Duiker W.J., Spielvogel J.J. The Essential World History. Volume 2: Since 1500

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COMPARATIVE ESSAY

NE WORLD,ONE ENVIRONMENT

A crucial factor affecting the evolution of society

and the global economy in the early twenty-first

century is the growing concern over the impact of

industrialization on the earth’s environment.

Humans have always caused some harm to their natural sur-

roundings, but never has the danger of significant ecological

damage been as extensive as during the past century. The

effects of chemicals introduced into the atmosphere or into riv-

ers, lakes, and oceans have increasingly threatened the health

and well-being of all living species.

For many years, the main focus of environmental concern was in

the developed countries of the West, where industrial effluents, auto-

mobile exhaust, and the use of artificial fertilizers and insecticides

led to urban smog, extensive damage to crops and wildlife, and a

major reduction of the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere. In re-

cent years, the problem has spread elsewhere. China’s headlong rush

to industrialization has resulted in major ecological damage in that

country. Industrial smog has created almost unlivable conditions in

many cities in Asia, while hillsides de-

nuded of their forests have caused severe

problems of erosion that have destroyed

farmlands. Destruction of the rain forest is

a growing problem in many parts of the

world, notably in Brazil and Indonesia.

W ith the forest cover throughout the

earth rapidly disappearing, there is less

plantlifetoperformthecrucialprocessof

reducing carbon dioxide levels in the

atmosphere.

One of the few beneficial conse-

quences of such incidents has been a

growing international consensus that en-

vironmental concerns have taken on a

truly global character. Although the dan-

ger of global warming---caused by the re-

lease, as a result of industrialization, of

hothouse gases into the atmosphere---has not yet been definitively

proved, it has become a source of sufficient concern to bring about

an international conference on the subject in Kyoto, Japan, in

December 1997. If, as many scientists predict, worldwide tempera-

tures continue to increase, the rise in sea levels could pose a signifi-

cant threat to low-lying islands and coastal areas throughout the

world, while climatic change could lead to severe droughts or exces-

sive rainfall in cultivated areas.

It is one thing to recognize a problem, however, and another to

solve it. So far, cooperative efforts among nations to alleviate environ-

mental problems have all too often been hindered by economic forces

or by political, ethnic, and religious disputes. The 1997 conference on

global warming, for example, was marked by bitter disagreement over

the degree to which developing countries should share the burden of

cleaning up the environment. The fact is, few nations have been will-

ing to take unilateral action that might pose an obstacle to economic

development plans or lead to a rise in unemployment. In 2001,

President George W. Bush refused to sign the Kyoto Agreement on

the grounds that it discriminated against advanced Western countries.

At the end of 2009, another international

conference on global warming, held in

Copenhagen, Denmark, also was marked by

disagreements between the developed and

developing nations. As a result, it achieved

few concrete results, despite a more active

role by the United States.

What are the major reasons why

progress in cleaning up the environment

has been so difficult to achieve?



Judyth Platt/Ecoscene/CORBIS

Destruction of the Environment. This

stunted tree has been killed by acid rain, a

combination of sulfuric and nitric acids mixed

with moisture in the air. Entire forests of trees

killed by acid rain are becoming common sights

in Canada, the United States, and northern

Europe.

CONCLUSION

THE RISE OF ASIA as a crucial factor in the global economic

order has sparked widespread debate, and sometimes concern, in

major world capitals. Some observers see major Asian states like

China, Japan, and even India as future competitors with advanced

Western nations (see the comparative essay ‘‘Global Village or Clash

of Civilizations?’’ in Chapter 26), an observation made more

ominous in recent years by the outsourcing of jobs to the region.

To some observers, the economic achievements of the nations

of the western Pacific have come at a high price, in the form of

political authoritarianism and a lack of attention to human rights.

