Elaborating the Interconnectedness of the Numerous Global Crises - Essay Example

Global Crisis While the global economic crisis has captivated the attention of people around the world, this capitalist economic crisis is just one of the many crises affecting our planet. Accordingly, Earth is beset by a series of crises affecting the development of our planet. An environmental crisis has been brought to light through the increased attention paid to the global warming phenomenon and international climate change; a political crisis which is occurring in some of the poorest stretches of the world as populations continue to grow exponentially, raising questions about the ability of some of these developing countries to sustain natural growth. In addition to an environmental and political crisis, the economic crisis which enveloped the developed countries of the Western world raises questions about the sustainability of capitalism as the driving force of the global economy. Seeking to understand the shifts from economic globalization towards sustainability, the following will begin with a clear definition of the concept of sustainability as well as interconnectedness between the sustainability crisis and the other manifestations of crisis affecting our planet. Following this, an analysis of the concept of disabling will provide examples of this phenomenon and the interconnectedness of the numerous global crises will be elaborated. Furthermore, this essay will attempt to explain why humans have allowed their home planet to be destroyed and have acquiesced to the inequities and ideology involved in the capitalist economic system. Sustainable Development in the 21st Century Sustainable development is a concept which has become quite popular in recent political discourse but is not often properly understood. Accordingly, sustainable development refers to development which is possible of sustaining itself for future generations, thus meeting human needs but also preserving the environment. Utilizing the concept in an African context, sustainable development would refer to helping rural farmers develop today and provided them with the tools they need in order to harvest their crops but also give them the knowledge and skills they require in order to continue to innovate and develop their cultivation process. Sustainable development looks at long-term solutions while also emphasizing the immediacy of short-term action. According to Lester R. Brown in his Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, the present sustainability crisis that the world is now facing is directly related to the social and economic crises of the past and present. Accordingly, our planet is suffering from the ramifications of centuries of misuse and unsustainable development. Accordingly, our ecological and social systems are reaching their limits. Global warming is evidenced by the fact that polar ice and glaciers are melting faster than ever recorded, and state collapse is evidenced throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore the sustainability of an economy based upon oil is being brought into question as are states attempt to diversify their dependence on an extractive economy based upon oil. Furthermore, the gap between rich and poor is widening but the economic basis of an exploitative and extractive global economy has taken its toll on the development of Earth (Brown 41-115). Industrial economic development has left a variety of negative ramifications on the ecological sustainability of our planet. Pollution, extraction-based economic policies and a capitalist political economy which is in a state of crisis have all contributed to a lessening of the ability of the planet to sustain itself. Lester R. Brown argues that we are in the process of seeing early signs of decline and the social crisis, mortality rates, increased poverty and increased pollution, are all interconnected with economic and environmental crises. As natural social and environmental systems are under stress, the time has come to respond to the myriad of interconnected problems facing planet Earth. The concept of disabling refers to a situation in which free choice is lost and in which the free will of individuals disappears. Seeking to provide a series of responses to the interconnected challenges facing our planet after years of misuse and unsustainable development, Lester R. Brown advocates a multifaceted approach to fixing planet Earth. This includes attempts at eradicating global poverty, ensuring global economic protection, transforming the economic basis of many economies towards renewable and efficient sources of energy, and revising the basis of human settlement so that it is sustainable for generations to come (Brown 145 – 230). Why have humans allowed the planet to descend in such dire straits? Although controversial to assert, the capitalist economic system and the worldwide entrenchment of the system has led to the many of the crises that the world is facing. The global environmental crisis is directly related to the fact that much of western development, and eastern development presently, is based on the notion of industrialization and iin the extracted nature of economic development. Capitalist economic development has paved the way for factories throughout the world and has ensured that coal and oil are primary products which fuel the engines of development. Based on the concept of extraction and the inherent ramifications of pollution, a neoliberal capitalist agenda has been the guiding force behind the globalization movement and has been responsible for the pollution of this planet since the early days of the Industrial Revolution. Capitalism has also paved the way for the inequalities which have