain countries will have natural comparative advantage or will try to maintain a comparative advantage for itself. The theory of absolute comparative advantage states that a country contains an unconditional advantage in the production of a product when it can produce more of that product with the same amount of resources than another country. Absolute advantage can also result in higher incomes for a country as one hour of labor output should increase and the country should become more efficient as a result of trade between countries. Realistically, one country should have an absolute advantage over another country in the production of some goods. As an example, Saudi Arabia would have an absolute advantage in the production of oil compared to a country such as Japan. However, the act of nations to maintain unfair competitive or comparative advantage has become a thing of the past, with globalization and WTO regulations, preventing nations from doing so. Because of globalisation, Free trade regimes are being actualized in many countries and Free Trade has been promoted by decreasing or abolition of tariffs, creating free trade zones with minimal imposition of tariffs, reduction in transport costs through containerization for ocean shipping, reducing or abolition of capital control measures as well as balancing subsidies for local businesses. Free trade is also encouraged by harmonizing the laws that regulate intellectual property across most nations and by supranational acknowledgment of intellectual property and patent rights. The basic principle of Neoliberalism is the actualization of free markets and free trade. So, it involves market deregulation, minimum intervention from the state and its government, and also increased privatization. With the actualization of this kind of political economy perspective, there will be break down of barriers to international trade as well as foreign investment. Thus, there will be adequate transfer in the control of a nation’s economy, from the state actors or government to the private sector players. However, globalization has also generated significant international opposition over concerns that it has increased inequality. That is, certain countries or even organizations develop at the expense of other countries, by ‘tapping’ their weak policies. “The rise of neo-liberal economic thinking in the West led to the view that the underdeveloped states had approached development in the wrong way. Instead of establishing inefficient state run import substitution industries, it was argued; they should have concentrated on areas in which they possessed comparative advantage (Best and Hanhimaki 329). In the book, “The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy” presents, Rivoli comes up with important conclusions regarding the inferior status of poor countries with supporting evidence. Rivoli concludes that poor countries’ economy and importantly its people stay poorer, without improvement mainly because of the direct and indirect suppression of their products. That is, farmers and manufacturers of developed countries succeed and indirectly suppress farmers and manufactures of poor or Third World Countries because of various tax exemptions and the scenario of unprotected global trade provided by corrupt governments. According to Rivoli, even the used up dresses with cheaper price tag did not reach the Africans, because they are worn by Americans and Japanese as part of vintage clothing. Even though, Rivoli pessimistically talks about the poor countries, he concludes positively by seeing some hope for them. Its impact on indigenous businesses With the advent of globalisation, business organizations have entered the domain of many countries helping them as well as destroying them. “Rapid growth and poverty reduction in China, India, and other countries that were poor 20 years ago, has been a positive aspect of globalisation. But globalisation has also generated significant international opposition over concerns that it has increased inequality and environmental degradation” (worldbank.org). That is, with the foreign firms enticing the maximum customers through effective and at the same time unethical marketing strategies, it is depriving the home grown business of their livelihood. “The fear that large multinationals would drive small local firms into extinction and cripple domestic entrepreneurship” (Bhagwati, 2004, p181) Because of this deprivation, people dependent on local or home grown businesses and part of the social change suffer a lot, with economic inequality being the prime results. This inequality and the resultant differences in the lifestyle of the two groups of people create a lot of tension and even clashes. There occurs demonstration against globalization by the local populace, with many critics branding globalization as a destroyer of home grown business and local people’s livelihood. So, globalization mainly focuses on the economic sphere with the entry of foreign firms holding the prominent position, and this clearly impacts social change both from the social angle as well as from the business angle. Globalisation’s negative impact on the environment Although this economic development could uplift the life of many people, the fact is, this same economic development and the actions that are taken for it, will damage many lives by destroying the environment in which the lives exist. Among the many steps that countries take for economic development as part of globalisation, most of them lead to Greenhouse gases emissions (GHG) or particularly carbon emissions, one of the major causes of environment destruction. That is, starting from constructing new infrastructure to electrifying the infrastructure, all the activities emit carbon emissions.. Electrical power is one of the main needs to sustain or accelerate the economic development. For that crucial electrical power, these countries particularly China and India are focusing on the main Carbon emitter, Coal as the primary source of electric generation. For instance, China roughly generates 70 per cent of its energy needs from coal, and India for its part needs coal to meet more than 50 per cent of its energy needs. The more disturbing fact but a possible eventuality is that this electrical generation through coal is expected to increase even