More handpicked essays just for you.
Essay on the economic consequences of climate change
Social, political and economic effects of climate change
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Robert D. Kaplan’s article “The Coming Anarchy," is best summarized by the following quote, which identifies the different factors that he evaluates throughout his article, “To understand the events of the next fifty years, then, one must understand environmental scarcity, cultural and racial clash, geographic destiny, and the transformation of war.” (Kaplan, 1994) This is the framework that he uses to make his supporting arguments and thus this summary will be broken down into these four main parts. One of the major points that Kaplan makes and he focuses on heavily in the beginning of the article is how environmental scarcity plays an impact on people’s decisions. There is a finite amount of natural resources in the world for people to use, and we are fast approaching a point where the world can no longer support our growing population. All of this is spurred on by an increase in practices that cause deforestation, soil erosion, pollution and global warming. A great analogy within the article is that we are robbing from tomorrow’s future to support the present, which is shown in that “…man is challenging nature far beyond its limits, and nature is now beginning to take its revenge.” (Kaplan, 1994) The new major threat that every nation and person has to be aware of is how the immediate results of our mismanagement of the environment can have a tremendous backlash, not only within our lives but the lives of future generations. All of these environmental concerns are dots that connect with Kaplan’s other main arguments. These environmental concerns tie in greatly with the cultural and racial clash of the twenty first century. As people continue to migrate from areas that can no longer support the growing population you have ... ... middle of paper ... ...firm Kaplan’s argument though, war as an unavoidable outcome to his premonition is almost certain in that as long as the stretched limo continues to ride their will be conflicts over scarcity and cultural differences. With all this in mind Kaplan paints a bleak future for the world, however overlooking his pessimism there is always hope and like Locke would state fundamentally man is a good caring being capable of greatness. As stated in Kaplan’s article this massive consumerism that is a part of our democratic culture, is most likely not the ultimate state of our civil advancement. There will be a time when a sharing culture emerges that is not so focused on material position but rather leaving the world a better place. Works Cited Darwin, C. (1869). On the Origin of Species. Kaplan, R. D. (1994). The Coming Anarchy. The Atlantic Monthly , 273 (2), 44-76.
Once the author made his view clear, he goes on to display possible scenarios of how human existence can change within the next millennium. He proposed four possible scenarios. The first scenario that Nash discusses, the “wasteland scenario” depicts
Society portrays the Earth as a resource, a place that provides an abundance of tools that are beneficial to one’s way of living. As time continues on, humanity’s definition of sustainability with the ecosystem becomes minor, meaning that it is not essential to their own lives. Thus, leading to the environment becoming polluted and affecting the human population. These ideas are demonstrated through these four sources: “Despair Not” by Sandra Steingraber, which provides the author’s perspective on the environmental crisis in terms of climate change.
"You're a human being, not an animal. You have the right to be loved" (262). "Son of the Revolution" by Liang Heng and Judith Shapiro was a book that showed how inhumane many of the aspects of Chinese life were during the Cultural Revolution. The book followed Liang Heng through many of his childhood memories to his departure from China in his twenties. The book applied a real face to the important movements during the Cultural Revolution, the effects that "the cult of Mao" had on society and Heng, and the way the period affected Heng's personal family life.
Wole Soyinka's essay "Every Dictator's Nightmare" in the April 18, 1999 edition of the New York Times magazine seems almost prescient in light of the events currently occurring geopolitically. The recent events occurred in Egypt are certainly representative of the themes present in Soyinka's essay; “the idea that certain fundamental rights are inherent to all humanity" (476). Soyinka, the 1986 noble peace prizewinner for literature, portrays not only his well-formed persona in his essay, but also his well formed thoughts, devoid of literary naiveté common in so many of today’s writers. The essay portrays societies as corrupted, but with some elements of innate nobility. The existence of societies is guaranteed by the realization that every individual has undeniable basic rights. Soyinka also presents an overview of the enslavement of individual cultures; to the forces of religion, dictatorship, economic pressures, forced labor, and ideology; presenting the reader strong examples of the world's failure to respect individual human rights throughout history. In his essay, Soyinka’s explores the employment of irony and contradiction, in explaining the paradoxes that have riddled the historical search for just societies.
The environmental movement in politics is often overplayed causing people to loose interest in the issue, but Jarred Diamond makes it impossible to ignore the issue in his book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Jared Diamond hopes to catch as many peoples attention as he can; the name alone, “Collapse”, makes him appear to be an alarmist looking for attention. He has just cause though for blowing the whistle on society. He makes parallels to previous failed societies and to modern societies showing how the practices that we employ are similar to these failed societies. He is suggesting that America, as well as other countries, are headed down the path of ecocide more possible a global ecocide. Through his extensive research and numerous examples he makes it impossible to argue with his thesis. While all of examples seem redundant and like he is over emphasizing the point he does this to show his thoroughness. He also does it to show that he is correct. Diamond does not want to be wrong; he is a major author who gets a lot of attention when he releases a book. People look to discredit Diamond’s work. Due to this he gives ample resources to support this thesis.
