Group 5:

Global Issues and Challenges

Towards a more Sustainable
World

Reporters:
Florante Dane Mariell A.
Cayao, Cyril Ethel
Doria, Rhea Nichole P.
Israel, Arjen Bellarmine
Roxas, Leslie Joy G.
Reporter: Roxas, Leslie Joy G.

GLOBAL ISSUES
 Global issues are interconnected and hold the potential for
far-reaching impacts on large numbers of people. What is
important to remember as we explore global issues is that
while they may be daunting, because of their
interconnectedness they can provide us with opportunities
to help create a sustainable world. By approaching global
issues from a systems perspective we can help students
create a world that represents their highest aspirations. It is
up to each of us individually and as a community to make
the choices and take the actions to create a future we want
for ourselves and for future generations.
Source: https://clearingmagazine.org/archives/979

GLOBAL INEQUALITY
 Inequality has been on the rise across the globe for several decades. Some countries have reduced
the numbers of people living in extreme poverty. But economic gaps have continued to grow as the
very richest amass unprecedented levels of wealth. Among industrial nations, the United States is
by far the most top heavy, with much greater shares of national wealth and income going to the
richest 1 percent than any other country.
Introduction to Global Inequality

 In 2000, the world entered a new millennium. In the spirit of a grand-scale New Year’s resolution,
it was a time for lofty aspirations and dreams of changing the world. It was also the time of the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a series of ambitious goals set by UN member nations.
The MDGs, as they became known, sought to provide a practical and specific plan for eradicating
extreme poverty around the world. Nearly 200 countries signed on, and they worked to create a
series of 21 targets with 60 indicators, with an ambitious goal of reaching them by 2015. The goals
spanned eight categories:
1. To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. To achieve universal primary education
3. To promote gender equality and empower women
4. To reduce child mortality
5. To improve maternal health
6. To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
7. To ensure environmental sustainability
8. To develop a global partnership for development (United Nations 2010)
 The study of global economic inequality focuses primarily on the income inequalities across states
or across individuals in the world. While the former type of inequality is defined as “international
inequality,” the latter kind is generally referred to as “global inequality.” Although the primary
focus is on income measures, such as measures of per capita gross domestic product of countries,
the literature also focuses on other aspects of inequality across states and individuals, such as
measures of wealth, disparities in life expectancy, and gender inequalities. It should be noted that
 establishing firm causal links between globalization, simply understood as increasing openness to
trade and investment flows, and increasing inequality within and across countries can be an elusive
task. Regardless of whether and the extent to which globalization can be identified as the culprit in
putative increases in inequality, discussions on international or global inequality (herein referred to
as “worldwide inequalities”) are embedded in a number of debates surrounding globalization. First,
the debate on what engenders economic growth is crucial to the discussion on economic inequality,
with the assumption that the absence of economic growth equals the absence of economic
development, strictly defined.
 Crucially, economic inequality can easily translate into political inequality, such as disparities in
representation and voice, in international organizations. In this respect, it can not only undermine
the legitimacy of these organizations but also hamper efforts at international cooperation. When
shaped by the rich, these organizations can easily underemphasize, as some authors contend, issues
that matter deeply to the poor, including migration as a tool of economic development. At the same
time, it is important to assess whether foreign aid provided by the rich—often, though not
exclusively, through international organizations—engenders economic development. Authors
disagree on how and whether aid helps.
Source:https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199756223/obo-
9780199756223-0025.xml

 Globalisation is a process through which countries, businesses and people become more inter-
connected and inter-dependent via an increase in trade in goods and services, cross-border
investment and labour migration from one nation to another. Income and wealth inequality can be
measured in various ways including the Gini coefficient and the Palma Ratio. The latter is a good
indicator of the depth of inequality since it tracks incomes flowing to the top ten percent of
households and divides by the incomes for the bottom forty percent. In South Africa, that figure is
7.1 whereas for Germany the Palma Ratio is just over 3.
 One way globalisation can increase inequality is through the effects of increasing specialisation
and trade. A rise in trade-to-GDP ratios signifies an increase in the volume and value of trade
between countries and regions. Although trade based on comparative advantage has the potential
to stimulate economic growth and lift per capita incomes, it can also lead to a rise in relative
poverty. For example, if a country can now import cheaper steel from elsewhere, then there will be
a contraction in domestic supply and a fall in employment and real incomes in that industry. This
can lead to higher rates of structural unemployment and a decline in real living standards. Real
wages come under downward pressure and inequality can increase. We see this in regions of the
UK for example where de-industrialisation has taken place leading to much higher rates of long-
term unemployment and a worsening of economic and social deprivation. In the United States, the
share of national income claimed by the top 1% of the population climbed from 11% in 1980 to
20% in 2014, compared to just 13% for the entire bottom half of the population.
 However, one could argue that the benefits of globalisation can be used to offset this. If trade
generates faster GDP growth, then the government will see an increase in tax revenues which might
then be used to fund capital investment in public goods and merit goods and services including
finance for re-training programmes and improvements to infrastructure in economically-depressed
areas. Much depends on whether a government has sufficient resources and political will to
implement an active regional and industrial policy to improve employment prospects for those
negatively affected by globalisation.
 Globalisation might also increase inequality because it usually leads to higher profits for
multinational corporations such as Apple, Google and Facebook which feed into generous pay-outs
for senior executives and increasing dividends for shareholders. Multinationals matter - they
generate 10 percent of the world’s annual GDP and more than 50 percent of the value of world
trade. One of the hot political and economic issues of the age has been the ability of businesses
operating in more than one country (a transitional company) to use shadow pricing and other forms
of legal tax avoidance to reduce their liability to pay tax and thereby increase the return to those
with an equity stake. Because of tax avoidance, national governments do not generate the revenues
needed to pay for public services and welfare systems - both of which can have a progressive effect
on the final distribution of income. The UK government has estimated that, in 2017, multinational
businesses managed to avoid paying nearly £6 billion in tax revenues. Oxfam estimates that tax
avoidance costs developing countries $170 billion a year whereas $100 billion could provide an
education for 124 million children and pay for healthcare services that could prevent the deaths of
at least six million children annually.
 In evaluation, there are steps that governments can take to increase their tax take. This can range
from introducing country-by-country financial reporting so that it becomes clearer where the profits
are being made, to introducing restrictions on interest rates charges from one subsidiary of a TNC
to another. There are also moves to reduce the amount of intra-company loans made by TNCs
which can shift profits to countries with lower corporation tax. In the US, they have introduced a
one-off tax on the off-shore cash held by US businesses after it was found that US companies had
built up almost $2.6tn in untaxed cash held offshore. Developing countries can also improve their
governance so that multi-nationals investing pay a proper rent for the ownership of land and are
less vulnerable to corruption from elected officials.
 A third way in which globalisation can create increased inequality is by increasing the demand for
and returns to higher-skilled work and lowering the expected earnings of people in relatively low-
skill and low-knowledge occupations. One of the driving forces of foreign direct investment is that
resources tend to flow where the unit cost of production is lowest. This is the case with light
manufacturing for example where a lot of investment is flowing to countries such as Vietnam,
Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Indonesia. FDI creates more formal employment and incomes for people
employed in these sectors but perhaps at the expense of similar workers in higher-income countries
whose skills are no longer in such demand. They are therefore at greater risk of unemployment and
persistent relative poverty; many have been pushed into poorly paid jobs in services linked to the
Gig Economy. People affected often feel that they have been left behind by the forces of
globalisation and their votes may have been a factor behind the Brexit outcome and the election of
Trump who has adopted a “protectionist approach” to trade policy since becoming President.
 That said, it could be argued that it is technological progress – which has raised demand for skilled
workers relative to unskilled workers – rather than trade and globalisation which has had most
impact on these workers. Often the people who lose jobs as a result of technology are not the ones
who get the new ones and the result can be hysteresis in the labour market with deep pockets of
long-term unemployment and hit relative poverty. Automation threatens many jobs - ranging from
fork-lift drivers to workers in farming and production lines. The onus is on government to
implement and fund the right supply-side policies designed to improve the human capital of people
affected including lifting investment in human capital and entrepreneurship.
 In conclusion, it is not inevitable that globalisation increases inequality of income and wealth. We
have seen big changes in the workforce and in earnings between different groups but in my view,
these are not solely the consequence of globalisation. One paradox of globalisation is that it has
probably reduced inequality between countries but increased it within nations. What matters is how
 governments respond to the challenge of improving access to knowledge and skills and in making
sure that the benefits from cross-border trade and investment provide enough tax revenues to pay
for high quality and affordable public services. In this way, more of the positives from globalisation
can be turned into a ‘public good’ rather than a ‘public bad’

