Understanding Global Politics

Chanchal Kumar, Lungthuiyang Riamei, Sanju Gupta

• Publisher: KW Publishers
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9789386288370
• eBook ISBN: 9789386288387
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Comparative Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Understanding Global Politics is a pioneering work, which analyses contemporary issues such as climate change, migration, nuclear proliferation, terrorism as well as feminist perspective on International Relations. It covers the various dimensions of globalisation which affects on the accelerating world. The intergovernmental agencies such as International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), International Court of Justice as well as the United Nations, are instrumental in directing the energies towards the control of proliferation of nuclear weapons.The last section of the book deliberates on the global shifts, power and governance in a fast changing world order. The salience of global, regional and economic groupings like WTO, IMF, World Bank, BRICS, EU, etc are covered in great detail. The book presents an opportunity to engage in Applied Global Politics and explore the core concept by students of Political Science, International Relations, as well as refresher for scholars of defence and security studies.

CHAPTER 6

Ecological Issues: Historical Overview of International Environmental Agreements, Climate Change, Global Commons Debate

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Introduction

The 21^st century has seen the complex human activities which have been undertaken to achieve good lifestyle and maintaining the environmental harmony. The human activities in the last many centuries have degraded the environment drastically. The massive development projects undertaken ever since the Industrial Revolution in Europe, US and Asia have been emitting enormous amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs). For a very long time, development projects based on the western model were considered to be the panacea to all human miseries, particularly in the poor countries of Africa, Latin America and Asia. By the second half of the 20^th century it was clear that environmental damage, caused primarily by the mindless search for development, is endemic to human existence itself. It was realised that it needs urgent environmental movement in the 1970s. The growing concern for the future of the earth has forced the states in the world to come forward and cooperate. However, this cooperation has given way to debates regarding the extent of sacrifice one country is ready to make in order to save the Earth. Today this debate is the central focus in all the international environmental regimes. This debate has given birth to numerous grass-root movements worldwide for ecological protection.

What is Ecology?

The term ecology was first used by German Zoologist Ernst Haeckel in 1869 to describe the “relations of the animal both to its organic as well as its inorganic environment.” The term itself has been drawn from the Greek word oikos, meaning household, home or place to live. Hence, the interaction between individuals, between populations and between organisms and their environment form ecological systems or ecosystems. In simple words the term ecology can be defined as “the study of the inter-relationships of organisms with their environment and with each other.” The surroundings or environment consists of other living organisms (biotic) and physical (abiotic) components. Modern ecologists believe that an adequate definition of ecology must specify some unit of study and one such basic unit described by Tansley (1935) was ecosystem. An ecosystem is a self-regulating group of biotic communities of species interacting with one another and with their non-living environment, exchanging energy and matter. Now ecology is often defined as ‘‘the study of ecosystems’’.

“Ecology is the scientific study of the processes regulating the distribution and abundance of organisms and the interactions among them, and the study of how these organisms in turn mediate the transport and transformation of energy and matter in the biosphere (i.e., the study of the design of ecosystem structure and function)”. In fact most of the problems which affect the human beings such as expanding population, food scarcities, environmental pollution and all the attendant sociological and political problems are ecological in nature. Unlike ecology, environment means the non-living elements of ecology necessary for the survival of the living beings in different ways. For example, atmosphere or different layers of air contain different gases, elements etc which are necessary to maintain living conditions. Ecology has assumed a much broader meaning since 1960s. It has become a politics of environment or ‘green’ movement. Environment-related issues became a prominent part of the political system first in developed countries like Germany where apolitical party called Green Party was formed (1980) to raise environmental issues. Today it has become a global movement. There are a number of environmental NGOs in the world today working both at the national and international levels. The ecological changes which have taken place during the past few decades have posed a serious threat to the future mankind. In fact, the indiscriminate use of natural resources by the developed countries during the past centuries has given rise to serious problem of environmental degradation. This problem assumed serious dimension in the 70s of the 20^th century.

Environmental Issues at Global Level

‘Environment’ is a term derived from the French word ‘Environner’ that means ‘to surround’. There was a time when environment just meant the surroundings. It was used to describe the physical world surrounding us including soil, rocks, water and air. Gradually it was realised that the enormous variety of plants, animals and micro-organisms on this earth, including human beings are an integral part of the environment. Hence, to make a sensible definition of the environment, it was necessary to include the interactions and inter-relationships of all living organisms with the physical surroundings. Later, it was further recognised that all types of social, cultural and technological activities carried out by human beings also have a profound influence on various components of the environment. Thus various built-in structures, materials and technological innovations also became a part of the environment. All biological (biotic) and non-biological (abiotic) entities surrounding us are included in the term ‘environment’. The impact of technological and economic development on the natural environment may lead to degradation of the social and cultural environment. Thus, environments are to be considered in a broader perspective where the surrounding components as well as their interactions are to be included.