[1] Since the dawning of the industrial revolution, producing the stratification of socioeconomic status into a competitive class hierarchy never before seen, conflict theorists have appeared to define the unjust. From William Blake’s poetry to Karl Marx’ manifestos, from Bethlehem steel strikes to the current Labor Party, from Fidel Castro to the Mexican Zapatista movement, from Lenin to Mao Tse Tung, from the Molly Maguires to Jimmy Hoffa, the desire to upgrade the conditions of the working class have had a continual role in justifying violence, providing an equilibrium to keep capital interests in check, motivated whole countries to gain newly instituted political leaders and formats of rule, even in offering some form of purpose for, identity with, and release of violent rage inside the tribal nature of humans in a world of disintegrating, or disintegrated, tribes. The question of the new millennium might very well be whether or not humans can live without enemies. In a country, if not a world, with creature comforts easily secured, labor issues becoming obsolete, where will modern man direct his barbaric energy?
In summary, I will explore viewpoints on how race influences environmental decision-making, from a variety of perspectives: International sustainable development groups, national legislatures, and minority groups by interviews with representatives at each level.
It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different ci...
Beginning with, the end of WWII, the West (mainly the U.S and Europe) has maintained global dominance. Since then international conflicts have emerged in the Middle East, and China has become an influential player both politically and economically. Those two developments among others, have raised questions about future conflicts, global politics, and what the future holds, about which scholars disagree. Samuel Huntington argues that the next factor of conflict will be a result of, “clashing Civilizations,” the West and the East*. On the other hand, Edward Said argues that such ideas are rooted in pre-conceived notions, which are a reflection of certain interest.
In 1989, seventy five percent of Americans identified themselves as environmentalists, and the number has continued to grow since then (Walls 1). Environmentalism is now the most popular social movement in the United States, with over five million American families donating regularly to environmental organizations (Walls 1). Environmentalists today focus on what kind of world they hope to see in the future, and largely deal with limiting pollution and changing consumption rates (Kent 1 and 9). Modern environmentalists also have much different issues than those Carson’s America faced. With climate change becoming more threatening each year, protection of the natural world is needed more than ever. Pollution has caused the warmest decade in history, the deterioration of the ozone layer, and species extinction in extreme numbers (Hunter 2). It not only threatens nature, but also human populations, who already suffer from lack of clean water and poisoning from toxic chemicals (Hunter 16). Unlike environmental actions in the 1960’s, which were mostly focused on protection, a massive increase in pollution has caused efforts to be focused on environmental restoration (Hunter 16). Like in the time of Silent Spring, environmentalists are not only concerned with one country. Protecting the environment remains a global issue, and every nation is threatened by the
Brown gives concise, but very informative, summaries of what he regards the key issues facing civilization as a consequence of the stress we put on our environment which is a valuable contribution to the ongoing debate. For example, in chapter five Brown discusses the emerging politics of food on scarcity. Food prices soared rapidly between the years 2007 and 2008 and the social order in many countries begin to break down. He goes on to describe many different places that go through this process. One of Brown’s most important topics is that he explains how the world’s governments and social movements can still avoid the threat of worldwide disaster, on every continent this century, if we can act in this decade with the degree of urgency required by our situation. Brown understands why we have reached this point of worldwide crisis. He states that the interests of the fossil fuel and defense industries in maintaining the status quo are strong. Although Brown does not de...
Retrieved October 11, 2011. www.gerrymarten.com/human-ecology/tableofcontents.html Retrieved October 12, 2011. www.equip.org/ Retrieved October 11, 2011. www.environmentmagazine.org/Archives/Back%20Issues/Se. Retrieved October 14, 2011.
Most importantly it is cited that the most severe and dangerous conflicts will arise between none other than people with different cultural entities, specifically those along the fault lines between civilizations. Reason for this being that they are all in search of the identities and as Huntington has already said that there is no way you can love what you are if you do not hate what you are not , hence the arousal of the conflicts. In their search of identities they hate what they are not so that they can have a deeper love for what they are.
1998-1999 World Resources: A Guide to the Global Environment. Environmental Change and Human Health. A Joint Publication by the World Resources Institute, the World Bank, the United Nations Environmental Programme, and the United Nations Development Programme. Oxford University Press, New York, NY 1998.
Environment and Sustainable Development, 2011 population growth and demographic change, Australian Government, ACT, accessed 30 March 2014, .(1)