GLOBALIZATION AND CORRUPTION

 Corruption is both a major cause and a result of poverty
around the world. It occurs at all levels of society, from
local and national governments, civil society, judiciary
functions, large and small businesses, military and other
services and so on.Corruption affects the poorest the
most, in rich or poor nations, though all elements of
society are affected in some way as corruption
undermines political development, democracy,
economic development, the environment, people’s
health and more.
 Around the world, the perception of corruption in public
places is very high:
 World map of the 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index by Transparency International. Blue
indicates less perception of corruption, whereas red indicates higher perception of corruption.
Source: http://www.globalissues.org/article/590/corruption

 World politics witnessed an increasing process of interconnectedness with the oil crisis of 1973
and the financial crisis of 1982. International politics became increasing nationalized as the political
outcomes of domestic political processes impacted heavily upon the dynamics of the international
arena. Likewise, domestic politics around the world became opened and exposed to the
consequences of international crises. Unpredictable and geographically distant international events
created unexpected domestic crises and social conflicts, forcing national governments to implement
contingency measures. With the downfall of socialist-totalitarian regimes, the end of the Cold War
and the democratization of most authoritarian regimes in Latin America, the 1980s inaugurated a
“third wave democratization” and a new international political order. The crumbling of the
“socialist utopia” left anti-capitalist forces around the world ideologically unarmed. The idea of
democracy as an electoral procedure where authorities are elected in free, non-exclusionary and
competitive elections and the respect for basic political liberties and human rights, built upon the
respect for private property, market economics and free trade constituted the core of a new world-
wide consensus. Nonetheless, China and most Muslim countries remained, by cultural diversity
and political traditions, out of this scheme. In two decades, the world underwent a unique and
sweeping process of globalizing capitalist democracies. 2 Together with globalization and
democratization, political corruption emerged in the 80s and 90s with great vigor in almost all
latitudes. Democratic regimes of different ideological and partisan orientations in Europe and the
United States were struck by corruption scandals. New democratizing countries, especially in
former Eastern Europe and Russia were also plagued by this malaise. It became apparent that with
globalization corruption became a global problem, highly visible both in the developed and
 developing world. Voices emerged to confront it as an “international policy problem.” 3 This article
discusses how globalization has changed the context in which political corruption unfolds around
the world. In so doing, it reviews the notion of corruption and critically assesses the process of
privatization, the responsibility of Western business and multinationals in the emergence of
corruption and international attempts to fight it. Particular emphasis is placed upon the ubiquity of
the phenomenon and how it has adapted to a new international environment, threatening global
markets and potentially eroding the fundamental ethics of capitalism, business and democracy.

 RECONCEPTUALIZING POLITICAL CORRUPTION IN A GLOBALIZED WORLD

Globalization can be thought of as a “widening, deepening and speeding up of worldwide

interconnectedness in all aspects of contemporary life” including political, military, economic,
cultural, migratory and environmental dimensions of world affairs. However, it is in the economic
and financial spheres and the restructuring of world business where globalization has been more
notorious and dynamic. The opening of new markets, expansion of free trade, dispersed production
at a global scale and subcontracting characterize this new economic order. Globalization has been
marked by an unprecedented subjection of the international economy to the discipline of a global
integrated market under neoliberalism, leaving the traditional nation-state “borderless” and deeply
immersed in a highly uncertain socio-political and economic environment. For those critical of the
process, “globalized capitalism” introduced new hierarchies in international politics and required
governments in developed and developing nations to internally manage its unexpected social
consequences. An essential feature of globalization is that “political and economic activities across
frontiers come to have significance for individuals and communities in distant regions of the globe.”
In this context, national political and social institutions increasingly matter since they mediate the
impact of globalization by internally redistributing costs and benefits and determining how
individual countries can frame responses to the challenges posed by globalization.
Corruption can be understood as the abuse of public office for private gain. Nye defined it
as “behavior which deviates from the formal duties of a public role because of private-regarding
(personal, close family, private clique) pecuniary or status gains; or violates rules against the
exercise of certain types of private-regarding influence.” Van Klaveren also defined corruption
from a behavioral perspective, underscoring how those occupying public positions illegitimately
maximized individual income by manipulating the demand for public goods and services. In a much
broader approach, Friedrich identified corruption as favors conferred by public authorities induced
by money or other stimuli that ran against the “public interest”. Heidenheimer perceptively argued
that public opinion determined when an act was corrupt or not. He distinguished between black,
gray and white corruption leaving opened the possibility for conflict when the public’s and the
elite’s perception on corruption collided. In so doing, he related the study of corruption to socio-
cultural values and made possible its study from a longitudinal perspective. The first two definitions
are “market-centered”, focusing upon the nature and content of the exchange, while Friedrich’s and
Heidenheimer’s bring corruption closer to the realm of democratic politics by focusing upon the
public interest and public opinion. However, previous definitions of corruption failed to take into
account the structural and institutional settings within which corrupt exchanges took place. An
exception is the political economy approach, which addressed corruption as rent and profit-seeking
activities, considering the institutional linkages existing between politics and markets.
Considering corruption an illegitimate exchange between actors of civil society, the market
and the body politics, the structural linkages between these spheres become paramount in the study
 of corruption. In fact, current scandals of corruption occur in networks linking citizens, bureaucrats,
politicians and business within and across political institutions such as parties, bureaucracies,
legislatures, judiciaries and executives. Political corruption is a ubiquitous phenomenon that
appears enmeshed in institutional networks at different levels of national political systems
interconnected with globalized markets. It is articulated by individuals within political institutions,
especially political parties, interacting with society and the global market in the context of diverse
sociocultural values and practices. Being corruption a phenomenon inherent to any political regime,
democracies certainly have a greater probability to let public opinion know about it and for its
citizens to make authorities accountable for corrupt behavior. Since we live in an age of global
democratization, “corruption in a democracy is corruption of democracy”.

