Executive summary
The economy of the world is undergoing a profound change in the ways it is being operated. Globalization entails having social economic and environmental process.
Some of the various changes that have been brought about include the following: Extension of the global market to such a point that it incorporates all world economies, new technologies, increased communication, cultural integration, environmental problems for example global warming, and there is also spread of diseases all over the world (United Nations Environment Programme 2002,11).
Due to all these things that have been brought about by globalization, a question has come up whether globalization is in observance of the sustainable development, which many organizations and personalities have highlighted on the need to observe. It has been a set goal for each and every country to increase their investment on ensuring that sustainable development is promoted, especially in poor countries.
Some people have come out and criticized globalization as only being a temporary way of improving the lives of people, and that the future generations might have no sustainable development.
Using various examples, this paper will tackle this problem and come to a conclusion whether globalization is compatible with sustainable development. Among the various areas that will be accessed includes the following, poverty alleviation, environmental protection, North‐South relations and terms of trade.
Introduction
Globalization is a national as well as an international ideology that aims at promoting development amongst people using shared interests. For globalization to be seen as a balanced system there is the requirement that each region, culture as well as individuals have to be included in the formation of a global system.
However, It is notable that sustainable globalization can be hindered by presence of altitude of dependence, marginality and dominance. Globalization can therefore be achieved only due to having a scenario that each and every one is willing to share, and everyone takes a role in ensuring that success is achieved.
Globalization can be either unstable or sustainable. The unstable globalization is the one that aims at regional development through sharing of interest with an aim of having a dominant ideology as a basis of globalization (United Nations Development Programme 2002, 69).
The system has lasted for centuries but with the modification that has occurred technologically, it has disappeared with time. On the other hand, sustainable globalization has a cooperative purpose that carries national interests as the ultimate purpose.
In order for sustainable development to be in existence, national interests need to be covered. Diplomacy has to be on its highest, and consideration of other cultures has to be incorporated.
Technological development has been the main campaigner of globalization in the world today. It is through technological developments that globalization has taken a big stride towards its success.
The market has been made global to such a point that everyone is likely to get whatever he or she wants through the created market. The technology that is used to drive globalization is not always favorable to the sustainable development that is desired to be achieved in the modern world, as well as the future.
Poverty alleviation
As earlier noted, sustainable development entails a scenario where the needs of the current society are met and at the same time, the needs of the future generation are still not compromised. Poverty is considered as a major cause as well as an effect of global environment. People who are enduring poverty usually tend to exploit the resources they have for every day survival.
In turn, the resources are not much used and the future generations have hope of getting these resources as poor people are just using enough for their survival. When globalization comes in and aims at elevating the poor people, it aims at exploiting the resources these people have on their disposal so that they can get better lives (Asadi et al, 2008, 2002).
In turn, some regions tend to use the resources to the maximum leaving little to the culture generation. A good example is a scenario where the developing countries are cutting down their trees in great numbers to develop these regions, but do not think of what the future generation will have at their disposal. The resources are used maximally to drive out poverty.
It is also against the idea brought out of sustainable development and where the fate of the future generation is considered when coming up with a way of solving the problem of poverty in developing countries. A good scenario would be the one that the resources are used optimally for the benefit of the current generation, leaving some of the resources to be exploited in the future by the future generations.
It is also on record that some countries like Bangladesh have been involved in technological development of kicking out poverty and massive pollution has been recorded.
Due to such, globalization would not be considered compatible with sustainable development as it is inclined in one way of elevating the lives of the current generation in poor countries, but not putting into consideration the future generation when it comes to poverty alleviation.
Environmental protection
One of the main drivers of globalization is presence of technology. Through globalization, everything has been turned from being manual, and most of the things previously done manually are now done using machines.
Economic activities are therefore in the increase in most parts of the world as each and every country aims at benefiting due to the presence of the global market, where dominance is experienced on to how much one can get the products to the people.
Globalization has also brought about a free market that his accessible to everyone and in turn there has been acceleration in development of various parts of the world as they seek to control the market that is offered globally (Paul and Voituriez 2009, 27). In turn, the increase in economic activities, investment liberalization, and trading activities has led to an increased pressure in the environment amongst us.
In countries where environmental policies are weak, the quality of the environment has been notably of low quality. In the case of countries with investment liberalization and trading activities are combined with defined strong regulatory measures, and these regions have notable quality environmental conditions.
It is also notable that every country in the world share the same environment and that there are no barrier boundaries defining environment (Brueckner 2011, 63). Since such a scenario does not exist, the area where the environment has been polluted also affects the areas where the environment is well taken care of.
It is like the scenario of global warming where every one of us is affected, whether we were involved in polluting the environment or not. There is no sparing of the people who have strict laws that ensure that the environment is well conserved. Though there has been passing of various global regulations that aim at ensuring that the environment is conserved, the effect of technological advances is still there.
The effect of globalization on the environment is surely not compatible with sustainable development (Commonwealth Consultative Group on Environment 2002, 5). The reasoning behind this is backed by the fact that globalization has led to a scenario where there is massive exploitation of resources using machinery that is polluting our environment.
Such has been experienced through global warming and even changes in the ocean levels. As sustainable development highlights in a scenario that the future generations get to enjoy the same privileges as we are enjoying when it comes to the environment, it is obvious that they will not enjoy the same environment as we are enjoying.
The environment is continually being polluted especially in the developing countries that do not have machineries that are environmentally friendly (Sachikonye and Lloyd 2002, 3). An other current issue of environment is the oil spill in the gulf of Mexico from shell.