Until recently, government repression of opposition has been

common in many of these nations. In addition, the rights of

national minorities and women are often still limited in comparison

with the advanced nations of the West. Developments such as the

776 CHAPTER 30 TOWARD THE PACIFIC CENTURY?

TIMELINE

1945 1955

1965 1975 1985 1995 2005 2010

East Asia

South Asia

Southeast

Asia

End of World War II in the Pacific

Korean War

United States–

Republic of China

security treaty

Independence of

Republic of Singapore

Hong Kong returned to

China

Syngman Rhee overthrown

in South Korea

Chung Hee Park

assassinated

Student riots

in South Korea

Liberal Democrats

defeated in Japan

First free general

elections in Taiwan

Chen Shui-bian elected

president of Taiwan

Financial crisis

hits South Korea

Koizumi steps

down as prime

minister

United States–Japan security treaty

Economic recession

in Japan

U.S.

occupation

of Japan

India and Pakistan

declare independence

Southeast Asian states

restore independence

Formation

of ASEAN

Era of guided democracy

in Indonesia

Corazon Aquino elected

president of the Philippines

Death of Jawaharlal Nehru

Era of Indira Gandhi

Khmer Rouge control

Cambodia

Suharto steps down

as president of Indonesia

Destruction of

mosque at Ayodhya

Musharraf seizes

power in Pakistan

Assassination of Benazir Bhutto

Peace talks

on Kashmir

Financial crisis

hits Southeast Asia

Giant

tsunami

financial crisis of 1997 and the long economic downturn in Japan

have also somewhat tarnished the image of the ‘‘Asian miracle,’’

raising concern that some of the factors that contributed to

economic success in prior years are now making it difficult for

governments to develop open and accountable financial systems.

Rapid economic development in eastern and southern Asia has

also exacted an environmental price. Industrial pollution in China

and India and the burning of forests in Indonesia and other

Southeast Asian nations increasingly threaten the fragile ecosystem

and create friction among nations within the region (see the

comparative essay ‘‘One World, One Environment’’ on p. 776).

Unless the region’s nations learn to cooperate effectively to deal with

the problem in future years, it will ultimately begin to undermine

the dramatic economic and social progress that has taken place.

Still, it should be kept in mind that progress has not always been

easy to achieve in the West and even now frequently fails to match

expectations. A look at the historical record suggests that political

pluralism is often a by-product of economic growth and that political

values and institutions evolve in response to changing social

conditions. A rising standard of living and increased social mobility

should go far toward enhancing political freedom and promoting

social justice in the countries bordering the western Pacific.

The efforts of these nations to find a way to accommodate

traditional and modern, native and foreign, raise a final question.

As we have seen, Mahatma Gandhi believed that materialism is

ultimately a dead end. In light of contemporary concerns about the

emptiness of life in the West and the self-destructiveness of material

culture, can his message be ignored?

CONCLUSION 777

SUGGESTED READING

The Indian Subcontinent Since 1945 For a survey of postwar

Indian history, see P. Brass, The New Cambridge History of India:

The Politics of Independence (Cambridge, 1990), and S. Tharoor,

India: From Midnight to the Millennium (New York, 1997). On

India’s founding father, see J. Brown, Nehru: A Political Life (New

Haven, Conn., 2003). The life and career of Indira Gandhi have

been well chronicled. Two fine biographies are T. Ali, An Indian

Dynasty: The Story of the Nehru-Gandhi Family (New York, 1985),

and K. Frank, Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi (New York,

2000). On Pakistan, see O. B. Jones, Pakistan: Eye of the Storm

(New Haven, Conn., 2002). Also of interest is C. Baxter,

Bangladesh: From a Nation to a State (Boulder, Colo., 1997).

Indian Literature On Indian literature, see D. Ray and

A. Singh, eds., India: An Anthology of Contemporary Writing

(Athens, Ohio, 1983). See also S. Tharu and K. Lalita, eds., Women

Writing in India, vol. 2 (New York, 1993).

Southeast Asia Since 1945 There are a number of standard

surveys of the histor y of modern Southeast Asia. One is N. Tarling,

Southeast Asia: A Modern History (Oxford, 2002). For a more

scholarly approach, see N. Tarling, ed., The Cambridge History of

Southeast Asia, vol. 4 (Cambridge, 1999). T. Friend, Indonesian

Destinies (Cambridge, Mass., 2003), is a fine introduction to

Indonesian society and culture. For a political perspective on the

Suharto years, see M. Vatiokis, Indonesian Politics Under Suharto

(London, 1993). The rise of terrorism in the region is discussed in

Z. Abuza, Militant Islam in Southeast Asia: Crucible of Terror

(Boulder, Colo., 2003).

