Environmental Science

Environmentalism in International Relations

Twentieth century is a time of increasing international cooperation among nations especially after the Second World War . The war had brought a growing awareness that if man expects to survive in the world , he needs to make peace with his neighbors , which means in a global scale with other countries . The goal of cooperation was primarily political and economic , maintaining national survival by forming political and economic alliances with other nations . But with the continuous increase in population and industrialization , which resulted to environmental exploitation , especially among

industrialized nations , international relations of the world shifted to a more pressing concern , environmental degradation

The world today faces a host of alarming environmental problems : air land and water pollution , global warming , ozone layer depletion and biodiversity extinction . The effect of these environmental problems , if not addressed immediately , will be catastrophic , for it will lead to human illness , economic collapse and ultimately world destruction . In other words , what threatens human survival today is not war but environmental degradation

To solve environmental problems , each nation needs each other , the reason being that environmental problems do not respect national boundaries . Environmental problems created by a certain nation will affect every other nation in the world . Take the case of the Chernobyl incident in April of 1986 . This incident , although occurred only in Ukraine , causes radiation that damaged plant life around the world and had posed an immediate and cancer threat (thyroid or leukemia ) in those who were exposed to it ( IAEA ,2006 . Or , the use of power plants and extensive use of cars contributes to acid rain which damages other forest in other parts of the world . Pollution in one local sea will have a connecting effect in the seas of other nations . It is impossible then to just ignore the environmental activities of other nations . In fact in view of the above argument , in the sense that environmental problems affect everyone , it can only be effectively managed by the cooperation of most , if not all , countries of the world ( Chasek , 2000 ,

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Nations of the world are also aware that local environmental problems such as deforestation , salinization , and water and fuel scarcity affect international economics . This is because it largely undermines economic base and usually leads to inter- or intra- state tensions and conflict , forcing people to run away from their homelands and increasing the number of refugees which may lead to economic problems to host countries (Chasek , 2000 ,

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The UN had been the leading advocate of environmental protection and preservation . World 's awareness of environmental problems had dramatically changed in 1972 when concerned private citizens and environmental organizations had urged the politicians to place environmental protection as part of their agenda . This was actually caused by two events : in 1960 Rachel Carson published Silent Spring wherein she revealed the harmful effect of DDT on bird population and that of industrial chemicals on the earth 's natural resources and in 1967 , an oil Tanker Canyon , spilled oil...