Globalization and Environmental Issues

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Globalization and Environmental Issues
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Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster

• The Ukrainian city of Chernobyl was the site of
  the worst nuclear disaster in the post-1945
  world.
• Incompetent operators and the inherently unsafe
  design caused a reactor to explode on April 26,
  1986.
• Over 100,000 people were evacuated.
• 30 people died immediately and hundreds died
  later from exposure to radioactive materials.

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Global Warming
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Kyoto Protocol

• Signed on March 15, 1999, the Kyoto Protocol is
  an agreement under the U.N. Framework Convention
  on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
• Countries that ratify commit to reduce emissions
  of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
  (IPCC) predicts a rise in temperature of 1.4 C
  (2.5 F ) to 5.8 C between 1990 and 2100.
• If successfully and completely implemented, the
  Protocol will reduce that increase between 0.02
  C and 0.28 C by 2050.

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Kyoto Protocol

• The U.S. is a signatory to the protocol, but has
  neither ratified nor withdrawn.
• The Senate stated that the U.S. should not sign
  any protocol that did not include binding targets
  and timetables for both developing and
  industrialized nations.
• President George W. Bush indicated that he does
  not intend to submit the treaty for ratification
  because of the strain he believed it would put on
  the economy.
• He emphasized the uncertainties which he asserts
  are present in the climate change issue.

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Hubbert Peak Theory

• The Hubbert Peak Theory states that oil reserves
  are not replenishable and oil production must
  inevitably peak and decline.
• Controversy surrounds the theory.
• M. King Hubbert noticed that the discoveries in
  the U.S. peaked in the 1930s, and concluded that
  production would peak in the 1970s.
• The US peaked in 1971.
• OPEC was able to manipulate oil prices, leading
  to the oil crisis in 1973.
• Most other countries have also peaked.

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Globalization

• Globalization is a series of economic, social,
  technological and political changes that increase
  interdependence and interaction between people in
  disparate locations.
• Globalization Debates
• whether it occurs from 'above' (through
  government and state actions) or 'below' (through
  civil society actions)
• supporters see it as economic savior for the
  world's poor
• opponents consider it oppressive to the
  developing world, destroying local culture and
  contributing to global warming.

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NATO Expansion

• NATO began as an alliance against the Eastern
  Bloc
• NATO was expanded since the collapse of Communism
  in Europe.
• The first post-Cold War expansion of came with
  the reunification of Germany in 1990.
• In 1994, NATO took its first military action,
  shooting down 4 Bosnian Serb aircraft violating a
  UN no-fly zone.
• NATO air strikes helped end war in Bosnia,
  resulting in the Dayton Agreement.

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NATO Expansion

• Between 1994 and 1997, wider forums for regional
  cooperation between NATO and its neighbors were
  set up
• In 1999, 3 former communist countries, Hungary,
  the Czech Republic, and Poland, joined NATO.
• In 1999, NATO saw its first broad-scale military
  engagement in the Kosovo War.
• An 11-week bombing campaign forced Yugoslavian
  leader Slobodan Miloševic to accept UN resolution
  1244.
• NATO helped establish the KFOR, a NATO-led force
  under a U.N. mandate that operated the military
  mission in Kosovo.

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NAFTA

• The North American Free Trade Agreement, (NAFTA)
  is a trade agreement among Canada, the U.S., and
  Mexico.
• It went into effect on January 1, 1994.
• NAFTA called for immediately eliminating duties
  on half of all U.S. goods shipped to Mexico and
  Canada, and gradually phasing out other tariffs.
• Provisions regarding worker and environmental
  protection were added later.
• Unlike the European Union, NAFTA does not create
  a set of supranational governmental bodies, nor
  does it create a body of law which is superior to
  national law.

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NAFTA

• There was opposition on both sides of the border.
• The U.S. House passed NAFTA by 234-200 (132
  Republicans and 102 Democrats voting in favor)
• U.S. Senate passed it by 61-38.
• One of the effects of NAFTA has been the
  significant increase in bilingual and trilingual
  labeling on products.

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GATT

• General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was
  created by the Bretton Woods Conference.
• The GATT was part of a plan for economic recovery
  after WWII.
• It included a reduction in tariffs and other
  international trade barriers.
• In 1948 it was signed by 23 countries.
• In 1994, GATT was updated ("GATT 1994") .
• One of the most significant changes was the
  creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

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WTO

• GATT members and the European Communities founded
  the WTO in 1995.
• The WTO is an international, multilateral
  organization, which sets the rules for the global
  trading system and resolves disputes between
  member states.
• The agreement is based on the "''unconditional
  most favored nation principle conditions
  applied to the most favored trading nation (i.e.
  the one with the least restrictions) apply to all
  trading nations.
• As of 2005, there are 149 members.

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WTO

• The WTO has been a major target for protests by
  the anti-globalization movement.
• One of the largest and most successful protests
  occurred during the 1999 Seattle WTO conference.
• The negotiations were overshadowed by large
  street protests outside the venues.
• Because of the disruptions in the Seattle rounds,
  negotiations were not begun until the next
  meeting which was held at Doha, Qatar, a locale
  easier to control and police.

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Citations Slide 2 http//english.pravda.ru/img/i
db/chernobyl21.jpg Slide 3 http//www.lib.utexas
.edu/maps/commonwealth/chornobyl_radiation96.jpg S
lide 4 http//www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/nuclear_dis
asters/images/map_europe.gif Slide 5
http//fig.cox.miami.edu/cmallery/150ss97/GH_eart
h.jpg Slide 6 http//phoenix.liu.edu/uroy/exter
nalities/emmisions101802.gif Slide 7
http//cagle.msnbc.com/news/KyotoProtocol/images/o
lle.jpg Slide 8 http//www.ccs.neu.edu/home/gene
/peakoil/nonopecfsu.gif Slide 9
http//students.umf.maine.edu/pondcm/globalizatio
n.gif Slide 10 http//www.tatsachen-ueber-deutsc
hland.de/fileadmin/festplatte/deutsch/bilder/05_au
ssenpolitik/05_02_Nato.jpg Slide 11
http//www.barraclou.com/memorial/coldwar/nato_exp
ansion.jpg Slide 12 http//www.fas.usda.gov/itp/
TEI/NAFTA.jpg Slide 13 http//cati.csufresno.edu
/cab/rese/96/960301/img/fig5.gif Slide 14
http//www.un.org/UN50/Photos/un50-014.gif Slide
15 http//www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/international/
wto/images/wto_hq2.jpg Slide 16
http//content.lib.washington.edu/wtoweb/images/wt
o-protest.jpg Slide 17 http//www.deh.gov.au/her
itage/programs/rnhp/images/coastal-pollution.jpg