Reader Response - 'The Double Edge of Globalization

The article ‘The Double Edge of Globalization” written by Nayan Chanda (2007) addresses the issue of globalization and the environmental harm that occurs as a result of it. Expanding trade due to globalization has led to massive deforestation, overfishing as well as the increase of pollutants which overall economic and social disruptions may rival those of major global events. Though the disadvantages of globalization may seem very overwhelming, it has aided the world to become more interconnected, such that information about environmental issues can quickly disseminate across the entire globe, thus increasing awareness of the current environmental situation.

Although the United Nations (UN) has shown its inability to curb the global issues, it can be said that the main cause of the failure was due to the reluctance of the other countries to take the initiative to stop the environmental problems due to several reasons, such as the governing bodies of countries being typically more interested in their own needs as well as countries not having the support they need in order to put environmental sustainable policies in to place.

For example, signing the Kyoto Protocol would severely limit the growth of many industries with the limitations placed on the emissions of greenhouse gases. When faced with this difficult decision, some countries choose to make the trade-off of having economic benefits and sacrificing environmental sustainability. Though this may be selfish, it is unavoidable as countries are always racing to increase its standings in the world, whether economically or technologically and this requires the use of resources that are sometimes harmful to the environment. This is especially so in developing countries, whose inability to commit adequate resources for environmental sustainability caused it to receive much criticism from the rest of the world.

One such example can be China. In current years, China has been accused to be one of the top emitters of greenhouse gasses, the reason being the rapid urbanization of Chinese cities. Being the ‘factory of the world’ makes it even more difficult to put restrictions upon their factories. Any limits placed upon the factories to rectify the issue of excessive pollution may incur detrimental economic effects that can be felt across several other countries due to the trading with many other countries. Thus it has always been a struggle on finding the best balance between pursuing economic growth and the sustainability of the environment.

This shows the difficult decisions that some countries face in order to practice environmental sustainability. Despite this, it is clear that people are willing to experiment with new methods to help protect the environment to halt the worsening of the global situation, where developed countries would lend a hand to aid the developing countries to reverse the effects of global warming, so one should remain optimistic about the improvements that may be done in the state of the current global situation.

The Double Edge of Globalization

Globalization has been largely blamed for causing many environmental problems, which is mainly the result of expanding trade between countries. This has led to massive deforestation, overfishing as well as the increase of pollutants which overall economic and social disruptions may rival those of major global events. On the other hand, globalization allows the world to become increasingly interconnected thus people around the world can easily gain knowledge of the effects of globalization and as a result increasing awareness of the global situation. Despite that, countries are unwilling to work together to solve global issues and that will curb the United Nations' ability to act upon them.

108 words

Summary for Scary Oil

The most pressing issue faced by the global economy is rising oil prices. Though the demand for oil has decreased, the inflation of oil prices is due to unrest in the Middle East. Sanctions had been put on Iran to prevent the construction of nuclear warheads, but because of that Iran has retaliated by causing conflict on the Gulf, where it has already launched several attacks on the Israeli embassies. Should  the sanctions fail, the US will be forced to conduct military action against Iran and that will result a further increase of oil prices.

Paraphrasing and Summarizing

Paraphrasing exercise

In this short excerpt from David Crystal’s English as a Global Language, take note of the way that power relationships rather than the number of speakers influenced Latin language use.

“Latin became an international language throughout the Roman Empire, but this was not because the Romans were more numerous than the peoples they subjugated. They were simply more powerful.” 

Paraphrase: Latin came to be the international language in the Roman Empire as their power enabled them to conquer many countries.

As you paraphrase the following paragraph, present the “expected” general features of the nuclear reactors from Declan Butler’s “Nuclear power’s new dawn,” taken from Nature, 20 May, 2004 (Vol. 429, p. 238).

“These new reactors would all operate at high temperatures, improving their efficiency.  And they would include simplified safety features that do not rely on sophisticated backup systems or experienced operators — all are, in principle, ‘meltdown proof’ and can cool themselves down in the event of an accident with minimal, if any, human intervention. . . . Experts agree that reactors will need to be a lot cheaper to run. And to sway a nuclear-averse public, the next generation of reactors will need to produce much less radioactive waste at terrorist-proof facilities.” 

Paraphrase: Being able to work at higher temperatures and not producing much radioactive waste would aid in improving the efficiency of nuclear reactors. In the case of an accident, they require little human intervention with the improved safety features. 

Summarizing Exercise

“In any one nation, there are both very wealthy and very poor individuals and families. When sociologists conduct research on these disparities, they frequently analyze secondary data that originally were collected by the World Bank and the United Nations. These data focus on quality-of-life indicators such as wealth; income; life expectancy; health; sanitation; the treatment of women; and education for high-income, middle-income and low income nations.”

Source: Kendall, D. (2004). Social problems in a diverse society (3^rd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Summary: Sociologists research on the uneven distribution of wealth via the data collected by the World Bank and the United Nations of quality of life indicators.

“Why a language becomes a global language has little to do with the number of people who speak it. It is much more to do with who those speakers are. Latin became an international language throughout the Roman Empire, but this was not because the Romans were more numerous than the peoples they subjugated. They were simply more powerful. And later, when Roman military power declined, Latin remained for a millennium as the international language of education, thanks to a different sort of power – the ecclesiastical power of Roman Catholicism.”

Source: Crystal, D. (1997). English as a global language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Summary: There are several ways for a language to become an international language, and that can be by conquest and the spread of religion.

 Summarise the effect of spending too much time on Facebook in one or two sentences, using the underlined information, which needs to be expressed in your own words.         

       

Summary: Research has shown that daily users of Facebook suffered from lower grades due to the amount of time spent on that website.