What Globalisation Is, What the Environment Consists of - Coursework Example

Running Header: Politics and International Business Student’s Name: Name of Institution: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Introduction This essay aims to identify what globalisation is? It also strives to explain what the environment consists of? It aims to understand the various ideologies that have been put forth to explain the impact that globalisation has on the environment. Globalisation can be defined as the unity that is created between countries all over the world. The unity strives to improve very many sectors of their own individual countries. This is possible through the exchange of very many ideas, principles and ideologies. The ideologies could be political, economical, cultural or even social. This is because it is these measures that make the environment all that it is. The adoption of these diverse ideologies in these countries has far reaching results. These results could be classified as either positive or negative results. The environment can be described as a space that represents all the earth’s contents and their role. These can be either living or non living things. They are governed by policies that ensure there is peaceful existence and coordination of all their affairs in the environment as argued by Ebrahim (2007). The environment in this case can be represented by the various aspects that make it what it is today. It should be noted that the environment is a true representation of what it is based on. These factors include the political, economical, social, cultural and ecological factors. All these factors contribute greatly to what makes up the environment. The essay therefore tries to understand whether globalisation has negative impacts on the above mentioned factors. Many theories brought forth support the notion that globalisation is a threat to the environment according to Lofdahl (2002). Globalisation is the exchange of ideas through a platform to ensure enrichment through the application of these ideas in a specified context. Many countries have had negative impacts of the process of globalisation on their overall political processes. Their political stability and decision making processes as sovereign states have been greatly hampered as they try to globalise themselves. Many countries have had they social fabric torn as many of the people in their environments either migrate or adopt new ways that will ensure that they are part of the globalisation process as stated by Samman (2011). Section 1 The stability of very many nations all over the world is pegged on the ability of the political process to ensure that there is stability. It is true that the general process of globalisation is a threat to the environment. This is in relation to the political aspect that ensures that there is calm and stability in this environment. Once the process of globalisation has been accepted in an area, then the political process has to ensure that they have measures in place to deal with the incorporated aspects of globalisation. The threat to the political process is attained in several ways as illustrated by Weinstein (2005). Once a said environment has bowed to the globalisation pressure, the environment’s sole importance drastically reduces. This is because it is now expected to conduct itself with the confines of the general acts and attitudes of globalised states. This environment now finds it very difficult to come up with ideas that do not include the global expectations. In many cases, these ideas do not augur well with the common citizens of these environments. Through the general podium of exchanging ideas, specific environments are weighed heavily with the ideas and the principles that govern other environments. This results in a situation where environments adopt ideas that are against their general capabilities. As mentioned above, an environment should have a conducive aura to ensure that it thrives. This circumstances need to be propagated by the thoughts of the people who are either living in these environments or they contribute to the leadership process of these environments. This leads to the creation of laws and regulations as argued by Steger (2003). In many instances, there are many policies that are created. They have the general aim of ensuring that it is possible for these environments to meet global standards. This creates a situation where the political leadership is unable to create standards and policies that are adequate enough for their environments. This renders sovereign states with the actually inability to create systems that will adequately represent them in their general process of improving their standards. All this should be without undue global pressure. Globalisation is in many instances a threat to an environment’s set political processes. It retards many of the political opinions, ideas and principles that have been set by these environments. This basically leads to a situation that countries and their respective environments set up policies with the sole aim of satisfying the global needs. This is in contrast to the need to create policies that are aimed at improving the general welfare of the environments as argued by Tam (2001). Section 2 The economic environment has not been left behind in the globalisation process. The act of globalisation in itself has greatly affected the general production and acceptance of locally created goods and services. This is as a result of continued efforts by very many people to popularise foreign goods and services that are on offer at global markets. This greatly reduces the effects that would have been very positive in the local markets. Globalisation has also affected the general movement of goods and services between specified set boundaries