 Globalization and political corruption

How did globalization change the practice of corruption? Before globalization corruption
was a country specific phenomenon, restricted to a few multinationals trying to penetrate closed
and state-controlled developing economies, bribing politicians, highly placed bureaucrats or
dictators and their cronies. 13 However, corruption among developed nations was also common
and Lockheed’s bribes paid to Japanese politicians in the 1970s are a good example of traditional
international corruption as practiced by US multinationals. 14 With globalization fundamental
changes took place in the business world including deregulation, mergers, takeovers, de-
unionization, displacement of industrial activity to less developed countries and expansion of
financial markets. The globalization of the political economy incorporated new markets, giving
business the opportunity to expand operations and profits worldwide in a much more competitive
environment. Privatization of state enterprises, participation of the private sector in the delivery of
social services, administration of public infrastructure, public utilities, energy resources and
expansion of private banking made international competition fierce. With the expansion and
diversification of world trade, corruption became enmeshed in a myriad of autonomous networks
operating across countries and business in the developed and developing world, where
subcontracting and outsourcing are the core of a new international productive scheme. Business
“began to operate within the structure of an advanced capitalist society and in a culture of
competition that provided opportunities, motivations and rationalizations for rule-breaking.” 15
Corruption became closely identified with transnational bribery and white-collar crime.
According to a World Bank survey, forty percent out of 3,600 firms operating in sixty-nine
countries paid bribes. 16 A few examples will portray how “dirty money” flows from international
finances into the realm of politics and vice-versa. 17The Bank of Credit and Commerce
International (BCCI) whose operations in Europe during the 1980s pulled together arm dealers,
terrorist groups and secret services, appeared connected to international scandals such as Irangate,
the Contras in Nicaragua, the Mujaheddin in Afghanistan and even the Pakistani nuclear
industry.18 Elf-Acquitaine siphoned resources from French operated oil companies in Africa to
Russia to buy off oligarchs in order to control recently privatized oil companies. On the way,
President Mitterand helped finance Chancellor Kohl’s campaign for reelection, contravening the
laws that the latter himself contributed to approve in parliament. 19 In the privatization of
Venezuela’s airline Viasa, the assets were valued by Banco Santander, a close partner to Iberia,
Spain’s state airline that finally bought the company. Citicorp got involved in money laundering
with Raúl Salinas, brother of Mexican President Salinas de Gortari and laundering bribes from
privatizations carried out in Argentina in the 1990s. From a political economy perspective,
globalization acts on the supply side of corruption, giving incentives to international business
seeking to accede new markets or to displace competitors. It is an external stimulus that made
 corruption proliferate in the absence of international standards of ethics and regulations sanctioning
corruption. Corruption started to be considered a malaise harming international competition and
foreign investment as well as growth and development in recently democratizing countries. Several
studies demonstrated that foreign investment, growth and fiscal

 Global integration and corruption

Several international organizations and governments proposed measures to control

corruption. The United States must be credited, through the enactment of the Foreign Corrupt
Practices Act (FCPA) in 1977, to be the first government to criminalize the bribery of foreign
government officials. It also urged OECD countries to adopt similar legislation by the end of the
1980s. Whether the United States pursued just a moral goal with the FCPA, caused by the scandals
of some American corporations, or tried to improve their competitive edge, promoting business
transparency in an expanding world market, is nor clear. Apparently, both goals were articulated in
the legislation drafted in the post-Watergare era. However, the modifications introduced in 1988
allowed US corporations certain questionable payments for services and bona fide expenses in host
countries. Helping US business compete with European corporations in “Big Emerging Markets”
as it did occur under the first Clinton administration, seems to have always been a goal behind the
moral anti-corruption US drive. In fact, Transparency International’s Bribery Index shows that the
United States government is perceived around the world as exercising undue influence upon other
governments to advance the interests of US business. 24 Within the OECD the penalization of
bribery has been a complex process of negotiations that started in 1994 and ended in 1999 when
the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business
Transactions entered into force. 25
The OECD had recommended earlier to its member countries the enactment of legislation
to end up with the tax deductibility of bribes to foreign public officials, something that always
troubled the United States. The Convention defined “foreign public official” as a person in a foreign
country who holds a “legislative, administrative, or judicial office, or who exercises a public
function, including a public agency or enterprise.” But the definition, significantly enough excluded
the bribery of political party officials, an important channel through which corrupt networks and
campaign finance operate around the world. 26 Several others regional agreements such as the
Inter-American Convention Against Corruption and resolutions adopted by the World Trade
Organization, the International Chamber of Commerce, the Council of the International Bar
Association, the Council of Europe and the European Union have complemented a global network
against corruption. An interesting development in controlling corruption has been the alliance
between the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. While traditionally the World Bank
was oriented to finance development projects and the IMF to impose fiscal discipline in developing
countries, both institutions realized that corruption was endangering their policies. Not neutral to
political events and as reported by the Financial Times,“the IMF, under pressure from the United
States and other Western governments, lent Zaire more than $1 billion in the 1980s after receiving
a report from senior IMF official warning that Mobutu Sese Seko’s government was completely
corrupt.”27 The IMF became more of a development bank, while the World Bank switched to new
goals, mainly capacity and institution building, focusing upon “good governance” in order to
minimize the threat to global democratization.
Despite its formulation in key neutral concepts, the project appeared primarily as a strategy
promoting “market-based democratization” and secondarily to controlling corruption.28 The “good
governance” program implemented by the World Bank monitors the changes experimented by all
 countries since 1996 along four basic dimensions: voice and accountability; political stability and
absence of violence; government effectiveness, regulatory quality and rule of law; and controlling
corruption.29 The indicators are supposed to influence the approval of loans for the developing
world.

 Globalization and the corruption of business ethics

Business ethics acquires a global dimension crucial for the future of capitalism and
democracy. Corporations have a social responsibility beyond shareholders to all those that
contribute to the creation of wealth. Managers are not merely “a-moral profit maximizers,” but
must refrain and guard their firms from corrupt activities. 39 According to Rose-Ackerman, the
corporation is a “moral actor” and “business organizations and individual entrepreneurs have a duty
to maintain the systems in which they operate even when this might be against their narrower
goals.” 40 Citing Dennis Thompson, RoseAckerman sustains that “just as the politician is part of
an ongoing political system that may be undermined by a corrupt deal, so the firm is part of a
political-economic system whose efficiency and legitimacy can be undermined by payoffs.” 41
Firms should strengthen “market morality” by exchanging goods and services without “violence,
fraud, cheating, deception and many other dishonest business practices.” If not, trust in capitalism
will be eroded together with the weakening of social capital upon which it is founded.42 Firms
have an obligation to maintain democratic legitimacy and market morality by abstaining from
corrupt practices.

Nevertheless, Western business and multinationals have great responsibility in the

development of bribery and corruption. Guided by profit maximization and with the apparent goal
to report returns to shareholders in their home countries, they have introduced moral relativism in
their practices abroad, blaming corruption on locally established cultural and political customs. But
what Western businesses have done indeed is to create a myth about their ethics, concealing the
reality of corrupt practices at home. Compared to the crude East and Third World practices,
corruption in the West seems much more sophisticated.

Source: Chile de cara al mundo asiático: Cultura y Negocios en APEC. Alfredo Rehren.
“Globalization and Corruption”
REPORTER: Cayao, Cyril Ethel

GLOBALIZATION AND GENDER INEQUALITY

Measures of gender equality include access to basic education, health and life
expectancy, equality of economic opportunity, and political empowerment.
Although there have been evident progresses, many alarming issues regarding
gender discrimination still prevail today. Therefore, total gender equality must be
made a global priority as a fundamental step in both human development and
economic progress.

Noticeable crimes against women consist of violence, femicide (murder of

women), and rape. Honor killing, it is when a female member of a family is killed
for the perception of having brought dishonor to the family(Pakistan and Muslim
Middle East). Sex-selective abortion is the practice of terminating a pregnancy
based upon the predicted sex of the infant, this is another major disaster of
gender inequality as it fuels human trafficking, demographic imbalance, and
sexual exploitation. India and China, the two most populated nations on Earth,
both informally maintain this practice of preference for male child birth over
female.

National and international measures are at work but they are not sufficient
to minimize and eliminate gender inequality. For instance, the Society of
Defending Women’s Rights in Saudi Arabia is designed to empower women
and protect their rights. In India, the Prevention of Immoral Traffic, the Dowry Prevention Act and the Sati
Act aim to prevent widow burning, and China and India are both fighting feticide and infanticide.

From an economic viewpoint, gender discrimination hinders countries from reaching their maximum
productivity potential. Although women constitute 40% of the global work force, there are still many who are
unpaid family workers in the informal sector. Those who do work are generally paid much below that of male
workers, despite being equally capable and skilled. Furthermore, their status and promotion is limited to
middle or below ranks. Gender discrimination is costly to nations across the globe and forces women to suffer
the severe emotional and economic effect.