Women in Southeast Asia For an overview of wo men’s

issues in contemporary South and Southeast Asia, consult

B. Ramusack and S. Sievers, Women in Asia (Bloomington, Ind.,

1999). K. Bhasin, R. Menon,andN. S. Khan, eds., Again st All

Odds: Essays on Women, Religion and Development from India

and Pakistan (New Delhi, 1994), explores fundamentalist

cons erv atism amon g both Hi ndu and Muslim women. Of interest

on Southeast Asian women’s issues are W. Williams, Japanese

Lives: Women and Men in Modern Indonesian Society (New

Brunswick, N.J., 1991 ), and C. B. N. Chi n, In Service and

Servitude: Foreign Female Domestic Workers and the Malaysian

‘‘Modernity’’ Project (New York, 1998).

Japan Since 1945 For a balanced treatment of all issues

relating to postwar Japan, see J. McLain, Japan: A Modern History

(New York, 2001). I. Buruma, Inventing Japan (New York, 2002),

offers a more journalistic approach that raises questions about the

future of democracy in Japan. For a topical treatment with a strong

emphasis on economic and social matters, J. E. Hunter, The

Emergence of Modern Japan: An Introductory History Since 1853

(London, 1989), is excellent. For an extensive analysis of Japan’s

adjustment to the Allied occupation, see J. W. Dower, Embracing

Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II (New York, 1999).

T. Heymann, On an Average Day in Japan (New York, 1992),

provides an interesting statistical comparison of Japanese and

American society. On the role of women in modern Japan, see

D. Robins-Mowry, The Hidden Sun: Women of Modern Japan

(Boulder, Colo., 1983), and N. Bornoff, Pink Samurai: Love,

Marriage, and Sex in Contemporary Japan (New York, 1991).

The Little Tigers On the four Little Tigers and their

economic development, see E. F. Vogel, The Four Little Dragons:

The Spread of Industrialization in East Asia (Cambridge, Mass.,

1991); J. W. Morley, ed., Driven by Growth: Political Change in the

Asia-Pacific Region (Armonk, N.Y., 1992); and J. Woronoff, Asia’s

Miracle Economies (New York, 1986). For individual treatments of

the Little Tigers, see Hak-kyu Sohn, Authoritarianism and

Opposition in South Korea (London, 1989); Lee Kuan Yew, From

Third World to First: The Singapore Story, 1965--2000 (New York,

2000); and K. Rafferty, City on the Rocks: Hong Kong’s Uncertain

Future (London, 1991). Also see M. Rubinstein, Taiwan: A New

History (New York, 2001).

Visit the website for The Essential World History to access study

aids such as Flashcards, Critical Thinking Exercises, and

Chapter Quizzes:

www.cengage.com/history/duikspiel/essentialworld6e

778 CHAPTER 30 TOWARD THE PACIFIC CENTURY?

779

ON A VISIT TO NUREMBERG, Germany, with his

family in 2000, Jackson Spielvogel, one of the authors of

this textbook, was startled to  nd that the main railroad

station, where he had once arrived as a Fulbright stu-

dent, was now ostentatiously adorned with McDonald’s

Golden Arches. McDonald’s was the brainstorm of

two brothers who opened a cheap burger restaurant in

California in 1940. When they expanded their opera-

tions to Arizona, they began to use two yellow arches

to make their building visible from blocks away. A er

Ray Kroc, an enterprising businessman, bought the bur-

geoning business from the brothers, McDonald’s arches

rapidly spread all over the United States. And they didn’t

stop there.  e fast-food industry, which now relied on

computers to maximize the automated processing of its

food, found an international market. McDonald’s spread

to Japan in 1971 and to Russia and China in 1990; by

1995, more than half of all McDonald’s restaurants were

located outside the United States. By 2000, McDonald’s

was serving 50 million people throughout the world

every day.

McDonald’s is but one of numerous U.S. companies

that use the latest technology and actively seek global

markets. Indeed, sociologists have coined the term

McDonaldization to refer to “the process whereby the

principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to domi-

nate more and more sectors of American society as well

as the rest of the world.”

Multinational corporations like

McDonald’s have brought about a worldwide homogeni-

zation of societies and made us aware of the political, eco-

nomic, and social interdependence of the world’s nations

and the global nature of our contemporary problems.

