Chapter 6 Ecological Dimension

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
Heavenly Father and Your Beloved Son Jesus Christ,

We thank You for giving us another life,
We thank You for another Beautiful day.
As we go on through our lessons today,
May You make us instruments to do good things.
Please enlighten our minds.
Give us the strength to participate in our subject today.
Thank you for this opportunity to learn and serve others.
Help us to always remember the Truth of Your Glory.
In Jesus’ name.
Amen
Ecological
dimension
Ecological dimension
 Global environmental issues such as global climate

change and transboundary pollution have received
enormous attention from research institutes, the media,
politicians, economists, and the public in general.
 The ecological effects of globalization are now

recognized as potentially life threatening for life on our
planet.
 The worldwide impact of natural and man-made disasters

such as the horrifying nuclear plant accidents at Chernobyl,
Ukraine (1986) and Fukushima, Japan (2011) clearly shows that
the formidable ecological problems of our time can only be
tackled by a global alliance of states and civil society actors.
 Our planet’s ecosystems are subjected to continuous human

assault in order to maintain wasteful lifestyles.
 Cultural values greatly influence how people view
their natural environment.
EXAMPLES:
a. Cultures steeped in Taoist, Buddhist, and various
animist religions tend to emphasize the interdependence
of all living beings—a perspective that calls for a
delicate balance between human wants and ecological
needs.
b. Judaeo-Christian humanism, on the other hand,

contains deeply dualistic values that put humans in
control of nature.
c. In Western modernity, the environment has

come to be considered as a ‘resource’ to be used
instrumentally to fulfil human needs and wants.
The most extreme manifestation of this

‘anthropocentric’ paradigm is reflected in the
dominant values and beliefs of consumerism.
The capitalist culture industry seeks to convince its

global audience that the meaning and chief value of
life can be found in the limitless accumulation of
material goods.
TWO MAJOR CONCERNS OF ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION:
1.UNCONTROLLED POPULATION GROWTH
the global population has exploded a thousand-fold to reach
nearly 7.5 billion in 2017
humans are now the most numerous mammals on earth
RESULT:
Vastly increased demands for food, timber, and fiber have
put severe pressure on the planet’s ecosystems.
2. LAVISH CONSUMPTION PATTERNS IN THE GLOBAL NORTH

Together, regional overconsumption and
uncontrolled population growth present a serious
problem to the health of our planet.
 The health of Mother Earth is likely to deteriorate

further, unless we are willing to change the
underlying cultural and religious value structure
that sustains these ominous dynamics.
© EFFECTS OF OVERCONSUMPTION AND POPULATION
GROWTH:
1. Current food crisis plaguing vast regions of our planet
Large-scale food riots in Haiti, Indonesia, the

Philippines, China, and Cameroon in the last few years
highlight increasing limitations on access to food in part
as a result of environmental problems.
© EFFECTS OF OVERCONSUMPTION AND POPULATION GROWTH:
® OTHER FACTORS:
® rising oil prices (which affect the cost of transportation of food)
® diversion of food staples such as corn into production of biofuels
in efforts to reduce reliance on petroleum
® unequal access to resources across developed and developing
countries
® The current food crisis highlights the interconnections between

political, economic, and ecological problems that are accentuated
by the process of globalization.
2. Worldwide reduction of biodiversity

® the world is now in the midst of the fastest mass extinction
of living species in the 4.5-billion-year history of the planet
® Some experts fear that up to 50 per cent of all plant and

animal species—most of them in the global South—will
disappear by the end of this 21st century
CHALLENGE:
Biodiversity should be treated as a planetary asset and held
in trust for the benefit of future generations
 Some of the measures currently undertaken to safeguard

biodiversity include the creation of hundreds of ‘GENE BANKS’
(store back-up copies of the seeds of the world’s major
food crops at minus 18 degrees Celsius) located in over a
hundred countries around the world.
3. Transboundary pollution
another grave danger to our collective survival
® release of vast amounts of synthetic chemicals into the air
and water has created conditions for human and animal life
that are outside previous limits of biological experience.
EXAMPLE:
® CHLOROFLUOROCARBONS were used in the second half of
the 20th century as non-flammable refrigerants, industrial
solvents, foaming agents, and aerosol propellants
4. Human-induced climate change