Beyond the economic costs, gender inequality also has severe individual and societal losses for a nation.
While the female sex constitutes slightly more than 50% of the population, only 14 of the total 200
governments, or 7%, are headed by women. An adjustment of this inequitable representation will go a long
way to correct global gender inequality.

The evidence of gender discrimination is rooted in history, tradition and culture. Gender inequality is not
a good thing thus this leads to have damage or increase damage on women’s psychology of their worth and
dignity to the society they are in. Everyone must act with respect to everyone’s right to communication,
education, leadership and cultural norms and traditional values in favor of gender equality.
 GLOBALIZATION AND WAR

5 WARS OF GLOBALIZATION

The government have been fighting these wars for centuries, but they ended up losing. But then as changes
sprung due to globalization, nation-states have benefited from information revolution, they had the chance to
strengthen political and economic linkages and so are the criminal networks. They also had the chance to have
a wider range for expansion of illegal markets and also their resources. As the government had trouble with
certain issues due to globalization such as tighter public budgets, decentralizations, and being more open to
international trades, having all these problems at the same time to these wars, it would really be a hard thing for
a government to fight global criminals.

DRUGS

The best known of the five wars is, of course, the war on drugs. In
1999, the United Nations’ "Human Development Report" calculated
that the trade in illicit drugs is at $400 billion, which was roughly about
8 percent of world trade. Many countries are reporting an increase in
drug use. The United States spends between $35 billion and $40 billion
each year on the war on drugs, most of this money is spent on
interdiction and intelligence. But the creativity and boldness of drug
cartels has routinely outstripped steady increases in government
resources. Even when top leaders of drug cartels are captured or killed,
former rivals take their place and continue with their illegal businesses.

ARMS TRAFFICKING

Drugs and arms often go together. According to the United Nations,

only 18 million (or about 3 percent) of the 550 million small arms
and light weapons in circulation today are used by government,
military, or police forces. The illegal market for munitions
encompasses top-of-the-line tanks, radar systems that detect Stealth
aircraft, and the makings of the deadliest weapons of mass
destruction. The International Atomic Energy Agency has
confirmed more than a dozen cases of smuggled nuclear-weapons-
usable material, and hundreds more cases have been reported and
investigated over the last decade. The actual supply of stolen
nuclear-, biological-, or chemical-weapons materials and
technology may still be small. But the potential demand is strong
and growing from both would-be nuclear powers and terrorists.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

The piracy rates in countries is increasing, the piracy rate of business software in Japan and France is 40
percent, in Greece and South Korea it is about 60 percent, and in Germany and Britain it hovers around 30
percent. The presence of technology boosts the demand and supply of illegal copied products. Global
marketing and branding are also playing a part, as many people are attracted to products of some well-known
brands (Gucci, Nike). China is well-known for producing and
exporting near perfect knockoffs that are less expensive, and many
people are really getting fond of buying those fake instead of the
original ones. Governments have attempted to protect intellectual
property rights through various means, most notably the World
Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Several other organizations
such as the World Intellectual Property Organization, the World
Customs Union, and Interpol are also involved. Yet the large and
growing volume of this trade, or a simple stroll in the streets around
us like Divisoria, show that governments are far from winning this
fight.

ALIEN SMUGGLING
Alien smuggling is a $7 billion a year enterprise and according to the United Nations is the fastest growing
business of organized crime. A woman can be "bought" in
Timisoara, Romania, for between $50 and $200 and "resold" in
Western Europe for 10 times that price. The United Nations
Children’s Fund estimates that cross-border smugglers in Central
and Western Africa enslave 200,000 children a year. Traffickers
initially tempt victims with job offers or, in the case of children,
with offers of adoption in wealthier countries, and then keep the
victims in subservience through physical violence, debt bondage,
passport confiscation, and threats of arrest, deportation, or violence
against their families back home. Governments everywhere are
enacting tougher immigration laws and devoting more time,
money, and technology to fight the flow of illegal aliens, but it is
really a tough fight. Continental nations such as Spain, Italy, or the
United States face an even greater challenge as immigration
pressures overwhelm their ability to control the inflow of illegal
aliens.

MONEY LAUNDERING
Money laundering is the illegal process of concealing the
origins of money obtained illegally by passing it through a
complex sequence of banking transfers or commercial
transactions. Political changes led to the deregulation of
financial markets that now facilitate cross-border money
transfers, and technological changes made distance less of a
factor and money less "physical." Faced with this growing
tide, governments have stepped up their efforts to prevent
rogue international banking, tax havens, and money
laundering. The future, large-scale introduction of e-money-
cards with microchips that can store large amounts of money and thus can be easily transported outside
regular channels or simply exchanged among individuals will only magnify this challenge.
WHY GOVERNMENT CAN’T WIN
The fundamental changes that have given the five wars new intensity over the last decades continue to exist.
Technology will continue to spread widely and criminal networks will be able to exploit these technologies
more quickly than government because they always do it illegally. International trade will continue to grow,
providing more cover for the expansion of illegal trade. International migration will likewise grow, thus
growing supply of recruits and victims.
REPORTER: Israel, Arjen

GLOBALIZATION AND INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM

TERRORISM: - IT’S HISTORY AND ORIGINS:

It is easy to say the impression that terrorism is quite a recent
phenomenon,
almost entirely dependent on and so to a great extent a result of modern
communications medium especially television. But terrorist acts were
quite
common even centuries ago. One analysis of 3 groups of religious
terrorists that existed centuries ago – the Things (Hindu), the Assassin
(Islamic), and the Zealots
(Jewish) —makes it clear that terrorist activity on a significant scale has occurs at least since the days of
the Roman Empire. Clearly terrorism is not a phenomenon produced solely by excessive attention from
modern media. The Assassins for example did not need mass media to reach interested audiences, because
their prominent victories were murdered in venerated places/ locations & royal courts, usually on holy days
when many witnesses were present. In general the idea that terrorist operations require modern technology
to be significant is a misconception. In the modern age of terrorism one analyst has identified four waves
of terrorism. The 1st wave beginning at the end of the 19th centuries was characterized by anarchism as a
motive & assassination as a method, including the assassination of the Austrian Arch Duke Sarajevo in
1914; that sparked World War I. The 2nd wave was primarily a reaction to decolonization after WW I &
WW II & involved groups fighting for national self-determination. The 3rd wave came in response to the
criticism of the US in Vietnam & Israel in the Middle-East. This wave was more trans-national in character
& air-line hijacking was the most popular method used. Presumably the 4th wave, beginning with the
Iranian revolution in 1979.
TERRORIST: a person who uses unlawful violence and
intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of
political obejctives.
INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM means activities that —
involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that are a
violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any
State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within
the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State.
CAUSES OF TERRORISM: The most common causes or
roots of terrorism include civilizations or culture clashes,
globalization, religion, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or the
Russian invasion of Afghanistan. More personal or individual-
based reasons for terrorism are frustration, deprivation,
negative identity, narcissistic rage, and/or moral.
5 TYPES OF TERRORISMS
State-Sponsored terrorism, which consists of terrorist acts on a state or government by a state or
government.
Dissent terrorism, which are terrorist groups which have rebelled against their government.
Terrorists and the Left and Right, which are groups rooted in political ideology.
Religious terrorism, which are terrorist groups which are extremely religiously motivated and
Criminal Terrorism, which are terrorists acts used to aid in crime and criminal profit.
THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACK
During the September 11 attacks of 2001, 2,977 victims and 19 hijackers were killed and more than 6,000
others were injured.[1][2] The immediate deaths included 265 on the four planes (including the terrorists),
2,606 in the World Trade Center and in the surrounding area, and 125 at the Pentagon.[3][4] The attacks
were the deadliest terrorist act in world history, and the most devastating foreign attack on United States
soil since the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.[5]
Most of those who perished were civilians except for 343 firefighters and 71 law enforcement officers who
died in the World Trade Center and on the ground in New York City,[6] and another law enforcement
officer who died when United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania,[7] 55
military personnel who died at the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia,[8] and the 19 terrorists who
died on board the four aircraft. Overall, 2,605 U.S. citizens, including 2,135 civilians, died in the attacks,
while an additional 372 non-U.S. citizens (excluding the 19 perpetrators) also perished, which represented
about 12% of the total.[3] More than 90 countries lost citizens in the attacks,[9] including the United
Kingdom (67 deaths), the Dominican Republic (47 deaths), and India (41 deaths).
2,974 victims were confirmed to have died in the initial attacks.In 2007, the New York City medical
examiner's office began to add people who died of illnesses caused by exposure to dust from the site to the
official death toll. The first such victim was a woman, a civil rights lawyer, who had died from a chronic
lung condition in February 2002. In September 2009, the office added a man who died in October 2008,
and in 2011, a male accountant who had died in December 2010. This raises the number of victims at the
World Trade Center site to 2,753, and the overall 9/11 death toll to 2,996.

