Social & Environmental Changes

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• Globalization brings social and environmental issues to the world’s attention

• Poverty, disease, human rights, environmental threats start in a country, but have global dimension/need global solutions

Issues In the Developing World

• Poverty: 3 billion people living on less than $2 a day, hunger, disease

• Gap between rich and poor nations is huge and growing

• Causes: in debt, political upheavals, civil war, corruption, rapid population growth

Natural Disaster Affect Millions

• What are natural disasters?

• What are some examples of natural disasters?

• How can these disasters affect developing nations?

Japan, 2011

Earthquake & tsunami

Global Threats

• Epidemic:– HIV/AIDS in Africa– SARS, bird flu, West Nile virus– Influenza (1918)

• Between 50 and 300 million people died

• Famine

Human Rights

• What are some historic examples of when basic human rights were violated?– Holocaust, Equal Rights movement, Darfur,

slavery, genocide, women’s voting, Egypt/Libya fight for democracy, Taliban in Afghanistan, gay marriage in US today

• Human rights abuses are not new, but globalization brings them to the attention of the world

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

• Created by the United Nations (UN) in 1948

Developed Nations

• What can developed nations do to assist developing nations?– How to end poverty? Hunger? Epidemic? – Help with the aftermath of natural disaster?– With the human rights issues?

Stossel: Foreign Aid

Development & the Environment

• Industrialization and the world population explosion have increased the damage done to the environment

• What are some current environmental threats/issues?– Air and water pollution, global warming,

deforestation

Stossel: Global Warming

Development & the Environment

Global Warming (Climate Change)

Climate Change

Definition - refers to any significant change in measures of climate (such as temperature, precipitation, or wind) lasting for an extended period (decades or longer)

Development & the Environment

• Climate change may result from:– natural factors, such as changes in the

sun's intensity or slow changes in the Earth's orbit around the sun;

– natural processes within the climate system (e.g. changes in ocean circulation);

– human activities that change the atmosphere's composition (e.g. through burning fossil fuels) and the land surface (e.g. deforestation, reforestation, urbanization, desertification, etc.)

Development & the Environment

Development & the Environment