Chapter 15: Environmental Issues

PS130 World PoliticsMichael R. Baysdell

Saginaw Valley State University

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The Ecological State of the World

• New theory: Green Accounting – Measures a country’s overall strength using the

following factors:• GNP and other traditional measures of national wealth• Human capital: the productive capacity of a country’s

population as determined by its education, health, and other factors. • Natural capital: includes the quality and quantity, as

appropriate, of land, air, water, and natural resources

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The Ecological State of the World:The Bottom Line

• Value of the Earth's ecological systems• State of the Earth's ecological systems• Environmental pessimists: rapid collapse coming; limited

time to fix– Environmental scarcities lead to human suffering: severe storms,

skin cancer, warfare over scarce natural resources

• Environmental optimists: problems minimal and getting better, technology and innovation will take care of them– Technological innovation will solve problems: water desalination,

use hydrogen to generate electricity, global warming is a farce, fertilizers will increase crop yield.

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Toward Sustainable Development

• Debates about the ecological state of the world and sustainable development– Whether and how the world can continue

simultaneously to sustain development and to protect the environment

– Issue of carrying capacity: The largest number of humans that the Earth can sustain indefinitely at current rates of per capita consumption of natural resources.

– Exploding population growth, Spiraling consumption, and Mounting Waste threaten carrying capacity may be challenges

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Sustainable Development• The conundrum: how to promote economic

development without compromising protection of the environment and the human condition

• Options for sustainable development– Severely restricting development : deny LDCs, limit EDCs– Paying the price for environmentally responsible

development• Example of China—serious economic threat• Stack scrubbers, hydroelectric , solar, or nuclear power

– Short-term costs for long-term benefits• The sustainable development debate: What to

believe?

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The Politics of Sustainable Development

• First step: recognizing that there is a problem; accomplished with the convening of two UN-sponsored “Earth Summits”– Earth Summit I, 1992• United Nations Conference on Environment and

Development (UNCED)

– Earth Summit II, 2002• World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD)

Earth Summit #1 (1992): Rio de Janeiro

• North and South at odds on many issues• LDCs: Burden of sustainable development

should fall on EDCs• LDCs: Forests are sovereign resources, unlike

oceans• Nonbinding blueprint

Earth Summit #2 (2002)

• North-South splits deeper than ever• But still, successes• By 2015, cut the # of people without

sanitation by 50%• Maintain/restore fisheries by 2015• Less biological extinction• Pollution “targets” nonbinding• Built on at 2009 Copenhagen summit but still

no truly binding agreement

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Sustainable Development:Population Problems

• According to the UN Population Fund, in 2050 the world population will reach 9 billion (currently about 6.8 billion)

• High growth rate is fueled by:– Improving human health/fewer deaths– Much lower infant mortality– Lack of access to contraception– Huge population base (multiplication effect)

• Future trends: Population in “wrong places” means many will need to migrate for jobs.

• Nigeria=average 6 children/mother (no safety net)• Some say grim—population will grow exponentially (Malthus)• But China will age more rapidly than any society in human history• Russia’s population rate negative! (Russian Governor’s “special day”)

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Population Progress: The Response of the International Community

• Role of the United Nations– UN Population Fund (UNFPA)– World Health Organization (WHO): eliminated smallpox*– UN Children's Fund (UNICEF)– United Nations Conference on Population and Development

(UNCPD), 1994: focus on infant mortality and debate over abortion

– Overarching goals: restraining population growth, improving reproductive health, and empowering women• How to achieve these goals is very controversial

• NGOs: International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)• Negative response by Catholic Church• USA: Mexico City abortion policy under Republicans

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Approaches to Reducing the Birthrate

• Social approaches– Provide information about birth control and make

birth control mechanisms available (lower use of contraceptives in LDCs: 5% in Bangladesh

– Educational system

• Economic approaches– Belief that poverty causes overpopulation– Include efforts to advance economic and educational

opportunities available to women• World Conference on Women (WCW)• UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)

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The Impact of International Population Control Efforts

• Improved economic conditions in many LDCs• Slowly improving economic and educational status of

women– Average global fertility rate has declined (scientific

observations not good for men)– Infant mortality rates continue to drop

• Yet problem is far from being resolved– Greatest increases in population are occurring in the very

poorest countries

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Sustainable Development: The Resource Problem

• Petroleum, natural gas, and minerals--Increase in world energy needs• Decrease in nonrenewable resources• Oil consumption --Is it a problem?—crude reserves actually increased 1996 ->2007• Coal consumption—500 year supply but can pollute• Nuclear power—NIMBY problem• U.S. has lots of natural gas, but not in favor• Hydroelectric, solar, wind prohibitively expensive• Vast majority of all energy consumed by EDCs—LDCs angry• Minerals reaching depletion (lithium a good example)