OSAMA BIN LADEN:

Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden al-Hadhrami al-Kindi
/oʊˈsɑːmə bɪn ˈlɑːdən/ (Arabic: ‫الحضرمي الدن بن عوض بن محمد بن أسامة‬
‫الكندي‬, ʾUsāmah bin Muḥammad bin ʿAwaḍ bin Lādin al-Ḥaḍramī al-
Kindī; March 10, 1957 – May 2, 2011), also rendered Usama bin
Ladin, was a Saudi Arabian-born Stateless Muslim jihadist who
founded the pan-Islamic militant organization al-Qaeda, through
which he planned and coordinated terror attacks around the world. He
was a Saudi Arabian citizen until 1994 (stateless thereafter), a
member of the wealthy bin Laden family, and an ethnic Yemeni
Kindite and Hadhramite.
REPORTER: Doria, Rhea Nichole P.

GLOBALIZATION AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate Change- it is any

significant long-term change in the
expected patterns of average weather
of a region (or the whole Earth) over
a significant period of time.

Is a Globalization a cause for climate change?

Our world is shrinking gradually from last couple of centuries due to globalization which is defined as a
type of relationship or rapport build amongst the different countries due to exchange of goods and other
technologies. Both developing and the developed countries have been satisfying their needs in terms of
globalization.

But this increasing pattern of globalization has also put forth consequent effects on our ecosystem.
Countries become more industrialized and increased the production of their goods in order to overcome to
demand. These industries in turn emitted various green house gases, which acted as a major contributor in
the climate change. It is been assumed that this change in climate is due to human activities, hence alerted
everyone and made it a global issue. The even composition of the atmosphere is altering due to the emission
of tones of GHG (green house gases) through various activities like production, transportation, agriculture
and consumer practices. Our atmosphere is gradually warming due to the accumulation of these gases. The
impact of this climatic change can cause increase in drought conditions, floods are taking place frequently,
also rising sea-levels and extreme temperatures are experienced.

Globalization and environment are intriguely interconnected. Apart from the consequent effect of
globalization onto the climate, it also has some positive impact. In order to develop the awareness of this
global treat, industrialized countries should limit their GHG emission level. Governments, industries and
individuals in industries nations have collectively begun continual steps of actions to reduce the emission
of green house gases. But still it has to be quantified that this dramatic change in climate and increase in
the rate of global warming is due to globalization that is transportation of goods around the world and the
trade agreement such as Multilateral Agreement on Investment has restricted the capacity of countries to
widen the environmental regulations.

Reference: Essays, UK. (November 2018). Is Globalization A Cause For Climate Change Environmental
Sciences Essay. Retrieved from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/environmental-sciences/is-
globalization-a-cause-for-climate-change-environmental-sciences-essay.php?vref=1

Can globalization and the fight against climate change co-exist? Or is the environment doomed to
suffer as people fly, goods are shipped, and agriculture and industry tap international markets?
One place to look in order to answer these questions is the Amazon rainforest: it’s the world’s largest
storage space for carbon and a crucial node in our planet’s ecosystem.

If globalization there can happen without harming the environment, it probably can elsewhere too. But if it
can’t, we may be headed for a collision, leading to climate disaster, de-globalization, or both.

At 670 million hectares, the Amazon rainforest is still easily the world’s largest rainforest – larger than
Western Europe or India. You can wander in it for years, without ever seeing its edge (as some
discoverers sadly found out). But in the last few decades, the rainforest shrank by about 20% due to
deforestation.

Many tried to stop the process of cutting the millennia-old forest. Some do it to protect indigenous groups
from forcibly having to adjust to a more Western lifestyle. Others, like the World Wildlife Fund, stress the
need to protect the forest’s unique biodiversity, with about a tenth of the world’s plants and species,
including many yet undiscovered.

But combatting climate change has become an obvious third reason to root for the rainforest. By some
estimates, more than a 100 billion tonnes of carbon are stored in it. To put that into perspective: that’s
about 10 times the annual global carbon emissions from fossil fuels. If the trees that hold this carbon were
cut, nothing else we do about climate change may matter.

Deforestation is a global issue

The reason why people cut the forest, however, has largely remained the same: to get more arable land for
the farmers that live in its surroundings. This rings especially true for the inhabitants of Brazil, a country
that is responsible for about 75% of its deforestation. (Other relevant “culprits” are Bolivia, Peru and
Colombia. The five other countries in the Amazon basin play a lesser role.)

What does globalization have to do with this, though? Agriculture has, since ancient times, been the primary
cause of deforestation. Europe’s fields were once primeval forests too. But, in our modern era, the demands
for agricultural goods are no longer confined to domestic needs. Demand for Brazilian soy or beef is now,
to a large degree, a factor of demand in the US or China. It is a factor of globalization.

So, can globalization and the Amazon rainforest co-exist? A number of analyses, news reports, and
academic studies have looked into this question over the years. Their findings are often disheartening,
sometimes hopeful, but often inconclusive. In the end, globalization is just one of many factors in the socio-
economic and political factors that cause deforestation.

So what do the studies say? We will focus on Brazil, as it accounts for the largest part of the Amazon and
its deforestation. First, it seems self-evident why a globalized agricultural market would demand the
expansion of arable and pasturable land in Brazil. South America’s largest country is a big exporter of many
agricultural commodities. According to the OECD, Brazil will account for almost half of world sugar
exports by 2026, and 47% of global soybean volumes, with global demand for each growing rapidly from
now until then.

With such vast and growing international demand, it is not hard to see why the Amazon rainforest would
get cut. One study of the University of Sao Paulo, looking at historical data until 2007, confirmed that basic
correlation. It found that at a municipal level in Brazil, increased openness to trade historically led to more
deforestation, though some exceptions were found.
Other studies indicated a starker reality still. One government programme intended for poverty alleviation
among farmers, actually reconfigured many Amazonian livelihoods away from diversified agriculture to a
strong engagement with the global cattle economy, according to a study from the Universities of Wisconsin
and Florida.

Though cattle farming theoretically provided farmers with better incomes, it also put pressure on the forest.
More than 80% of cleared areas in the Brazilian Amazon are dedicated to pasture formation, the study
noted. In this case, the effect of global economic forces was clearly detrimental. The transnational cattle
industry kept farmers in a tight grip, forcing them to expand pasturable land in the Amazonian basin.

A race to the top

But globalization can be a force for good, too, some researchers believe. Just as there can be a race to the
bottom from globalization, there can be one to the top, too. Consumers of agricultural products in global
markets may be more likely to demand a product that is produced sustainably, putting pressure on producers
to do their part.

American and Brazilian researchers saw these “Opportunities for Conservation” as a possible consequence
of the globalization of the soy and beef industry as early as 2004. Since then, deforestation rates in the
Amazon did decline, WWF wrote, although they continue at an alarming rate, and it is unclear whether
global consumer pressures had anything to do with the decline.

