Global Environmental Problems
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- Category: Politics
- Date Submitted: 03/14/2011 12:42 AM
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Global environmental problems are the result of the industrialised world. What should the response be of developing countries of the South?
This paper examines global environmental problems being a result of industrialised worlds. Particularly in terms of the developing countries of the South are concerned , what should their response be. This is done against the background of an explanation of the changing nature of industrialised nations in the global context. This pessimistic view of the globalization process argues that global competition by means of absolute (not comparative) advantages, allowed by the international mobility of capital, will lead to a deterioration of both environmental and labour standards at the global level.
From this point of view, industrialised countries would be the main losers of the process since they will face erosion of social contracts and deterioration of standards driven by “unfair” competition with over-population and low-standards developing countries. The following facts and trends shed some doubts about the validity of the race to the bottom hypothesis.
As stated before, there is little evidence supporting the idea that environmental standards in developing countries indeed attract industries from industrialised countries, a relocation of environmental-intensive industries to the South would likely improve rather than deteriorate, the condition of the environment in the North (Boyce, 2004). On the other hand, low-skilled workers in industrialised countries jointly with rural smallholders in “marginal” developing countries – are probably among the most losers of economic globalisation. However, the failure of redistribution mechanisms in industrialised countries should be blamed for this, instead of the low wages in developing countries might fuel economic growth in the North through repatriation of profits and exploitation of huge internal markets in emerging developing countries by transactional corporations.
The...
This paper examines global environmental problems being a result of industrialised worlds. Particularly in terms of the developing countries of the South are concerned , what should their response be. This is done against the background of an explanation of the changing nature of industrialised nations in the global context. This pessimistic view of the globalization process argues that global competition by means of absolute (not comparative) advantages, allowed by the international mobility of capital, will lead to a deterioration of both environmental and labour standards at the global level.
From this point of view, industrialised countries would be the main losers of the process since they will face erosion of social contracts and deterioration of standards driven by “unfair” competition with over-population and low-standards developing countries. The following facts and trends shed some doubts about the validity of the race to the bottom hypothesis.
As stated before, there is little evidence supporting the idea that environmental standards in developing countries indeed attract industries from industrialised countries, a relocation of environmental-intensive industries to the South would likely improve rather than deteriorate, the condition of the environment in the North (Boyce, 2004). On the other hand, low-skilled workers in industrialised countries jointly with rural smallholders in “marginal” developing countries – are probably among the most losers of economic globalisation. However, the failure of redistribution mechanisms in industrialised countries should be blamed for this, instead of the low wages in developing countries might fuel economic growth in the North through repatriation of profits and exploitation of huge internal markets in emerging developing countries by transactional corporations.
The...