An important part of this global awareness is the tech-

nological dimension.  e growth of new technology has

made possible levels of world communication that simply

did not exist before. At the same time that Osama bin

Laden and al-Qaeda were denouncing the forces of mod-

ernization, they were promoting their message by using

advanced telecommunication systems that have only re-

cently been developed.  e Technological Revolution has

tied peoples and nations closely together and contributed

to globalization, the term that is frequently used today to

describe the process by which peoples and nations have

become more interdependent.

 e Global Economy

Especially since the 1970s, the world has developed a

global economy in which the production, distribution,

and sale of goods are accomplished on a worldwide scale.

Several international institutions have contributed to the

rise of the global economy. Soon a er the end of World

War II, the United States and other nations established the

World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)

as a means of expanding global markets and avoiding

McDonald’s in India. McDonald’s has become an important

symbol of U.S. cultural in uence throughout the world. Seen here is a

McDonald’s located in a traditional building in New Delhi, India.  e

children outside are trying to make some money by selling balloons to

other children who can a ord to buy fast food.

EPILOGUE

A GLOBAL CIVILIZATION

780

faced new and daunting economic challenges.  e IMF

estimated that global output would fall by 1.3 percent in

2009, the  rst decline in sixty years. Although there were

some signs of recovery by May, most economists believed

that the worst global slump since the Great Depression of

the 1930s was far from over.

Global Culture and the Digital Age

Since the invention of the microprocessor in 1971, the

capabilities of computers have expanded by leaps and

bounds, resulting in today’s information age or digital age.

Beginning in the 1980s, computer companies like Apple

and Microso competed to create more powerful comput-

ers. By the 1990s, the booming technology industry had

made Microso founder Bill Gates the richest man in the

world. Much of this success was due to several innovations

involving computers that made them indispensable devices

for communication, information, and entertainment.

 e Technological World

 e advent of electronic mail, or e-mail, transformed

communication in the mid-1990s. As the capacity of com-

puters to transmit data increased, e-mail messages could

be accompanied by document and image attachments,

making them a workable and speedier alternative to con-

ventional postal mail and other delivery methods. At the

same time, the Internet, especially its World Wide Web,

was becoming an information exchange for people around

the world. A network of smaller, interlinking Web pages,

the Internet provides access to sites devoted to news, com-

merce, entertainment, and academic scholarship. As com-

puter processors have become more powerful, these web-

sites now possess video and music capabilities in addition

to text-based documents.

Advances in telecommunications led to cellular or mo-

bile phones.  ough cellular phones existed in the 1970s

and 1980s, it was not until the digital components of these

devices were reduced in size in the 1990s that cell phones

became truly portable. Cell phones have since become

enormously important, and not only for communication.

Indeed, many nations have become  nancially dependent

on their sales for economic growth.  e ubiquity of cell

phones and their ability to transfer data electronically

have made text messaging a global communications craze.

Text and instant messaging have revolutionized written

language, as shorthand script has replaced complete sen-

tences for the purposes of relaying brief messages.

In 2001, Apple introduced the iPod, a portable digi-

tal music player.  e pocket-sized device has since rev-

olutionized the music industry, as downloading music

dramatic economic crises such as the Great Depression

of the 1930s.  e World Bank is actually a group of  ve

international organizations, largely controlled by devel-

oped countries, which provides grants, loans, and advice

for economic development to developing countries.  e

goal of the IMF is to oversee the global  nancial system

by supervising exchange rates and o ering  nancial and

technical assistance to developing nations. Today, 186

countries are members of the IMF. Critics have argued,

however, that both the World Bank and the IMF some-

times push non-Western nations to adopt inappropriate

Western economic practices that only aggravate the pov-

erty and debt of developing nations.

Another re ection of the new global economic or-

der is the multinational corporation or transnational

corporation (a company that has divisions in more than

two countries). Prominent examples of multinational

corporations include Siemens, Coca-Cola, ExxonMobil,

Mitsubishi, and Sony.  ese companies are among the

two hundred largest multinational corporations, which

are responsible for more than half of the world’s indus-

trial production. In 2000, some 71 percent of these cor-

porations were headquartered in just three countries—the

United States, Japan, and Germany. In addition, these su-

percorporations dominate much of the world’s investment

capital, technology, and markets. A recent comparison of

corporate sales and national gross domestic product dis-

closed that only forty-nine of the world’s hundred larg-

est economic entities are nations; the remaining   y-one

are corporations. For this reason, some observers believe

that economic globalization is more appropriately labeled

“corporate globalization.”

