Recent scientific studies estimate that commercial fish stocks will collapse by 2050 if overfishing and climate change are not immediately addressed. The Global Environmental Outlook (GEO) Year Book 2007 highlights declining global fisheries as a significant challenge facing governments in an increasingly globalized world. The Year Book, released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), explains that globalization poses both risks and opportunities for sustainable development and identifies strategies to help protect environmental integrity and human well-being in an economically and socially interconnected world.
The Risks and Opportunities of Globalization
Globalization has been given numerous definitions and assumes many dimensions, including economic, cultural, technological, political and environmental facets. Most basically, it refers to a growing economic and social integration, characterized by the rapid movement of goods and services, capital, information, and people throughout the world. Some of the potential environmental costs of globalization outlined by the GEO Year Book 2007 include:- decreased government ability to regulate and/or cope with environmental management challenges;
- increased corporate power and reach;
- growth of sectors such as transportation and energy, which have largely negative environmental impacts;
- commodification of limited resources such as water and the decline of traditional controls on resource use; and
- spatial separation of individual and collective actions from the environmental implications of those actions.
The Year Book also identifies ways that globalization may help environmental quality:
- global corporations can spread the latest technologies and techniques for sustainable environmental management;
- globalization can increase incomes, creating larger government budgets for environmental programs and increased public demand for environmental amenities; and
- increasing international trade in natural resources could lead to higher prices, more secure property rights, and greater investments in sustaining those resources.
A special section of the Year Book focuses exclusively on the environmental benefits and risks of emerging nanotechnolgies.
Strategies for Environmentally Sustainable Globalization
Globalization is hailed for lifting millions of people out of poverty, particularly in the developing world. However, the potential for globalization to continue improving human welfare rests on the environmental sustainability of current economic practices. According to UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner, "If rising living standards and inefficient methods of production and consumption intensify pressure on nature's natural resources--from fish, freshwater and the atmosphere to forests and fragile lands--globalization could become a spectacular failure rather than a saviour." The GEO Year Book includes specific case studies to describe a number of strategies to improve the environmental outlook of current globalization trends:
- Developing markets for ecosystem services
- Promoting environmentally sound technology
- Utilizing information, communications and monitoring technologies
- Strengthening environmental governance
- Involving civil society and the private sector
RELATED LINKS:
EarthTrends
Globalization, Governance and Poverty
Trade in Goods and Services Data
Transnational Corporations Data
Environmental Governance and Institutions Searchable Database