Ultimately, it seems, globalization can be both bad and not quite so bad. In its rawest forms, an
internationally integrated economy will simply procure more goods from where it can get them. If an
invisible hand were to organize this particular market, the Amazon forest and climate as a whole would
likely suffer. So far, that is, by and large, what has happened in the Amazonian basin.

Luckily though, several stakeholders in our global economic ecosystem do sometimes provide more
positive incentives and pressures. They too can play a role in the outcome of the globalization vs. climate
change equation. Sometimes, that positive consumer effect already exists: several large multinationals
committed to sustainable procurement of cocoa or palm oil, for example. The Tropical Forest Alliance, an
initiative hosted by the World Economic Forum, is working with the Colombian government and
businesses to protect the Amazon from commodity-driven deforestation.

Ultimately, it is up to policymakers, law enforcers, and society as a whole to put its priorities, and to ensure
the sustainability of the economy and the environment. If they get it right, there is a possibility that
globalization and a healthy rainforest can co-exist. If they don’t, the adverse consequences will be carried
by all of us.

Reference: Vanham, P., Media lead, US and industries, & World Economic Forum. (2018, November 8).
What the Amazon rainforest tells us about globalization. Retrieved from
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/11/can-globalization-co-exist-with-the-fight-against-climate-
change

Globalization has made our economies more vulnerable to climate change

Extreme weather events – droughts, heatwaves, floods or storms – are typically pictured as something
certainly devastating but restricted to a particular area and in many cases a far-distant one. It’s what happens
to others. Yet, in our age of globalization, the economic effects of climatic extremes are not necessarily
locally confined. They can reverberate throughout the world. What happens in a country that we are linked
to by trade also happens to us, though of course to a lesser extent.

The disastrous 2011 monsoon flood in Thailand, for example, strongly affected the country’s high-tech
sector – some production facilities were literally under water – resulting in a shortage of hard drives. In
2013, Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines destroyed a large share of the world’s production of coconut oil,
which is one of the two most commonly used vegetable fats in food production worldwide.

This of course also holds true for non-climatic extreme events, like the Japanese tsunami and earthquake in
2011 that had wide consequences on production and exports in the car industry. Yet, weather disasters are
different to earthquakes – their numbers go up. By emitting greenhouse-gases from fossil fuels, we are
destabilizing the climate system.

When workers feel the heat, productivity falls

Researchers at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and Columbia University in
the United States looked at manufacturing and production data in 186 countries covering 26 global
industries, ranging from mining to textiles and telecommunications, and matched up results with existing
research on temperature effects on workers between the years 1991 and 2011. The results showed that heat-
stress induced production losses have been further amplified by the global connectivity of today’s
economies.
Scientists had already demonstrated that when temperatures goes up, labour productivity declines in an
almost linear fashion. For instance, three of the global economy’s major industries -construction, agriculture
and fishing and mining and quarrying – production declines have been shown to grow by 0.6, 0.8 and 4.2
per cent respectively for each degree in temperature hit above a threshold of 27 degrees Celsius.

The current study adds to the picture by showing how the trade dependencies and worldwide integrated
supply chains of today’s economy almost ensure that locally-felt production declines such as those resulting
from workers’ heat-stress will have their follow-through impacts on production and economies on the other
side of the world.

Reference: Jayson Maclean. (2016, June 11). Globalization is worsening the effects of climate change, study
says. Retrieved from https://www.cantechletter.com/2016/06/globalization-worsening-effects-climate-
change-study-says/?fbclid=IwAR19Nta54Uwlq-xa54FfJnrJfwhtTWvcWuatjudvbAetYQI1DhJQqei4bFY
 GLOBALIZATION AND DISEASES

Globalization, the flow of

information, goods,
capital, and people across
political and geographic
boundaries, allows
infectious diseases to
rapidly spread around the
world, while also allowing
the alleviation of factors
such as hunger and
poverty, which are key determinants of global health.[1] The spread of diseases across wide geographic
scales has increased through history. Early diseases that spread from Asia to Europe were bubonic plague,
influenza of various types, and similar infectious diseases.
In the current era of globalization, the world is more interdependent than at any other time. Efficient and
inexpensive transportation has left few places inaccessible, and increased global trade in agricultural
products has brought more and more people into contact with animal diseases that have subsequently
jumped species barriers (see zoonosis).[2]
Globalization intensified during the Age of Exploration, but trading routes had long been established
between Asia and Europe, along which diseases were also transmitted. An increase in travel has helped
spread diseases to natives of lands who had not previously been exposed. When a native population is
infected with a new disease, where they have not developed antibodies through generations of previous
exposure, the new disease tends to run rampant within the population.
Etiology, the modern branch of science that deals with the causes of infectious disease, recognizes five
major modes of disease transmission: airborne, waterborne, bloodborne, by direct contact, and
through vector (insects or other creatures that carry germs from one species to another).[3] As humans began
traveling over seas and across lands which were previously isolated, research suggests that diseases have
been spread by all five transmission modes.

Travel patterns and globalization

The Age of Exploration generally refers to the period between the 15th and 17th centuries. During this time,
technological advances in shipbuilding and navigation made it easier for nations to explore outside previous
boundaries. Globalization has had many benefits, for example, new products to Europeans were discovered,
such as tea, silk and sugar when Europeans developed new trade routes around Africa to India and
the Spice Islands, Asia, and eventually running to the Americas.
In addition to trading in goods, many nations began to trade in slavery. Trading in slaves was another way
by which diseases were carried to new locations and peoples, for instance, from sub-Saharan Africa to the
Caribbean and the Americas. During this time, different societies began to integrate, increasing the
concentration of humans and animals in certain places, which led to the emergence of new diseases as some
jumped in mutation from animals to humans.
During this time sorcerers' and witch doctors' treatment of disease was often focused on magic and religion,
and healing the entire body and soul, rather than focusing on a few symptoms like modern medicine. Early
medicine often included the use of herbs and meditation. Based on archeological evidence, some prehistoric
practitioners in both Europe and South America used trephining, making a hole in the skull to release
illness.[4] Severe diseases were often thought of as supernatural or magical. The result of the introduction
of Eurasian diseases to the Americas was that many more native peoples were killed by disease
and germs than by the colonists' use of guns or other weapons. Scholars estimate that over a period of four
centuries, epidemic diseases wiped out as much as 90 percent of the American indigenous populations.[3]
In Europe during the age of exploration, diseases such as smallpox, measles and tuberculosis (TB) had
already been introduced centuries before through trade with Asia and Africa. People had developed some
antibodies to these and other diseases from the Eurasian continent. When the Europeans traveled to new
lands, they carried these diseases with them. (Note: Scholars believe TB was already endemic in the
Americas.) When such diseases were introduced for the first time to new populations of humans, the effects
on the native populations were widespread and deadly. The Columbian Exchange, referring to Christopher
Columbus's first contact with the native peoples of the Caribbean, began the trade of animals, and plants,
and unwittingly began an exchange of diseases.[3]
It was not until the 1800s that humans began to recognize the existence and role of germs and microbes in
relation to disease. Although many thinkers had ideas about germs, it was not until Louis Pasteur spread
his theory about germs and the need for washing hands and maintaining sanitation (particularly in medical
practice), that anyone listened. Many people were quite skeptical, but on May 22, 1881 Pasteur persuasively
demonstrated the validity of his germ theory of disease with an early example of vaccination.
The anthrax vaccine was administered to 25 sheep while another 25 were used as a control. On May 31,
1881 all of the sheep were exposed to anthrax. While every sheep in the control group died, each of the
vaccinated sheep survived.[5] Pasteur’s experiment would become a milestone in disease prevention. His
findings, in conjunction with other vaccines that followed, changed the way globalization affected the
world.

