“The environmental benefits of globalization”, John A. Charles argues that the united States’ living ways and standards are operational and maintainable. Through free trade and globalization, people who are wealthy not only can provide sustainable development, but also can create protected environment. Free trade and globalization may attempt environmental protection, but they could not fundamentally solve the problem. One idea from the article is that “resources that were once considered scarce are now known to be abundant” (Charles, J. 004). The author means that we have rich natural resources. In my opinion, resources have dropped year by year, not only mineral resources, but also natural resources. Although technology improvement can reduce use of resources, the total energy consumption has not decreased. Some natural resources are limited, such as land, water and minerals. The use of resources can not satisfy the growing demand. For example, China Is expanding Its reserves to balance the need for oil.
In 2000, China’s oil price was 3 Yuan/ liters. However, the 011 price has grown to over 8 Yuan/ liters In 2013. The shortage of oil has already led to prices rising. Most factories and cars upend on oil and gasoline: moreover, there is no machine that can work without fuel, such as oil and carbon. It is not difficult to imagine that the growing use is one of the most important factors that can lead to resource shortage, causing a significant impact on our limited resources.
The article mentioned that at the beginning of industrialization, pollution was serious; as countries grow rich, they have ability to control pollution. I disagree with author’s idea. On the one hand, when developing countries get rich, they prefer to spend more money to support other problems, such s their economy, people’s daily life, education level and health care-?factors for which countries are more concerned. On the other hand, developed countries Like to build their factories In third world countries and developing countries, because they have lower labor costs.
Although these factories create a lot of benefit to the local economy, it also causes huge environmental pollution in that country. However, when some countries have the capability to implement standards that are much higher, they like to maintain only the minimum emission standards. Finally, “expenditures for environmental protection in the U. S. Re estimated to exceed $1 50 billion annually or about 2% of GAP”(Richard D. Northeastern, William A. Pfizer, and Shih-Shying Shih, 1998).
This low percentage means that developed countries are not willing to invest in environmental protection, in the same percentages as they invested in raw development. Therefore, even though countries have became richer than before, they do not want to spend more money on environmental protection. References Charles, J. (2004). The environmental benefits of globalization. In Athletes, N. &Haun, Schmaltziness, R. (1993). The costs of environmental protection. MIT-CHEEP (Series), 93-IPPP.