• Answers??• Must maintain EDCs' economies and standards of living but curb demand• Must promote development in the South (efficiency) but shrink population growth• Must manage problems of resource depletion and environmental damage

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Forests and Land• Forest depletion worst in LDCs—economic necessity, few

alternatives• Consequences of deforestation– Global warming?– Cost of wood increases– Loss of biodiversity

– Land degradation– Soil erosion– Increased risk of floods, mudslides– Desertification

• Protection attempts: Treaty on Desertification, acid rain, rise of Green political parties

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Wildlife

• Economic value and loss of diversity• $20 billion annual illegal trade in feathers, pelts, ivory, and

other wildlife products• Role of pollution in the destruction of wildlife• Human food requirements bring increasing pressure on

the ocean’s fish, mollusks, and crustaceans• Protection: International convention on the Trade in

Endangered Species, strong national efforts against poaching

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Fresh Water

• Most water is not potable, fresh water a small % of all water

• Many LDCs already lack stable water supplies• Increased agricultural and industrial use• Contamination• Water shortage could cause international conflict in

several areas (Africa, Middle East)• Convention on Prevention of Pollution from Ships

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The Seas and Fisheries

• Pressures on the seas and fisheries– Increasing human food requirements– Marine pollution– Fishing at current levels non-sustainable

• Protecting fisheries– UN Convention on the Law of the Seas, 1994 – International Seabed authority– International Whaling Commission (IWC) and convention on

whaling—may not be needed with population rebound– Significant national and international conservation and

regulation efforts

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Sustainable Development:The Environment

• Ground quality--brownfields• Water quality—shipping, dumping, offshore

mining/drilling, rivers carrying agricultural and industrial runoff, human waste from nonseparated wastewater-sewage system

• Air quality• The ozone layer• Global warming– Greenhouse effect

• controversial

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International Ground Quality

• Issues– Exporting solid waste for disposal, includes e-

dumping– Using LDCs as disposal sites

• Efforts to protect– 1992 Convention on the Control of Transboundary

Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal

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International Water Quality

• Issues– Marine pollution–spillage from shipping, ocean

waste dumping, offshore mining, and oil-and-gas drilling activity

– Freshwater pollution–acid rain and rivers

• Efforts to protect– Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic

Pollutants (2001)

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International Air Quality

• Issues– Air pollution from sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen

dioxide (NO2 ), and suspended particles (such as dust and soot) cause some 500,000 deaths a year, according to WHO

• Efforts to protect– Annual EDC emissions of air pollutants have

declined dramatically – Several international and regional agreements

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Ozone Layer Depletion

• Ozone blocks UV rays, but can be created by sun. Hole over Antarctica, 1980s

• Ozone recovering due to ban on Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)– Add to greenhouse effect– Increase cancers and life mutations– Destroy basic life forms at the bottom of the food

chain– Banned by 1987 Montreal Protocol

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Protecting the Ozone Layer• Some progress at international level– UN Environmental Programme (UNEP)– Limiting chemicals

• Easing global warming– CO2 emissions– Global Warming Convention at the 1992 Earth Summit

• Addressing other environmental concerns– Basel Convention– Environment has only received international attention since

World War II

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Global Warming: What We Know• Global emissions of greenhouse gases have

risen significantly• Atmospheric CO2 concentrations have risen– Role of deforestation– Industrial Revolution

• Global temperature not rising for sure.• Scandal, 2009, over questionable scientific

practices. More scientists skeptical.

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Global Warming: What Is in Dispute• Is there warming at all?• The relative extent of global warming caused by human carbon emissions vs.

global warming occurring as a natural phenomenon• Whether global warming will have dire consequences or an impact that will in

some cases be beneficial• Environmental pessimists

– Climatic changes are dramatic– Intergovernmental Panel on Climatic Change (IPCC)– Costs to fix 1% of GDP

• Environmental optimists– Natural warming and cooling trends (sunspots)– Global warming and its effects are over-exaggerated – Costs 20% of GDP; unacceptable

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The International Response to Global Warming

• Significant reductions in the emission of global gases (Kyoto Protocol--U.S. not a signatory to Kyoto and China and India not required to reduce carbon emissions under current agreement)

• Economic costs cut both ways, trade-offs must be made

• Long-term versus short-term costs, both economic and environmental, must be considered

Chapter Objectives: Checklist• After reading this chapter, students should be able to:• 1. Explain the concept of sustainable development and con sider whether it is

possible or desirable.• 2. Summarize the debate between Environmental Pessimists and Optimists

regarding environmental degradation and possible solutions.• 3. Describe the issues of the world’s growing population and efforts to control

population growth.• 4. Analyze the global problems related to population and industrialization, and

the depletion of critical resources.• 5. Discuss current environmental problems and the international efforts for

environmental cooperation.

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