Effects of Globalization on disease in the modern world

Modern modes of transportation allow more people and products to travel around the world at a faster pace;
they also open the airways to the transcontinental movement of infectious disease vectors. [6] One example
is the West Nile Virus. It is believed that this disease reached the United States via “mosquitoes that crossed
the ocean by riding in airplane wheel wells and arrived in New York City in 1999.” [6] With the use of air
travel, people are able to go to foreign lands, contract a disease and not have any symptoms of illness until
after they get home, and having exposed others to the disease along the way.
As medicine has progressed, many vaccines and cures have been developed for some of the worst diseases
(plague, syphilis, typhus, cholera, malaria) which people suffer. But, because the evolution of
disease organisms is very rapid, even with vaccines, there is difficulty providing full immunity to many
diseases. Finding vaccines at all for some diseases remains extremely difficult. Without vaccines, the global
world remains vulnerable to infectious diseases.
Evolution of disease presents a major threat in modern times. For example, the current "swine flu" or H1N1
virus is a new strain of an old form of flu, known for centuries as Asian flu based on its origin on that
continent. From 1918–1920, a post-World War I global influenza epidemic killed an estimated 50–100
million people, including half a million in the United States alone.[7] H1N1 is a virus that has evolved from
and partially combined with portions of avian, swine, and human flu.[8]
Globalization has increased the spread of infectious diseases from South to North, but also the risk of non-
communicable diseases by transmission of culture and behavior from North to South. It is important to
target and reduce the spread of infectious diseases in developing countries. However, addressing the risk
factors of non-communicable diseases and lifestyle risks in the South that cause disease, such as use or
consumption of tobacco, alcohol, and unhealthy foods, is important as well.[9]
Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization_and_disease
REPORTER: Florante, Dane Mariell A.

THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

Contemporary:
REPORT OUTLINE
 Modern or current
I. The Contemporary World
 Happening or beginning now in the same time
 Definition
period
 Importance
II. Achieving Sustainability in different Contemporary World:
areas
 Sustainability  Circumstances and ideas of present age “in
 Sustainability pillars modern times like these”
 Sustainable Development  Considering both past and future
Models  Ever-changing mix of social and political
 UNESCO: Sustainable changes
Development The contemporary world is an ever-changing
 Education for Sustainable mix of social and political changes. While religious,
Development (ESD) political, and ethnic conflicts continue, we are
 UN Sustainable Development currently living in one of the most peaceful eras in
Goals (SDG) the history of the planet. Challenges of the 21st
 Sustainability in Different Areas century include emerging technologies, health care,
 Progress report of SDG in Asia- overpopulation, climate change, poverty, illiteracy,
Pacific disease, and migration. How we choose to deal with
 International agreements and these emerging frontiers will shape this unit for
conventions for environmental future generations.
protection and conservation
In today’s constantly changing world, societies
are becoming increasingly interdependent and have more social, economic, political and cultural
relationships. Similarly, the problems and issues that characterize the contemporary world are
interconnected and multidimensional. As a result, the various actors—states, organizations, and citizens—
are called upon to work together to find global solutions. To study these problems and issues, one must see
them from both geographic and historical perspectives, and consider the economic and political dimensions.
IMPORTANCE
The Contemporary World program is part of the Social Sciences. It deals with problems and issues
related to the environment, population, wealth, power and tensions and conflicts. Thus, learners become
aware of the consequences of human actions on societies, develop critical judgment, and define their
understanding of the world. As responsible citizens, they learn to participate in social debates and
contribute to society. The Contemporary World course learners develop the following specific
competencies:
 Interprets a contemporary world problem
 Takes a position on a contemporary world issue
 Take part in society and make up minds regarding social debates.
 Become aware of the different viewpoints regarding some of the world’s great concerns.
 They compare their own point of view with that of others, thus increasing their critical
judgment.
 They become aware of the role they must play in society and of their responsibilities as citizens.
 The subjects involved in the study of the Contemporary World―geography, history,
economics and political science—help learners approach contemporary world problems and
issues from a geographic and historical perspective while taking into account their economic
and political dimensions.
i. A geographic perspective helps learners consider phenomena in terms of territory, that is,
in terms of the effects of human action on spatial organization.

ii. A historical perspective helps learners view the same phenomena in terms of duration by
seeking the origins of the phenomena and elements of change and continuity related to
them.

iii. Taking into account the economic dimension helps learners understand the choices
societies make regarding the organization of trade, production, distribution and
consumption as well as the organization of work.

iv. Considering the political dimension helps adult learners understand the organization of
power within societies and the formation of power relations.

ACHIEVING SUSTAINABILITY IN DIFFERENT AREAS

Sustainability:

 able to be used without being completely used up or destroyed

 able to last and continue for a long time
 Sustainability focuses on meeting the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
 Sustainability is the ability to exist constantly. In the 21st century,
it refers generally to the capacity for the biosphere and
human civilization to coexist.
The concept of sustainability is composed of three pillars:
1. Economic:“Profits”
Investments in education, health, and nutrition of individuals have become accepted as part
of economic development. Economic capital should be maintained. The widely accepted definition
of economic sustainability is maintenance of capital, or keeping capital intact. Thus Hicks’s
definition of income–the amount one can consume during a period and still be as well off at the
end of the period–can define economic sustainability, as it devolves on consuming value-added
(interest), rather than capital.

2. Environmental:“Planet”
Although ES is needed by humans and originated
because of social concerns, ES itself seeks to improve
human welfare by protecting NC. As contrasted with
economic capital, NC consists of water, land, air, minerals
and ecosystem services, hence much is converted to
manufactured or economic capital. Environment includes
the sources of raw materials used for human needs, and
ensuring that sink capacities recycling human wastes are not
exceeded, in order to prevent harm to humans.

3. Social: People
Social sustainability means maintaining social
capital. Social capital is investments and services that create
the basic framework for society. It lowers the cost of
working together and facilitates cooperation: trust lowers transaction costs. Only systematic
community participation and strong civil society, including government can achieve this. Cohesion
of community for mutual benefit, connectedness between groups of people, reciprocity, tolerance,
compassion, patience, forbearance, fellowship, love, commonly accepted standards of honesty,
discipline and ethics. Commonly shared rules, laws, and information (libraries, film, and diskettes)
promote social sustainability.

The 2005 World Summit identified sustainable development goals, such as economic development, social
development and environmental protection.This view has been expressed as an illustration using three
overlapping ellipses indicating that the three pillars of sustainability are not mutually exclusive and can be
mutually reinforcing. In fact, the three pillars are interdependent, and in the long run none can exist without
the others.
Sustainable development consists of balancing local and global efforts to meet basic human needs without
destroying or degrading the natural environment. The question then becomes, “how to represent the
relationship between those needs and the environment?”
The simple definition that sustainability is something that improves "the quality of human life while living
within the carrying capacity of supporting eco-systems. More than that, sustainability implies responsible
and proactive decision-making and innovation that minimizes negative impact and maintains balance
between ecological resilience, economic prosperity, political justice and cultural vibrancy to ensure a
desirable planet for all species now and in the future.
3 Sustainability Development Models
1. 3- legged stool model: Reinforces the three dimensions that are required for us to enjoy a high quality
of life –and shows that society is unstable if one of them is weak
2. 3-overlapping circles model: Acknowledges the intersection of economic, environmental, and social
factors. Depending on our mindset, we re-size the circles to show that one factor is is more dominant than
the other two.
3. 3-nested dependencies model: It shows that human society is a wholly owned subsidiary of the
environment–that without food, clean water, fresh air, fertile soil, and other natural resources, we’re cooked.

UNESCO: Sustainable Development

Sustainable development is the overarching paradigm of the United Nations. The concept of
sustainable development was described by the 1987 Bruntland Commission Report as “development that
meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs.”

There are four dimensions to sustainable development – society, environment, culture and economy
– which are intertwined, not separate. Sustainability is a paradigm for thinking about the future in which
environmental, societal and economic considerations are balanced in the pursuit of an improved quality of
life. For example, a prosperous society relies on a healthy environment to provide food and resources, safe
drinking water and clean air for its citizens.