and environments. This means that local environments are now grappling with very loose policies in relation to how goods and services are moved form one area to the next. This results in high cases of economical exploitation between nations. Many countries are also losing a lot of their resources in the open forum that is required of them during the exchange of goods and services when trading (Ebrahim 2007). During the globalisation process, it was declared that many environments in many countries will be required to contribute to the overall globalisation process. This meant that they were required to lower many of their set strategies to cater for issues for example taxes, tariffs and export and import duty. This was to ensure that it was possible for countries to trade with each other. This had negative repercussions for countries that were not yet stable enough to lower their set tariffs. The trade and commerce environment in many countries had the general aim of ensuring that they amassed as much of the profits as they could. This is especially the case when they are dealing with other nations that have the economic advantage. This would enable them to actively engage other nations to improve in the sectors that they cannot actively compete in. It is therefore threatening for such environments to be expected to conform to such ideas. This is because by conforming to the set ideas, it will be possible for them to actively compete and engage in the general process of globalisation. It will now be easy for them to engage in business ventures and ideas with other nations. They will also have the advantage of competing at global forums. If a country does not have the strength to conform, then they are relegated and ignored in all business ideas generated at international level. This creates a situation where an environment has reduced economic might to compete globally according to Charnovitz (2002). Many environments are losing their man power based on the fact that globalisation has had effects on the local job markets. This means that very many people are willing to just lay down their tools and chase after the global job market which promises more. The local environment is left dry with no man power. It suffers deeply from the effects of brain drain. People in a particular environment acquire skills and competencies from an area. After doing so, it is expected that they will employ the skills and competencies in the region to further enrich the area. If they do not get good pay or good working conditions, they migrate to other areas that are offering the above conditions. This is mainly to countries that have complex and advanced structures in terms of education and employment. This therefore means that because other countries can make employment attractive for their citizens, it is possible for other environments to loose their manpower. This is as a result of the open boundaries that allow free movement and general acceptance of workforce. This is as long as they are qualified enough to work in their new environment (Samman 2011). Globalisation has very many negative impacts on the economic environment of any nation or country. This is because it has the ability to dictate the financial and economic fortunes or misfortunes of that country. In many instances, many countries are left by the wayside as they aim and struggle to meet up with the expectations of the global and international markets. This continues to affect their finances as a region. This also affects all the set policies in the region that are aimed at ensuring that the economic environment of a region continues to grow form time to time according to Naghshpour (2008). Section 3 Globalisation is a threat to the social arrangement in any environment in very many aspects. This means that before the advent of globalisation very many people were generally at ease with each other. The society has become one maze where people are constantly intertwined with great expectations. The expectations are as a result of the pressures that are experienced in many areas all over the world. Globalisation has changed the society from the simple society that it was, to a much complex one. It is now very possible to access information from all walks of life. This information could be beneficial or not. However it is very easy to access, repackage and share this information. As much as this is a good point, it comes with very many challenges that are not addressed constantly. The information could be disastrous to the environment or of absolutely no value to the environment. It is important to note that what is of importance to one environment can be extremely useless to the other. Globalisation in many instances does not look at the needs of a specific environment. The general nature of globalisation does not create the room or the avenues to identify what could be advantageous or disastrous to an environment (Lecher 2009). Societies that do not have this ability are locked out of this great trend. It is impossible for them to improve aspects of their education, health and all other aspects of their social infrastructure. This renders such environments retarded. The advent of globalisation has ensured that it is now possible to brand countries into those that have the capacity and those that do not. This is the sole reasoning behind developing countries and those developed. Globalisation has taken away the content that made a society and the environment around it. Infrastructure development and how it has positively affected the environment are of great concern nowadays. Issues for example the environmental pollution and destruction are disregarded as illustrated by Ufomba (2009). Globalisation has made it very possible to have systems in place that define which countries can interact with