become a feature of the human existence on planet Earth and the division of the planet into those who have and those who have-not. Global economic disparities are explained by the worldwide spread of capitalism and division of the planet into core states which benefit greatly from the capitalist orientation of the global economy and those on the periphery who remain dependent and are stuck in perpetual underdevelopment (Hobsbawm 249-273). Capitalism is the driving force behind the current globalization movement has also been the most important economic ideology for more than two centuries. Much of the global pollution problems today are tied to capitalism and the extractive nature of this economic system. Pollution in places like China today is tied to the industrialization process currently underway in much of the Third World and the significant ramifications associated with an extraction-based economy. Utilizing the case of China as an example, nearly 500,000,000 Chinese people lack access to safe drinking water and capitalist led development has resulted in a dramatic increase in pollution in this country. Accordingly, pollution is made cancer the leading cause of death in China and the World Bank reports that 75,000 people die prematurely each and every year in China from pollution related diseases. Furthermore 16 of the worlds 20 most polluted cities are in China. In its attempts to develop its economy in line with capitalist oriented principles, China has sacrificed its environmental concerns leading to a whole host of social, economic and environmental problems. As China emphatically demonstrates, environmental, social and economic problems are all interrelated and tied to the economic system (Khan & Yardley 2007; Toy A1). Concluding Remarks As Stephan Schartzman makes emphatically clear in his article, Banking on Disaster, the global capitalist economic system has paved the way for unsustainable development and has masked many of the underlying inequities and inequalities within the world. Today, the capitalist global economic crisis is just one of the many crises affecting our planet. While this crisis may overshadow environmental and social crises affecting the world, each of these crises are linked and interrelated. Environmental crisis caused by centuries of unsustainable development has paved the way for a series of social crises which have led to widespread deprivation throughout the world, incessant underdevelopment in Southern Africa and untold human suffering caused by pollution in the developing world. The capitalist global economy remains a universal feature of the world system and the unsustainability capitalist economic growth has led to these myriad of crises which presently affect our planet. The global economic system is headed by neo-liberal organizations such as the IMF and the World Bank which promote rampant inequality throughout the world and the division of the planet and to those who have and those who have not (Schartzman 1985). The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have succeeded in managing the international financial system by creating the “rules of the game” for the global economy. The IMF is a multilateral international organization and its Structural Adjustment Policies are a controversial component of the lending practices of the IMF. As with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank is an international financial organization which engages in the controversial practice of Structural Adjustment loans as an international lending organization. Critics of globalization argue that these organizations represent thinly disguised neo-imperialism and an insidious attempt to spread Westernization and Western concepts of capitalism, exploitation and greed across the globe. Accordingly, detractors argue that globalization does nothing more than entrench the dominant economic position of the developed countries of the West while perpetuating an unequal global distribution of wealth on the planet. From these perspective, global economic institutions such the World Bank and the MIF ensure the continued subservient status of the developing countries of the world within the current global economic system. The inequalities of capitalism are manifest each and every day in the ramifications of this economic system are demonstrated in the multiple crises affecting this planet today. Human beings have acquiesced to the inherent inequalities with capitalist economic development need to reevaluate the entire system of global production. Sustainable development must be a goal for our planet. As Lester R. Brown makes emphatically clear, the future of this planet depends on it (Schartzman 1985; Harvey 135-146). Works Cited Brown, Lester R. Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization. New York: W.W. Norton, 2008. Hobsbawm, Eric. Age of Extremes: The Short History of the Twentieth Century: 1914-1991. London: Abacus, 1994. Harvey, D. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford University Press, London, 2007. Khan, J. & Yardley, J. “As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes”, The New York Times, August 26, 2007. Last Accessed November 12 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/world/asia/26china.html Schartzman, Stephan. “Banking on Disaster”, The Multinational Monitor. Last Accessed November 12 2009,http://multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1985/0615/schwartzman.html Toy, M-A. “Pollution facts suppressed by China”. Sydney Morning Herald, A1 September 22, 2007. Last Accessed November 12 2009, http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/pollution-facts-suppressed-by-china-pollution-facts-suppressed bychina/2007/07/05/1183351302562.html Read More