more, making these countries major emitters of environment destroying GHG gases particularly Carbon. “The Asian coal rush is expected to generate 30,000 megawatts coal-fired power over the next 10 years in the region. The IEA has projected that the world's C02 emissions will reach 40 gigatons by 2030. The emerging economies led by China and India will contribute to more than 70 per cent of these emission” (Islam). As the current and further economic development will only lead to further emission of environment damaging carbon, environment and the people in those countries as well as in the other countries will face dangerous repercussions because of globalization. Erasing of physical barriers and the resultant impacts on social change The physical separateness between the countries and culture has become a thing of past, with entire world and the various cultures turning into a homogeneous entity. The interaction and thereby promotion of social change is mainly brought on by the emergence of transport and communication tools, which are clear by-products of globalization. That is, as foreign countries or firms or individuals wanted to explore, interact or even wanted to do business as part of globalization, they used the above mentioned tools of transportation and communication as the aid. “The new facilities of transport and communication allowed for a rapid transformation of the horizons of expectation of ordinary people all over the World” (Claval, p9). Nowadays, every part of the world has been explored and cultural interaction is happening to the core, with the aid of advanced transportation structures. The ‘footprint’ or even a ‘wheel mark’ and thereby cultural impact can be seen in every part of the world. So, with maximum coverage in minimum possible time, people are having maximum interaction and thereby impacting social change, as they experience various cultures. Role of communication and media as a globalisation tool The other by product of globalization are communication and media. People are given a ‘front row seat’ to all the happenings with the aid of media including television, satellites, radios, mobile phones, etc. All these communication and media tools by crossing boundaries as part of globalization are making an impact on social change. That is, like the restriction placed on foreign firms from entering new countries, media forms were also restricted from entering new territories. But, with the advent of globalization and development of technology, media forms are working as a key part of globalization and thereby impacting social change. Thanks to the proliferation of channels and the increasingly ubiquitous nature of computing and telecommunications, we are entering an era when media will be everywhere and we will use all kinds of media in relation to each other. This ubiquity of media is the direct outcome of tide globalization that has engulfed the world and is manifest in tow types of convergence; the first is, media convergence where the ownership of media is getting concentrated in the hands of a few transnational media houses and, the second equally compelling symptom is, the increasingly central roles that digitally empowered consumers play in shaping the production, distribution, and reception of media content. These two forces, the direct outcome of globalization, have led to global convergence which is marked by multidirectional flow of cultural goods around the world. The best examples are the role by played by the American media forms. “American popular culture has become a globalized popular culture. American movies, television shows, music and books dominate foreign markets.” (Spiro, p44). American TV channels, movies, etc are entering foreign territories and impacting the local culture, and thereby impacting social change in both positive as well as in negative direction. As American films and Television shows dominate the airwaves and ‘enter’ the minds of people all over the world in a continuous way, it is interacting with the local culture thereby stressing its prominence over the local culture. That is, from Hollywood films to News channels, many forms of media mostly reflect the American government’s viewpoints and foreign policies in a positive manner, imbuing those in the minds of the people. Nye (8) puts forward this same assertion through the words of a former French foreign minister who observed that the Americans are powerful because they can "inspire the dreams and desires of others thanks to the mastery of global images through film and television". Boal (2006) in his "The Aesthetics of the Oppressed" focuses on how Hollywood and Television are acting like sedative agents of Globalisation. “Hollywood is the world’s greatest promoter and exporter of visual symbols” (Nye, 47). So, the main point is, as part of globalization America is dominating and influencing the world, its people and their opinion through media, thereby negatively impacting social change and instead promoting Americanization. Gitlin in 2001 had painted a very succinct picture of the current state of social and cultural change that has been unleashed by the spate of globalization when he said “If there is a global village, it speaks American. It wears jeans, drinks Coke, eats at the golden arches, walks on swooshed shoes, plays electric guitars, and recognizes Mickey Mouse, James Dean, E. T., Bart Simpson, R2-D2, and Pamela Anderson.” (Gitlin, 2001) Conclusion To conclude, globalisation is having an impact on the economic, social and political forces of society and the world. Social and economic structures and concepts that were considered sacrosanct have suddenly been exposed to a series of queries and posers. These have made serious thinkers all over the world to sit up and actually ponder about the impact of such a large scale fusion of not only capital from diverse sources but, more importantly, cultural streams emanating from societies and nations that were safely insulated from each other, through the apparently insurmountable barriers of distance, language and customs. The palpable result is, like all such mammoth churnings of social and cultural things, is a curious amalgam of seamless fusion in certain areas with certain other segments demonstrating manifestations of discord. 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