each other and why. This is because they either share the same ideologies in relation to their society’s attitudes and practises. Globalisation takes it upon itself to draw imaginary boundaries in the day to day interactions with people and countries. It bases this line on the general expectations that the countries have on each other as they strive to improve how they are perceived by those around them (Wells 2001). Section 4 In relation to the cultural arena, environments are generally soiled by the overall degradation of cultures that control specific environments. Every environment is governed by a specific set of rules, regulations and principles. It is these rules and regulations that are employed to make up the cultural and religious beliefs of a specific area. The entire process of globalisation ensures that arenas are opened. This means that many environments have the privilege of being opened up and sharing their cultural norms with others. In many instances this has very positive effects on the environment in question. In many of the other instances, the effects are disastrous. Environments tend to take up whatever new thing that they have been introduced to. This is at the expense of the norms that they have carried on with for years. The erosion of these cultural aspects renders environments and communities without a diverse distinct culture that they can identify with. In relation to cultural norms, there is nothing as confusing as a culturally confused environment. This is because they do not have the slightest idea of what they want or how they want it. They do not have any clear culture that they can identify as theirs (Martens 2010). This automatically leads to the adoption of varied cultures in their environment. Many at times, the general process of adopting these new cultures and ways of life is not appropriate for all environments. This is because they do not adequately create an avenue fit enough for the specific people living in that environment. They are faced with the tough challenge of trying to indoctrinate themselves to the new culture that they are currently spell bound to (Brach 2006). Globalisation has adverse effects on the ecological and natural features that make up the environment. This is in respect to the new measures and ideas that are adopted in a specific area. Opening up the boundaries and constant communication can lead to very many dangerous activities. This means that if a country has strong ties with another, it can be bound to the practises of the mentioned country. A very good example is the constant relations between a country that develops and tests nuclear weapons and one that does not. Over the years it is very possible for the country that does not, to be attracted to the ways of the one that does. This will be at the expense of their citizens and their environment which cannot handle the entire exercise as stated by Dahan (2011). In conclusion, it is true that the general process of globalisation is a threat to the environment. This is because in many instances the newly adapted features have strong and somewhat negative effects on the environment. It is therefore very important for the environment to retain their level of sanity as they prescribe to the general aspects of globalisation. They should take time to identify what is good for their general environments and what is not. This will create a scenario where the environment will understand certain issues in relation to globalisation. They will understand that despite the fact that globalisation is an emerging trend, it is not possible for them to subscribe to just anything. They have to have a strong stand against some of the issues that come with globalisation (Bhagwati 2000). References Bhagwati, J. 2000, ‘On Thinking Clearly About the Linkage Between Trade and the Environment’, Environment and Development Economics, vol. 5, no.4, pp. 485-496. Brack, D 2006, International Trade and the Montreal Protocol, Chatham House, London. Charnovitz, S 2002, ‘A World Environment Organization’, Columbia Journal of Environmental Law, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 323-362. Dahan, Y & Lerner, H 2011, ‘Global Justice, Labor Standards and Responsibility’, Journals on Globalisation, vol. 12, Retrieved from http://www.bepress.com/til/default/vol12/iss2/art3/ Ebrahim, S & Garcia, J 2007, ‘Globalisation of Behavioural Risks needs Faster Diffusion of Interventions’, Journals on globalisation, vol. 4, no. 2. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1893130/ Lecher, FJ 2009, Globalisation: The Making of World Society, Wiley-Blackwell, New York. Lofdahl, CL 2002, Environmental impacts of globlization and trade: a systems study, MIT Press, Michigan. Martens, P & Akin, S 2010, ‘Is Globalisation Healthy? A Statistical Indicator Analysis of the Impacts of Globalisation on Health’, Journal of Globalisation and Health, vol. 6, no. 16. Retrieved From http://www.globalizationandhealth.com/content/6/1/16 Naghshpour, S 2008, ‘Globalisation: Is it Good or Bad?’, Journals on Globalisation, Special Edition. Retrieved from http://globalization.icaap.org/content/special/Naghshpour.html Samman, A 2011, ‘The Idea of a Crisis’, Journal of Critical Globalisation studies, vol. 4. Retrieved from http://www.criticalglobalisation.com/current.html Steger, MB 2003, Globalisation: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Tam, HB 2001, Progressive Politics in the Global Age, Polity Press, Cambridge. Ufomba, HU 2009, ‘The Bad and the Ugly: Intellectualism, Capital, Globalisation and the Economic Conditioning of Africa’, Retrieved from http://www.gig.org/eg/content/?aid=184 Weinstein, MM 2005, Globalisation: What’s New?, Columbia University Press, New York. Wells, GJ & Shuey, R 2001, Globalisation, Nova Science Publishers, New York. Read More