Another important component of economic global-

ization is free trade. In 1947, talks led to the creation of

the General Agreement on Tari s and Trade (GATT), a

global trade organization that was replaced in 1995 by

the World Trade Organization (WTO). Made up of more

than 150 member nations, the WTO arranges trade agree-

ments and settles trade disputes.  e goal of the WTO is

to open up world markets and maximize global produc-

tion. But the WTO also has its critics. Some charge that it

has harmed small and developing countries, contributing

to the ever growing gap between rich and poor nations.

Others contend that it has ignored environmental and

health problems that have arisen as manufacturing jobs

have been transferred from developed countries like the

United States to developing countries with fewer protec-

tions for workers and the environment.

 e extent of globalization became especially evident

in 2008 when a collapse of the largely unregulated  nan-

cial markets in the United States quickly led to a world-

wide recession. Manufacturing plunged, unemployment

rose, and banks faltered as countries around the world

Global Culture and the Digital Age 781

One problem is population growth. As of December

2009, the world population was estimated at more than

6.8 billion people, only twenty-one years a er passing the

5 billion mark. At its current rate of growth, the world

population could reach 12.8 billion by 2050, according to

the United Nations’ long-range population projections.

 e result has been an increased demand for food and

other resources that has put great pressure on the earth’s

ecosystems. At the same time, the failure to grow enough

food for more and more people, a problem exacerbated

by drought conditions beginning to appear on several

continents, has created a severe problem, as an estimated

1 billion people worldwide today su er from hunger. Every

year, more than 8 million people die of hunger, many of

them young children.

Another problem is the pattern of consumption as

the wealthy nations of the Northern Hemisphere con-

sume vast quantities of the planet’s natural resources.  e

United States, for example, which has 6 percent of the

planet’s people, consumes 30 to 40 percent of its resources.

 e spread of these consumption patterns to other parts of

the world raises serious questions about the ability of the

planet to sustain itself and its population. As a result of the

economic slowdown in 2008 and 2009, for example, more

automobiles are now sold in China than in the United

States.

Yet another threat to the environment is global warm-

ing, which has the potential to create a worldwide crisis.

Virtually all of the world’s scientists agree that the green-

house e ect, the warming of the earth because of the

buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, is contrib-

uting to devastating droughts and storms, the melting of

the polar ice caps, and rising sea levels that could inundate

coastal regions in the second half of the twenty- rst century.

Also alarming is the potential loss of biodiversity. Seven out

of ten biologists believe the planet is now experiencing an

alarming extinction of both plant and animal species.

 e Social Challenges

of Globalization

Since 1945, tens of millions of people have migrated from

one part of the world to another.  ese migrations have

occurred for many reasons. Persecution for political rea-

sons caused many people from Pakistan, Bangladesh,

Sri Lanka, and eastern Europe to seek refuge in west-

ern European countries, while brutal civil wars in Asia,

Africa, the Middle East, and Europe led millions of refu-

gees to seek safety in neighboring countries. Most people

who have migrated, however, have done so to  nd jobs.

Latin Americans seeking a better life have migrated to the

electronically from the Internet has surpassed the pur-

chasing of records (CDs, tapes, and other physical forms)

in stores. In fact, CD sales declined by nearly 25 percent

from 2000 to 2006.

Reality in the Digital Age

Advances in communication and information during the

digital age have led many people to suggest that world cul-

tures are becoming increasingly interdependent and ho-

mogenized. Many contemporary artists have questioned the

e ects of the computer age on identity and material real-

ity. According to some, the era of virtual reality, or what the

French philosopher Jean Baudrillard has termed “hyperreal-

ity,” has displaced cultural uniqueness and bodily presence.

The Body and Identity in Contemporary Art By focus-

ing on bodily experience and cultural norms, contempo-

rary artists have attempted to restore what has been lost

in the digital age. Kiki Smith (b. 1954), an American artist

born in Germany, creates sculptures of the human body

that o en focus on anatomical processes.  ese works,

commonly made of wax or plaster, question the politics

surrounding the body, including AIDS and domestic

abuse, while reconnecting to bodily experiences.