One might ask, what is the difference between sustainable development and sustainability?
Sustainability is often thought of as a long-term goal (i.e. a more sustainable world), while sustainable
development refers to the many processes and pathways to achieve it (e.g. sustainable agriculture and
forestry, sustainable production and consumption, good government, research and technology transfer,
education and training, etc.).

To date, Education for Sustainable Development has been integrated into many global frameworks
and conventions related to key areas of sustainable development.

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is defined as education that encourages changes
in knowledge, skills, values and attitudes to enable a more sustainable and equitable society. ESD aims to
empower and equip current and future generations to meet the needs using a balanced and integrated
approach to the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development.
Concept
The concept of ESD was born from the need for education to address the growing and changing
environmental challenges facing the planet. In order to do this, education must change to provide
the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes that empower learners to contribute to sustainable development.
At the same time, education must be strengthened in all agendas, programs, and activities that promote
sustainable development. Sustainable development must be
integrated into education and education must be integrated into
sustainable development. ESD promotes the integration of these
critical sustainability issues in local and global contexts into
the curriculum to prepare learners to understand and respond to the
changing world. ESD aims to produce learning outcomes that
include core competencies such as critical and systematic thinking,
collaborative decision-making, and taking responsibility for the
present and future generations. Since traditional single-directional
delivery of knowledge is not sufficient to inspire learners to take
action as responsible citizens, ESD entails rethinking the learning
environment, physical and virtual.The learning environment itself must adapt and apply a whole-institution
approach to embed the philosophy of sustainable development. Building the capacity of educators and
policy support at international, regional, national and local levels helps drive changes in learning
institutions. Empowered youth and local communities interacting with education institutions become key
actors in advancing sustainable development.

UN Decade for Sustainable Development

The launch of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) started a
global movement to reorient education to address the challenges of sustainable development. Building on
the achievement of the Decade, stated in the Aichi-Nagoya Declaration on ESD, UNESCO endorsed the
Global Action Program on ESD (GAP) in the 37th session of its General Conference. Acknowledged by UN
General Assembly Resolution A/RES/69/211 and launched at the UNESCO World Conference on ESD in
2014, the GAP aims to scale-up actions and good practices. UNESCO has a major role, along with its
partners, in bringing about key achievements to ensure the principles of ESD are promoted through formal,
non-formal and informal education.
International recognition of ESD as the key enabler for sustainable development is growing steadily. The
role of ESD was recognized in three major UN summits on sustainable development: the 1992 UN
Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; the 2002 World Summit
on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa; and the 2012 UN Conference on
Sustainable Development (UNCSD) in Rio de Janeiro. Other key global agreements such as the Paris
Agreement (Article 12) also recognize the importance of ESD. Today, ESD is arguably at the heart of
the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (United
Nations, 2015). The SDGs recognize that all countries must stimulate action in the following key areas -
people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership - in order to tackle the global challenges that are crucial
for the survival of humanity. ESD is explicitly mentioned in Target 4.7 of SDG4, which aims to ensure that
all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development and is understood
as an important means to achieve all the other 16 SDGs (UNESCO, 2017).
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted
by all United Nations Member States in 2015 as a universal call to action to end pov erty, protect
the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030.The 17 SDGs
are integrated—that is, they recognize that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and
that development must balance social, economic and environ mental sustainability.Through the
pledge to Leave No One Behind, countries have committed to fast -track progress for those furthest
behind first. That is why the SDGs are designed to bring the world to several life -changing ‘zeros’,
including zero poverty, hunger, AIDS and discrimination against women and girls.

Sustainability in Different Areas

1. Sustainable Environment: Concerns the natural environment and how it endures and remains diverse
and productive. ES requires society to design activities to meet the human needs while preserving the life
support systems of the planet. This for example entails using water sustainably, utilizing renewable energy,
and sustainable material supplies.
2. Sustainable Agriculture: Consists of environment friendly methods of farming that allow the
production of crops or livestock without damage to human or natural systems.
3. Sustainable Energy: Clean and can be used over a long period of time. Unlike fossil fuels and bio-fuels
that provide the bulk of world’s energy, renewable energy sources like hydroelectric, solar, wind energy
produce far less pollution. SE is deemed to contribute to economic sustainability and national security of
communities.
4. Sustainable Technology: ST can be used to assist people meet their developmental needs. Today,
appropriate technology is often developed using open source principles which led to open source
appropriate technology (OSAT) and thus many of the plans of the technology can be freely found on the
internet. OSAT has been proposed as a new model of enabling innovation for SD.
5. Sustainable Transport: Transportation is a large contributor to green house gas emissions. Almost 1/3
of all gasses produced are due to transportation. ST has many social and economic benefits that can
accelerate local sustainable development. This for example entails improving of public transit, encourage
walking and biking, and increase car ownership and gas taxes.
6. Sustainable Architecture: In SA the recent movements of New Urbanism and Neo-classical architecture
promote a sustainable approach towards construction that appreciates and develops smart growth,
architectural tradition, and classical design.
7. Sustainable Politics: A study concluded that social indicators and therefore, sustainable development
indicators, are scientific constructs whose principal objectives is to form public policy-making. The UN
Global Compact Cities Program has defined sustainable political development in a way that broadens the
usual definition beyond states and governance. These are the 7 sub domains of politics

 Organization and governance

 Law and justice
 Communication and Critique
 Representation and negotiation
 Security and accord
 Dialogue and reconciliation
 Ethics and accountability
8. Sustainable Culture: The Circles of Sustainability
approach used by the metropolis defines the 4th cultural
domain as practices, discourses, and material expressions,
which, over time, express continuities and discontinuities of
social meaning.
9. Sustainable Education: An empowering education is one
that builds the human resources needed to be productive,
continue to learn, to solve problems, to be creative, and to
live together and with nature in peace and harmony. When
nations ensure that such an education is accessible to all
throughout their lives, a quiet revolution is set in motion:
education becomes the engine of SD and the key to a better
world.
10. Sustainable Progress: This is the concept for the formation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
way back in 2012 conference held in Rio by UN Conference on SD (UNCSD). Although some nation are
able to meet the established criteria and are more developed than others, all nations are constantly
developing because each nation struggles with perpetuating disparities, inequalities, and unequal access to
fundamental rights and freedom.
Progress report of SDG in Asia-Pacific

International Agreements & Conventions for Environmental Protection & Conservation

In 1983 the United Nations Commission on Environment and Development was created and in
1987, the Commission issued the Brundtland Report. This report highlighted that equity, growth, and
environmental maintenance are simultaneously possible and that each country is capable of achieving its
full economic potential while at the same time enhancing its resource base. It emphasized three fundamental
components to sustainable development: environmental protection, economic growth, and social equity.
During the period 1972–92, over 200 regional and international agreements and conventions for
environmental protection and conservation were adopted. However, most of these agreements were
negotiated individually and treated as ‘separate entities’, with many lacking systemic integration within the
social, economic, and environmental framework of sustainable development.
In 1992, the Earth Summit brought the world’s governments to deliberate and negotiate an agenda
for environment and development in the twenty-first century. At a parallel Global Forum, nongovernmental
organizations from around the world also discussed and deliberated strategies for sustainable development.
While there was little formal interaction between these two meetings, the world’s civil societies succeeded
in having their voices noticed. It was an important step toward future dialog and active participation of civil
society in sustainable development regimes from local to global levels.
The Earth Summit unanimously adopted the Agenda 21, a comprehensive blue print of actions
toward sustainable development, including detailed work plans, goals, responsibilities, and also estimates
for funding. Other important accomplishments included the Rio Declaration, a statement of broad
principles to guide national conduct on environmental protection and development, and adoption
of treaties on climate change and biodiversity, and forest management principles.
Sources: The Contemporary World book (Author: P.Faurello)