International Environmental Problems and Policy

1
International EnvironmentalProblems and
Policy
2
Office hours

• PROFESSOR ZOLTÁN GROSSMAN
• 258 Phillips Hall
• 1000-1050 am MWF
• 836-4471
• E-mail grossmzc_at_uwec.edu
• Web www.uwec.edu/grossmzc

3
(No Transcript)
4
Regions of the World Village

• 333 East Asians
• 274 South Asians
• 132 Africans
• 120 Europeans
• 86 Latin Americans
• 50 North Americans
• 5 from Oceania

5
Where we live

• 452 in town
• 548 in country

6
Ages

• 310 children
• 70 elderly
• 610 between

7
Demographics

• 22 children born
• 9 people die
• One-third of deaths are children under 5.
• Numbers of elderly increasing rapidly.

8
Human Population at 6 billion

• Food shortages/famines
• Water quality
• Fossil fuel burning
• Air and water pollution
• Landscape destruction
• Loss of biodiversity

9
Languages

• 500 speak one of six languages
• Chinese
• English
• Hindi
• Spanish
• Russian
• Arabic
• 500 speak one of 6,000 languages

10
(No Transcript)
11
Household income

• Average annual income 4,890
• 600 poor
• 300 marginal
• 100 well-off

12
Ownership/consumption

• 200 richest villagers own and consume 80 of
  goods
• Other villagers own and consume remaining 20

13
Affluent lifestyles
14
Material World A Global Family Portrait
Iceland
Guatemala
Japan
15
(No Transcript)
16
Land use

• Average of 6 acres for each person
• 700 acres cropland
• 1400 acres pasture
• 1900 acres woodland
• 2000 acres desert, other noneconomic land

17
Land ownership

• The richest 270 people control
• 40 of the cropland
• 72 of the foodgrain
• but feeds 27 of the people
• 83 of the fertilizer

18
United States Population

• 45 people live in U.S.
• 955 live elsewhere

19
United States Consumption

• Oil 26
• Aluminum 24
• Copper 20
• Nickel 19
• Steel 13

20
(No Transcript)
21
United States Share of World Pollution

• Toxic wastes 50
• Nitrogen oxides 26
• Carbon dioxide 26
• Sulfur oxides 25
• Chloroflurocarbons 22

22
Rich/poor divisions

• Wealthy countries tend to be located in the
  Northern Hemisphere.
• About 1/5 of world population live in countries
  with per capita income gt 25,000.00 (U.S.).
• Poor people exist here as well.
• Gap between rich and poor continues to increase.
• Wealthiest 200 people in the world have combined
  wealth of 1 trillion - more than total wealth of
  poorest half (3 billion) of the worlds
  population.

23
Environmental challenges

• Wealthy countries exploit natural resources
• in poor countries (often through
  corporations).
• Elites in poor countries often cooperate with
• wealthy countries and interests.
• Poor exploit natural resources, because
  socio-economic conditions (dictated by rich
  countries and domestic elites) create a struggle
  for survival.
• Poor in wealthy countries also face economic
  blackmail.
• .

24
Philadelphia Infant Mortality

• Red area high than
• at least 28 Third
• World countries,
• including
• Jamaica
• Cuba
• Costa Rica
• Malaysia
• Panama
• Sri Lanka
• South Korea
• Taiwan
• Uruguay
• Argentina
• Chile

25
Adult Literacy

• 310 adults can read and write
• 310 adults cannot read or write
• Girls half as likely as boys to attend school

26
Access to TV

• 10 without access
• 90 with access

27
Access to fresh water

• 30 of rural residents without access
• 7 of urban residents without access

28
Women and girls

• Two-thirds of manual labor
• One-tenth of wages
• One-hundredth of property
• Make up 70 of the poor.

29
Life expectancy

• Not age lived to,
• but affected by infant mortality rates.
• Richest familes
• women 80, men 78
• Poorest families
• 48 for both

30
North/South Divisions

• Poor countries tend to be located in Southern
  Hemisphere.
• World Bank estimates more than 1.3 billion people
  (1/5 world population) live in acute poverty of lt
  1 (U.S.) per day.
• 70 women and children
• Self-Sustaining
• Daily survival necessitates over-harvesting
  resources thus degrading chances of long-term
  sustainability.

31
(No Transcript)
32
Former world divisions

• First World - Industrialized, market-oriented
  democracies of Western Europe, North America.
• Second World - Centrally-planned socialist
  countries such as former USSR.
• Third World - Ex-colonial nations such as
• India, Malaysia, Iran, etc.
• Fourth World - Poorest nations (and indigenous
  communities within wealthy nations).

33
Current world system

• Core - Industrialized, market-oriented
  democracies of Western Europe, North America,
• East Asia, Australia.
• Periphery - Poor, ex-colonial nations such as
• Kenya, Bolivia, Pakistan, etc.
• Semi-periphery - Partially industrialized
• ex-colonial nations (South Africa, Brazil,
• Mexico, South Korea, etc.)

34
Indigenous peoples

• Indigenous (Native) people are often least
  powerful, most neglected people in the world.
• At least half the worlds 6,000 distinct
  languages are dying.
• Indigenous homelands may harbor vast percentage
  of worlds biodiversity.
• Recognizing Native land rights and political
  rights may often be a solid ecological safeguard.
• Who is Indigenous?

35
Human Development Index

• United Nations releases Human Development Index
  (HDI). Based on social factors - ranges from
  0-1.0.
• In 2000 Canada had highest with 0.96 and Sierra
  Leone had lowest with 0.19.
• Aggregate numbers hide many important
• inequity issues
• Gender
• Race

36
Sustainable Development

• Meeting the needs of the present without
  compromising the ability of future generations to
  meet their own needs.
• Benefits must be available to all humans, not
  just sub-set of privileged group.
• Economists continual growth for people
• Ecologists non-renewable resources, limited
  waste capacity

37
Signs of hope

• Progress had been made on many fronts.
• Population has stabilized in many industrialized
  countries population growth slowing in others.
• Incidence of life-threatening diseases has been
  reduced in some countries.
• Average life expectance nearly doubled.

38
World Summit onSustainable Development

• Johannesburg, South Africa, Aug.-Sept. 2002
• Ten years after 1992 Earth Summit in
• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Rio 10).
• International grassroots NGOs
• used as opportunity for networking.

39
(No Transcript)
40
(No Transcript)
41
WSSD websites

• Earth Summit 2002
• www.earthsummit2002.org
• UN site
• www.johannesburgsummit.org
• Linkages
• www.iisd.ca/wssd/portal.html
• Radio Earth Summit
• http//www.radioearthsummit.org/

• Girona Declaration
• http//www.xs4all.nl/ceo/un/gironadecl.html
• Global Indaba
• www.globalindaba.org.za
• Independent Media Center
• http//southafrica.indymedia.org/

42
Ideas for class website?