The ocean which forms part of our environment was greaely affected by this. Clearly there is lack of compatibility between globalization and sustainable development when it comes to environmental matters.
Terms of trade
Globalization brings about international trade, and when we have international trade several terms and concepts come up. Terms of trade is one of the concepts that come about due to international trade. It is the way the imports and the exports of a certain country exchange in monetary matters.
For example, there exists a monetary relationship between United States and Japan due to the trading activities between these two countries. In bid to improve their balance of trade, many countries especially the most industrialized are usually having their companies and organization moving their activities to other countries so that they can increase the income they derive from other countries (Patnaik and Prabhat 2002, 6).
It is also notable that countries are also exploiting so much of their resources to restore their balance of trade incase their countries are faring badly when it comes to balance of trade with other countries.
Poverty is therefore increasing in some of the countries, which have no much resource with them to cover for the exchange of goods and services they get from other countries. If incase a country is endowed with resources, these resources are usually maximally exploited to cover for the balance of trade that may be in existence with other trading partners (Williamson and Jeffrey 2006, 8).
A good example of over exploitation of resources to control the terms of trade is like the scenario of Dubai where the oil is deemed to be extinct in 2016 after which future generation will not enjoy it. As earlier noted, sustainable development entails a scenario where the people mind the fate of other people as well as for the future generation are put into consideration.
The fact that there is pollution of the environment for the undeveloped nation means that the generations to come are likely to suffer if the trend is not reversed or controlled. There is also the issue of over exploitation of the resources that may be in existence and the future generation might not have adequate resources as the current generation may exploit the resources up to the point of depleting them.
When it gets to that, though the terms of trade may be corrected now, it may increase in the future since the future generation may not have enough to trade with other countries. The only way to solve this is to ensure that there is optimum usage of resources. Terms of trade and globalization therefore would not be considered favorable due to the above mentioned reasons.
North south relation
The question of compatibility of globalization has also a relation with the North and South relation. The North and South relation finds its basis in the Rio Earth Summit that was aimed at providing a partnership between the developed nations of the north and the developing nations of the south.
In this particular summit, there was passing of five main objectives that the north would observe in bid to ensure that the south also benefited from globalization. For one, the North agreed to change their production and consumption patterns so that pollution and the environment standards would be improved.
The north also resolved to increase financial aid to the south and also technology developments that would be favorable for the south. If the south had the provided finance to promote development in their region, they would in turn minimize pollution and also reduces depletion of the resources they had.
The debt problem was also discussed and the resultant of this was that structural adjustment policies would be resolved to ensure that the southern nation enjoyed fair trading relations hence reducing the dept. Finally, there was a resolution that the south would also be recognized by the north when it came to partnership and fulfilling the development needs.
However, it is notable five years down the line most of these resolutions were not observed. When it comes to financial assistance, it is notable that the contribution the northern countries made went down and the south also did not enjoy any adequate technological assistance.
Indeed no much can be said that the north has done to help out the south and ensure that the environment as well as the lives if the people in the south were improved. As earlier noted, compatibility between globalization and sustainable development needs that all the people and cultures be incorporated, from the agreement that existed between the North and the South relation such do not exist.
The north have failed to hold their end of the deal and this has in turn led to the south being left behind when it comes to development as well as keeping a polluted free environment (Crate and Susan 2006, 240). The debt has also increased when it comes to the national debt, other notable changes is presences of poverty in these countries as minimal development is experienced.
However, the desired development of the south has only been experienced by just a few countries in the Asia leaving the other countries of the south in worse position as they are unable to compete with the Northern nations who have become more technologically advanced with time.
The fact that the north has not put into consideration needs of the others, that is, the south in their technological advancement is certainly against what sustainable development speaks of. Everyone is included in a sustainable development form of set up as well as availing the future generation the same resources that each and every one of us is enjoying (United Nations Association International Service 2001, 55).
The North and South relation is clearly not in observance of this as people in the south are not incorporated in the development and also there is the continuous usage of environmental destructive machinery by the south.
However, this to some may appear to be an added benefit to the future generations of the poor countries as they will find some unexploited resources since the current generation has not depleted all the resources (Wanda 2002, 5). On the other hand, this may not always be true since some of people from the rich north are buying some of these resources from the south and exploiting them for their own benefits.
It would be therefore wise to conclude that failure by the north to observe the resolutions passed in the summit has lead to incompatibility between globalization and sustainable development development.
Conclusion
The effect of globalization is notably big as it leads to increased trade between the various countries of the world, at the same time, there is an enlarged market as the whole word becomes a single market accessible everyone. On the other hand, sustainable development is a scenario where the needs of the current society are met and also at the same time, the needs of the future generation are still not compromised.
The meaning of this is that the future generation should be put into consideration of what will be at their disposal in terms of the resources and the environment around the (United Nations Environment Programme 2002, 13). The current generation therefore has the responsibility of ensuring that when exploiting the resources, they also make sure that they leave enough for the future generation.
Ironically, presence of globalization does not promote that. Though not intentional, the resources that the various countries have are getting depleted in time as people aspire to get to a higher level of development. Such is evident in exploitation of oil resource in Dubai.
The environment is also at the same time being polluted to such a point that there are notable environmental changes that are visible in the world today (Gonzalez-Gaudiano 1997, 2). The issue of compatibility between globalization and sustainable development therefore is not there, since while sustainable development is campaigning for consideration of other generation globalization is tending to act against this very concept.
The concept of globalization is also against the issue of sustainable in the fact that it is discriminative in nature. Not all cultures are inclusive but instead there is creation of one culture, which is a global one. This is truly against sustainable development concept.
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