What Really Harms the Environment
When US President Donald J. Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord, the world’s foremost proponents of globalisation were up in arms. President Trump believed that global warming was a hoax; a conspiracy concocted by the Chinese to undermine the success of the US manufacturing industry.
Prominent globalists led by French President Emmanuel Macron insist global warming exists and that the science behind it was irrefutable. Recent natural tragedies such as Hurricane Irma’s destruction of Anguilla, Tortola, Barbuda and other islands in the Caribbean were cited as the latest exhibits validating the veracity of global warming.
But the factors which contributed to the deterioration of environmental conditions have their roots implanted with the rise of globalisation:
1. Globalisation has increased global consumption of products. This has led to distortions in the ecological cycle. It is simple Law of Supply and Demand; higher consumption leads to greater production of goods which contributes to more pollutants in the environment.
2. Globalisation has increased the importation of raw materials. Instead of consuming locally grown produce, countries are patronising products that have been manufactured by other countries. This is a consequence of trade agreements enacted in the spirit of international cooperation.
3. Increased importation necessitates greater usage of non-renewable fuels such as gasoline which are the main contributors to air and water pollution. Gasses emitted by aircraft contribute to the depletion of the ozone layer; the so-called greenhouse effect.
4. Increased production also results in more industrial waste which is often dumped in oceans.
5. While globalisation allows developed countries to increase profitability by shifting production to regions where comparative costs and economies of scale exist, increased competition among developing economies encourage the use of cheaper but environmentally harmful manufacturing practices.
6. A good example of an environmentally harmful manufacturing practice is the use of chemicals to increase yield and introduce more disease-resistant varieties of fruits and vegetables. But these chemicals introduce toxic substances to the soil as well as the human body.
Thus to allude to the recent catastrophic events as a foreshadowing of consequences should we shift to nationalist ideology, one should first understand that the world has been subscribing to globalist doctrine for the last 60 years.