The problem of the environment cannot be treated as a single problem. There are several different kinds of problems that interact but at the same time can be separated. The problem of population leads to the problem of the environment and with it fears not just of pollution but of a continued chronic food scarcity and famine. The population at the beginning of the third millennium is around 6300 million. If it continues to grow at the present rate of slightly under 2 percent a year, it will be about 8300 million by 2020 and around 11 billion by 2084. It will bring further serious strains on the environment. There is a lot of scientific evidence to suggest that the world is getting warmer primarily because of the side effects of industrial production. This is the so-called greenhouse effect. Various gases, particularly carbon dioxide, are released into the atmosphere. Water vapour is also significant. This will have a number of consequences, some of them unpleasant, such as rising of the sea-level and the probable increase in violent and destructive storms.

Some important global environmental issues which raise concern are:

• Depletion of natural resources.
• Water pollution.
• Air pollution.
• Ground water pollution.
• Toxic chemicals and soil pollution.
• Ozone layer depletion.
• Global warming.
• Loss of bio-diversity.
• Extinction of wildlife and loss of natural habitat.
• Nuclear wastes and radiation issues.

Most people feel that global warming and energy crisis are the only main global environmental issues that the planet faces today. These people are not aware of the fact that there are several other issues of global concern, each of which is equally hazardous. More importantly, all these issues are related to each other some way or the other, and hence, tackling them one by one has just become difficult.

Climate Change

Climate change has become more than obvious over the past decade, with nine years of the decade making it to the list of hottest years the planet has ever witnessed. The rise in temperature has also ensured that the equations on the planet have gone for a toss. Some of the most obvious signs of this include irregularities in weather, frequent storms, melting of glaciers, rising levels of sea, etc. Going by the prevailing conditions, it is not difficult to anticipate that the planet is heading for a dramatic climate change in, the near future. Climate change is a term that refers to major changes in temperature, rainfall, snow, or wind patterns lasting for decades or longer. Both human-made and natural factors contribute to climate change:

• Human causes include burning fossil fuels, cutting down forests, and developing land for farms, cities and roads. These activities all release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
• Natural causes include changes in the Earth’s orbit, the sun’s intensity, the circulation of the ocean and the atmosphere, and volcanic activity.¹

Climate change is a change in the space and time distribution of weather patterns or conditions or properties of a region or some regions or the entire earth. It is caused by natural processes like biotic processes, variation in Earth’s orbit, variation in albedo or reflexivity of the oceans and continents, continental drift and formation of mountain, variation in solar radiation on earth, melting of glaciers, floods, volcanic eruptions and plate tectonics or anthropogenic activities like deforestation, burning of crop residues, use of fossil fuel and high energy consumption through electronic gadgets (use of air conditioners, aeroplanes, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, industrial machines, etc.). While the term “global warming” means specific increase in surface temperature due to human activities, the “climate change” is very comprehensive and includes global warming as well as other changes in weather patterns/conditions resulting into more emissions of greenhouse gases due to both human activities and natural processes. Many natural scientists have found in their researches that there are internal and external force mechanisms for climate change - internal force mechanisms are natural processes within the climate system (e.g. thermohaline circulation) while external force mechanisms may be either natural (e.g. changes in solar output) or anthropogenic (human activities leading to more emission of greenhouse gases). The year 2014 was the hottest year in recorded history of climate and July 2015 was the hottest month in past 1627 months since January, 1880. There are three categories of nations in terms of per capita carbon emission in the world:

• There are 60 countries with average per capita GDP of US$1768 that emit up to 2.3 tons carbon per capita;
• 74 countries with average per capita GDP of US$3058 emit up to 4.5 tons carbon per capita;
• 13 countries with average per capita GDP of US$ 33700 emit above 10 tons carbon per capita (as per World Bank, 2014).²

Global climate change is caused by the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the lower atmosphere. The global concentration of these gases is increasing, mainly due to human activities, such as the combustion of fossil fuels (which release carbon dioxide) and deforestation (because forests remove carbon from the atmosphere). The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, has increased by 30 percent since pre-industrial times. There is now clear evidence that the Earth’s climate is warming:

• Global surface temperatures have risen by 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit (ˆF) over the last 100 years.
• Worldwide, the last decade has been the warmest on record.
• The rate of warming across the globe over the last 50 years (0.24ˆF per decade) is almost double the rate of warming over the last 100 years (0.13ˆF per decade).

Projections of future climate change are derived from global climate model or general circulation model (GCM) experiments. Climatologists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) review the results of these experiments for global and regional assessments. It is estimated that global mean surface temperature will rise by 1.5° to 3.5° C by 2100. This rate of warming is significant. Large changes in precipitation, both increases and decreases, are forecast, largely in the tropics. Climate change is very likely to affect the frequency and intensity of weather...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acronyms
• Preface
• Acknowledgement
• Globalisation: Conceptions and Perspectives
• Contemporary Global Issues
• Global Shifts: Power, Governance and Processes