Contemporary artists also continue to explore the

interaction between the Western and non-Western

world, particularly with the multiculturalism gener-

ated by global migrations (see “ e Social Challenges of

Globalization” later in this Epilogue). For example, the art

of Yinka Shonibare (b. 1962), who was born in London to

Nigerian parents, grew up in Nigeria, and now resides in

England, investigates the notion of hybrid identity as he

creates clothing and tableaux that fuse European designs

with African traditions.  e success of Shonibare’s work

indicates how, in the digital age, Western peoples remain

interested in other cultures and traditions.  is emergence

of a global culture has become part of the new globalism

at the beginning of the twenty- rst century.

Globalization and the

Environmental Crisis

Taking a global perspective at the beginning of the twenty-

 rst century has led many people to realize that every-

where on the planet, human beings are interdependent in

regard to the air they breathe, the water they drink, the

food they consume, and the climate that a ects their lives.

At the same time, however, human activities are creating

environmental challenges that threaten the very founda-

tion of human existence on earth (see the box on p. 783).

782 EPILOGUE A GLOBAL CIVILIZATION

As human threats to the environment grew, world

scientists began to organize and respond to the

crisis. One group, founded in 1969, was the Union

of Concerned Scientists, a nonproﬁ t organization of

professional scientists and private citizens, now with more than

200,000 members. In November 1992, the Union of Concerned

Scientists published an appeal from 1,700 of the world’s lead-

ing scientists. The ﬁ rst selection is taken from this “Warning to

Humanity.”

Earlier, in 1988, in response to the threat of global warm-

ing, the United Nations established the Intergovernmental Panel

on Climate Change (IPCC) to study the latest scientiﬁ c informa-

tion on global warming and climate change. In 2007, more than

2,500 scientists from more than 130 countries contributed to

the group’s most recent report, “Climate Change, 2007: The

Fourth Assessment Report,” released in November 2007. The

second selection is taken from the Web page that summarizes

the basic ﬁ ndings of the 2007 report.

“World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity,” 1992

Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. Human

activities in ict harsh and o en irreversible damage on the environment

and on critical resources. If not checked, many of our current practices

put at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the

plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it

will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know. Fundamental

changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present course

will bring about.  e environment is su ering critical stress:

 e Atmosphere

Stratospheric ozone depletion threatens us with enhanced ultraviolet

radiation at the earth’s surface, which can be damaging or lethal to many

life forms. Air pollution near ground level, and acid precipitation, are

already causing widespread injury to humans, forests, and crops.

Water Resources

Heedless exploitation of depletable ground water supplies endangers

food production and other essential human systems. Heavy demands

on the world’s surface waters have resulted in serious shortages

in some 80 countries, containing 40% of the world’s population.

Pollution of rivers, lakes, and ground water further limits the supply.

Oceans

Destructive pressure on the oceans is severe, particularly in the coastal

regions which produce most of the world’s food  sh.  e total marine

catch is now at or above the estimated maximum sustainable yield.

Some  sheries have already shown signs of collapse.

Soil

Loss of soil productivity, which is causing extensive land abandon-

ment, is a widespread by-product of current practices in agriculture

and animal husbandry. Since 1945, 11% of the earth’s vegetated sur-

face has been degraded—an area larger than India and China com-

bined—and per capita food production in many parts of the world is

decreasing.

Forests

Tropical rain forests, as well as tropical and temperate dry forests, are

being destroyed rapidly. At present rates, some critical forest types will

be gone in a few years, and most of the tropical rain forest will be gone

before the end of the next century. With them will go large numbers of

plant and animal species.

Living Species

 e irreversible loss of species, which by 2100 may reach one-third of

all species now living, is especially serious. . . . Much of this damage

is irreversible on a scale of centuries, or permanent. Other processes

appear to pose additional threats. Increasing levels of gases in the

atmosphere from human activities, including carbon dioxide released

from fossil fuel burning and from deforestation, may alter climate on

a global scale.

Warning

We the undersigned, senior members of the world’s scienti c com-

munity, hereby warn all humanity of what lies ahead. A great change

in our stewardship of the earth and the life on it is required, if vast hu-

man misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not

to be irretrievably mutilated.

“Findings of the IPCC Fourth Assessment

Report,” 2007

Human Responsibility for Climate Change

 e report  nds that it is “very likely” that emissions of heat-trapping

gases from human activities have caused “most of the observed in-

crease in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century.”

Evidence that human activities are the major cause of recent climate

change is even stronger than in prior assessments.

