Transcription
Now, I might be understating the case, but globalization has had uh, significant consequences on the environment. And in this video, I'm going to tell you all about it. So if you're ready to get them brain cows milked greenhouse gas style, well, let's get to it. Okay, let's begin by considering the environmental effects of globalization on land. But let me back up a second and make something clear.
So when we talk about the environment in this course, we're not merely talking about nature, like rivers and trees and pigs. When we talk about the environment, we're talking about the physical world, yes, but also included is the way humans interact with that physical world. And so, unless you've been sleeping through the last couple of units, you'll remember that the process of industrialization and urbanization has led to massive human impacts on the land. I'm feeling spicy, so I'm going to give you two examples now.
The first effect is deforestation, which refers to the large-scale clearing of trees in a geographical area. And that's not hard to understand, right? Like, here's a forest, and then globalization comes into de—but why, says you, does globalization have that effect? Well, says I, there are a lot of reasons, but there are basically two major ones. First, urbanization, which refers to the increasing size and populations of cities, has created the problem of urban sprawl, which refers to the increasing size of the urban footprint. Again, not hard to understand—as a city gets bigger in geographical scale, well, it's going to need some more land on which to settle its growing urban hind par. And because cars have made it easier for middle-class folks to live outside the city in suburbs, then that necessarily leads to the clearing of forests in order to build their nice little suburban homes with their nice little white picket fences.
But then, second, forests are cleared to create more farmland, especially for large commercial farming outfits that keep the world's growing number of mouth holes fed. And hey, I, I got more to say on this, but let me just pause here and mention that if you need help studying for that National exam, then you should for sure check out my AP World Heimler review guide, which has everything you need to study as fast as possible. It's got whole unit review videos that you're not going to see here on YouTube, no guys to follow along, practice questions, practice exams, and answer keys for every dang bit of it. So if that's something that you're into, check that link in the description.
Okay, so although there are positive economic and demographic aspects to these developments, their environmental impact has been significant. Like, the world's forests, especially the rainforest, provide a home to an astonishing number of animal species that have become endangered and gone extinct through deforestation. Like, look at this lemur, whom I have named Raymond, and Raymond is just so cute, I love him so much. But don't get too attached, because Raymond and all his kind are now extinct because of deforestation. Moment of silence for Raymond. We love you, buddy.
Anyway, deforestation also creates the conditions for increased levels of pollution, since land without trees is susceptible to erosion. And as a result, the pesticides used in large-scale farming run off into rivers and streams, which contaminate fresh water supply. Now, in addition to deforestation, another environmental effect of globalization has been desertification, which refers to the transformation of once fertile land into infertile land. And this primarily occurs when land converted to farmland is not well suited for agriculture, or it's not well managed. And the result is the ground being emptied of nutrients, to becoming desert-like, which, in case you've never tried to plant crops in a desert, I will tell you is useless for cultivation. And so, with the intense demands on agricultural land imposed by large-scale commercial farming, this is becoming an increasing problem.
But you didn't think globalization only only caused environmental problems on the land, did you? Don't be crazy. No, we've got air and water problems too. So first, globalization has led to a significant decline in air quality in many places. And you know that's a problem because air is kind of important to, you know, staying alive. But anyway, the global spread of industry, which has largely been dependent on fossil fuels for energy, has contributed significantly to air pollution, most notably in major cities. And let me give you my favorite example. So 1952 in London, an event known as the Great Smog occurred. Basically, industrial coal emissions combined with with fog to create a poisonous smog that covered the city for 5 days, killing somewhere between 10,000 and 12,000 people and making about a 100,000 very ill. For another example, in Mexico City, government officials estimated in 2002 that the city's polluted air caused the death of about 35,000 people per year. So yeah, urban air has gotten uh, nasty.
But then, second, globalization has led to increased competition over the world's fresh water supply. You might be thinking, last time I checked there was a metric buttload of water on planet Earth, so what's the problem? Well, the problem is that only about 3% of that water is usable by human beings, and the Earth's rapidly increasing population has created a rising demand for that 3%. Like, because there are more mouth holes to feed, the majority of freshwater consumption goes towards industrial-scale crops. Additionally, many developing nations have the added problem of finding access to clean water for their population. The World Health Organization estimates about half the world's population today lacks clean drinking water.
And finally, one of the most significant global environmental consequences that has occurred in the last century is climate change, which refers to the warming of the planet due to to the release of greenhouse gases. And you don't necessarily need to know all the scientific details of this phenomenon for this course, but what you do need to know is that the phenomenon of climate change has gotten people riled up into a fierce debate. Now, to be clear, the fact that the planet is warming up is beyond debate, but the debate centers around the causes of that warming, since the potential solutions to the problem require political action. When things get political, they get uh, nasty. And essentially, the debate comes down to this: one side argues that climate change is caused by humans, and the other side argues that it is a natural cycle of the earth, not caused by humans. And the bitterness of that debate is caused by several interlinking factors.
First, if climate change is caused by humans and the widespread growth of industrialization and all the economic benefits that come with industrialization, then addressing the problem requires societies to slow their capacity for industrial growth, which in turn decreases their ability to grow economically. And to put it mildly, that is not an attractive solution, especially to wealthy developed nations. But then, second, the debate has been especially intense among highly developed nations in the rest of the the world. You see, those nations became the most developed and the wealthiest precisely because they made prodigious use of industrial technologies, but in doing so they contributed to the potential global disaster of climate change. Therefore, knowing this, if the global community decides to restrict the amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted into the atmosphere, then developing nations who are attempting to improve their own economic standing will not have access to the very tools that create economic well-being in an industrialized world. And that's kind of a bummer. Okay, click here to keep reviewing for unit 9, or you can click here to grab my AP World himler review guy. And I'm glad we got to hang out, and I'll catch you on the flip-flop, himler rout.