Hochschule Rhein Waal

Rhine Waal University of Applied Sciences

Gender & Diversity (B.A)

GD_6 Globalization & Social Change

Prof. Dr. Ingrid Jungwirth

Excerpt

Source material: Yearley, S. (2007) Globalization and the Environment.

In: Ritzer, G. (ed.). The Blackwell Companion to Globalization, Malden:
Blackwell Publishing Ltd., pp. 239-253.

Farhan Rasheed Khan

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 Introduction: The Earth, the Globe and the Discourse of the Global
Environment

The environment and the globalization are very related and interconnected. This, therefore
makes the environment global in many ways. No matter what part of the world you might be in,
we all share the same atmosphere, the same sunshine and all our oceans meet up at some
point. This, therefore means that the environment is global. Wikipedia defines environment as
“Environment is living things and what is around them.” This therefore implies the atmosphere,
the sun, the waters. Thereby making the environment global. Steve Yearley states that to talk
about globalization of the environment as though the environment had only recently gained a
global dimension appears peculiar.

Therefore, one of the main issues for the social scientists of globalization is the
conceptualization of the global environment. Yearly hereby poses the question “What does it
means to think of the environment globally?” (p.239). Yearley reviews globalization and the
environment from three main perspectives.

1) The first perspective relates to global environment itself and particularly to recent
influences on the way that we think about issues at the level of the global environment.
(p.239)
2) Second relates to institutions that affect the environment at a global level. (p.239)
3) Third perspective relates to sociological arguments about the precise nature of
globalization and their implications for environmental reform. (p.239)

In reviewing the first perspective, which related to global environment itself, Yearley argues
that environment as an area of globalization was overlooked till the mid 90’s which is ironic.
Terms like “Earth Day” were coined as the word “earth” makes one think about the environment.
The reform in the environmental policy in the wake of “Earth Summit” and the recognition of
ozone depletion and global climate change as global problems are also reviewed. The author
also sheds light on the increase in global institutions like WTO, IMF and the meeting of the G7
and G8 but not much has been achieved to protect the environment.

The “Globalness” of Global Environmental problems

In this review, Yearley focuses on ozone depletion and global warming as canonical global
environmental problems. The primary cause of ozone depletion is pinned by Yearley as the
synthetic and non-poisonous chemicals known as Chlorofluorocarbons (CFG’s) and pollution
emitted from industries and vehicles which can stay in the atmosphere for long periods, causing
harm to the ozone layer, and therefore, emissions from one part of the world can easily affect
another part of the world. After the success of “ozone talks”, attention shifted to global warming.
According to Yearley, the “greenhouse” effect is responsible for the earth to be warmer than the
moon, even though both bodies receive same amount of heat from the sun. Furthermore, since
the industrialization of the world and burning of fossil fuels have dramatically increased the
levels of carbon dioxide, CFG’s play an important role in the increase of carbon dioxide as well
as they are highly effective greenhouse molecules. Yearley states that this makes it a global
problem as carbon dioxide is emitted by all people via breathing.

The Problematic Global Qualifications of Global Environmental Problems

Collective action is always required in order to overcome the environmental problems as it is a

global obligation. Yearley states that to assess the globalization of environmentalism, we need
to examine, first, whether these problems are fully global as they appear and second, whether
other environmental problems are also global. (p.243-44) To clarify the first part, Yearley argues
that majority of the emissions of carbon dioxide has been done by the industrialized wealthy
countries,, hence to make it everybody’s problem is a way for the wealthy countries to partially
absorb themselves of responsibility for past emissions. (p.244) Yearley gives example of the
United States for not ratifying the Kyoto Protocols due to the idea of economic harm. Climate
change has also been treated differently by different nations depending upon how much it will
affect them.

Turning to the second point, Yearley argues that other environmental problems such as POP’s
and ABC pose threat to the global environment and hence, are global issues just like climate
change and ozone depletion. Finally, Yearley states that other than explicit environmental
policies, other things also affect how countries perform relative to the global environment.
(p.245) It is due to the explicit policies that the wealthy countries have moved to a efficient and
less wasteful processes of production, but major role is played due to the taking over of
manufacturing by China.

Global Free Trade and the Conceptualization of Environmental Interests

The international institutions which are associated with protection of the environment has been
exceeded by institutions which promote free trade. But governments also practice high levels of
protectionism in their domestic markets for various reasons. Yearley argues that to make free
trade more effective, institute like GATT was formed which later on gave birth to WTO with the
aim to eliminate the technical barriers in free trade. WTO has ruled out against environmental
protection policies and have favoured the economical factor of free trade. WTO’s decisions are
directly influencing the environment and environmentalists saw it as peculiar that WTO’s legally
binding judgements are based on the improvement of free trade and not the environmental
protection.

According to Yearly, WTO, which is although not an environmental organization, has strong
impacts on global environment because WTO’s decisions are legally binding and influence the
environment even though they do not base primarily on environmental considerations. (p. 250)
 Globalization and the Plays of Environmental Standards

The spread of neoliberal capitalism has been the primary concern for the environmentalists who
protests against WTO, IMF and G7 meetings. This spread of neoliberal capitalism tends to
suffocate the environmental reforms and thus, the concept of a shared global environment and
with the worldwide problems of ozone depletion and climate change will not be reduced by the
spread of capitalism. Yearly argues that globalization is a cultural phenomenon as well as
economic one. (p.250) The environmentalists focused on a globalized world with economic
considerations subordinated to ecological priorities. (p.251) Believing that WTO is in a position
to grant higher priority to environmental protection without having any negative effect on its
global goals. Yearley quotes authors such as Mol (1997), Spaargaren (1997) and Huber (1982)
that commercial developments and environmental standards go hand in hand. (p.251)

Concluding remarks

Yearly concludes the argument that environment stands out when compared to other areas of
globalization because of its physical reality of aspects of its globalization, such as global
warming and ozone layer depletion. (p.252) And at the same time, the ironic fact that the world’s
environment is probably more influenced by trade and economic policies rather than
environmental protection ones. (p.252) Therefore, novel institutional actors like WTO have been
allowed to impact the global environment even with strong opposition. WTO’s stance on GM’s
indicate clearly how subtle and technical these issues of trade and safety can become. (p.252)
Yearley further concludes that the example of the global environment reveals that it gives birth
of new opportunities and resources for myriad non-state actors (p.252).