A Warning to Humanity

(continued)

The Social Challenges of Globalization 783

Civil wars have also created food shortages. War not

only disrupts normal farming operations, but warring

groups try to limit access to food to weaken or kill their

enemies. In Sudan, 1.3 million people starved when com-

batants of a civil war in the 1980s prevented food from

reaching them. As unrest continued during the early

2000s in Sudan’s Darfur region, families were forced to

leave their farms. As a result, an estimated 70,000 people

starved by mid-2004.

Global Movements and New Hopes

As people have become aware that the problems hu-

mans face are not just national or regional but global in

scope, they have responded to this challenge in di erent

ways. One approach has been to develop grassroots so-

cial movements, including ones devoted to environmental

concerns, women’s and men’s liberation, human potential,

appropriate technology, and nonviolence. “ ink globally,

act locally” is frequently the slogan of these grassroots

groups. Related to the emergence of these social move-

ments is the growth of nongovernmental organizations

(NGOs). According to one analyst, NGOs are an impor-

tant instrument in the cultivation of global perspectives:

“Since NGOs by de nition are identi ed with interests

that transcend national boundaries, we expect all NGOs

to de ne problems in global terms, to take account of hu-

man interests and needs as they are found in all parts of

United States, while guest workers from Turkey, southern

and eastern Europe, North Africa, India, and Pakistan

have migrated to more prosperous western European

countries. In 2005, nearly 200 million people, about 3 per-

cent of the world’s population, lived outside the country

where they were born.

 e migration of millions of people has also provoked

a social backlash in many countries. Foreign workers have

o en become scapegoats when countries face economic

problems. Political parties in France and Norway, for ex-

ample, have called for the removal of blacks, Muslims, and

Arabs in order to protect the ethnic or cultural purity of

their nations, while in Asian countries, there is animosity

against other Asian ethnic groups.

Another challenge of globalization is the wide gap be-

tween rich and poor nations.  e rich nations, or developed

nations, are located mainly in the Northern Hemisphere.

 ey include the United States, Canada, Germany, and

Japan, which have well-organized industrial and agricul-

tural systems, advanced technologies, and e ective educa-

tional systems.  e poor nations, or developing nations,

include many nations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America,

which o en have primarily agricultural economies with

little technology. A serious problem in many developing

nations is explosive population growth, which has led to

severe food shortages o en caused by poor soil but also by

economic factors. Growing crops for export to developed

countries, for example, may lead to enormous pro ts for

large landowners but leaves many small farmers with little

land on which to grow food.

Warming Is Unequivocal

 e report concludes that it is “unequivocal” that Earth’s climate is

warming, “as is now evident from observations of increases in global

average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and

ice, and rising global mean sea level.”  e report also con rms that the

current atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide and methane,

two important heat-trapping gases, “exceeds by far the natural range

over the last 650,000 years.”

Additional IPCC Findings on Recent Climate Change

Rising Temperatures

 Eleven of the last 12 years rank among the 12 hottest years on

record (since 1850, when su cient worldwide temperature mea-

surements began).

 Over the last 50 years, “cold days, cold nights, and frost have

become less frequent, while hot days, hot nights, and heat waves

have become more frequent.”

Increasingly Severe Weather (storms, precipitation,

drought)

  e intensity of tropical cyclones (hurricanes) in the North

Atlantic has increased over the past 30 years, which correlates

with increases in tropical sea surface temperatures.

 Storms with heavy precipitation have increased in frequency

over most land areas. Between 1900 and 2005, long-term trends

show signi cantly increased precipitation in eastern parts of

North and South America, northern Europe, and northern and

central Asia.

 Droughts have become longer and more intense, and have af-

fected larger areas since the 1970s, especially in the tropics and

subtropics.

What problems and challenges do these two repor ts Q

present? What do these two repor ts have in common? How do

they differ?

(continued)

784 EPILOGUE A GLOBAL CIVILIZATION

cultural, and ethnic ways in which the world is divided.

Such e orts are o en disruptive and can sometimes work

against measures to enhance our human destiny. But they

also represent an integral part of human character and

human history and cannot be suppressed in the relentless

drive to create a world society.

 ere are already initial signs that as the common

dangers posed by environmental damage, overpopulation,

and scarcity of resources become even more apparent, so-

cieties around the world will  nd ample reason to turn

their attention from cultural di erences to the demands

of global interdependence.  e greatest challenge of the

twenty- rst century may be to reconcile the drive for in-

dividual and group identity with the common needs of the

human community.