How has globalization been positive for the environment?

Question

How has it been positive? If so, could you please provide me with some specific examples? Thanks!

Answer 1

Globalization has been positive for the local environments of first world countries because we have outsourced most of our heavy manufacturing and highly polluting processes to third world countries where environmental regulations are lower.

However, overall, globalization has so far been disastrous for the global environment.

Answer 2

Easy, globalization has allowed many people who would starve to have food. Unfortunately, our current batch of politicians are cutting into the food supply by their idiotic proposals.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/articl...

http://planetdaily.ws/index.php/more/184

Globalization has also allowed the freedom to export good products and ideas. Just think of all the inventions which are now used globally. Otherwise, an invention or idea would only help those in the country inventing it.

Answer 3

It offered cheap labor to corporations so we could move all of our polluting industries overseas, cleaning up our air and streams.  The people living with incredibly polluted air and water supplies in Hong Kong and Beijing may have a different perspective.

In California our air has gotten slightly cleaner over the last 30 years, and now we can measure that 30% of the air pollution we currently have is arriving on our shores from Asia, so we can blame them for part of the problem.  They're making those products for our companies such as Wal-Mart though, so globalization has enabled corporations to dodge responsibility for how their products are made.  Since no one country can regulate the whole process anymore,it is highly unlikely that the net environmental effect has been positive.

Another factor is that when we ship manufacturing jobs overseas we increase unemployment in the U.S. and send those wages oveseas, plus all of hte goods and service required to support those workers.  A weakened U.S. economy produces less consumption and waste, benefitting the environment.

Similarly, sending all of that capitol over to China has increased U.S. national debt, and the value of the U.S. dollar has fallen about 60% over the past 7 years.  With a much lower purchasing power relative to other nations, Americans are much less prosperous (a 60% drop in our relative wealth the last 7 years alone) and less able to do damage.  

It you look at specific examples such as rainforest being replaced by cattle ranches and soybean farms, the environment has gotten better, but only for cattle and soybeans.

Globalization facilitates movements of people and resources, increasing living standards and wages.  The poplulation growing from 3.7 billion in 1960 to 6.6 billion now must have roughly doubled the global human footprint on the environment (more than doubling our carbon footprint for example).

Some aspects of globalization have the potential to be positive.  Consider Wal-Mart.  Wal-Mart has more money, power, and influence than all but a few of the largest world governments. They alone could almost single-handedly turn the tide on many global environmental problems by setting standards for air pollution, and for the mix of power used by their suppliers. Wal-Mart doesn't just serve as a proxy for the problems, they are a major facilitator of the problem.