® emerged as the major focus of domestic and
intergovernmental policy as well as grass roots activism
RECALL:
Former US Vice President Al Gore (2006)through his award-winning
documentary An Inconvenient Truth—as well as the production of
numerous scientific reports outlining the dire consequences of
unchecked global warming—brought to public attention that climate
change is clearly one of the top global problems facing humanity today.
©Perhaps the most influential recent attempt to
raise people’s consciousness about the dangers of
climate change came from an unexpected
quarter: the Vatican in Rome.
©In September 2015, Pope Francis I stood before

the UN General Assembly and issued a radical call
for the world to address global warming.
© The consequences of worldwide climate change, especially global
warming, could be catastrophic.
© Indeed, global warming represents a grim example of the decisive shift

in both the intensity and extent of contemporary environmental
problems.
© The rapid build-up of gas emissions, including carbon dioxide, methane,

nitrous and sulphur oxides, and chlorofluorocarbons, in our planet’s
atmosphere has greatly enhanced Earth’s capacity to trap heat.
© The resulting ‘greenhouse effect’ is responsible for raising average
temperatures worldwide
© Higher temperatures are worsening many

kinds of extreme weather events, including
storms, wild fires, floods, and droughts.
© Such disasters caused by global climate
change not only endanger human lives but
cause trillions of dollars of damage.
© The central feature of all these potentially disastrous environmental
problems is that they are ‘global’, thus making them serious problems for
all living beings inhabiting our magnificent blue planet.
© Indeed, transboundary pollution, global warming, climate change, and

species extinction are challenges that cannot be contained within
national or even regional borders.
© They do not have isolated causes and effects, for they are caused by
aggregate collective human actions and thus require a coordinated
global response.
© SIGNIFICANT ECONOMIC RAMIFICATIONS of
ECOLOGICAL PROBLEMS AGGRAVATED BY
GLOBALIZATION :
more significant for less developed countries

than for rich countries
 they will nonetheless affect all people and all
nations
a.Poor countries do not have the necessary

infrastructure or income to adapt to the unavoidable
climate changes that will occur because of carbon
emissions already in the earth’s atmosphere.
developing regions are already warmer on average

than most developed countries and consequently suffer
from a high degree of variability in rainfall.
b. less developed countries are heavily dependent

on agriculture for the majority of their income.
Since agriculture is the most climate sensitive of
all economic sectors, developing nations will be
more adversely affected by climate change than
developed countries.
c. increased illnesses and escalating death rates
d. crumbling infrastructure
e. cost of living will continue to rise, leaving poor

households and communities unable to save for
future emergencies
© Climate change and global warming are not
merely environmental or scientific issues.
© They are economic, political, cultural, but,

above all, ethical issues that have been
expanded and intensified by the process of
globalization.
SETBACK:
International discussion on the issue of global warming
and environmental degradation has been occurring for
several years.
® Yet, while much has been written and spoken about
this issue, few coordinated measures have been
implemented.
® Most international environmental treaties still lack
effective enforcement mechanisms.
MAJOR GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL
TREATIES/CONFERENCES, 1972-2015
© Political efforts in favor of immediate change have been
limited.
© The most significant obstacles to the creation and
implementation of an effective global environmental
agreement have come from the unwillingness of China and
the United States—the world’s two largest polluters—to
ratify key agreements.
Both nations see measures to reduce carbon emissions and thereby slow
global warming as threats to their economic growth.
 Inaction on climate
change today will have more
dire consequences for
economic growth tomorrow
© BRIGHTER SIDE:
© Significant agreement exists that certain
limitations on carbon emissions must be placed
on all nations.
© EXAMPLE:
Some rich countries in the EU—and Australia—
managed to impose a national carbon tax on
emitters.
© Poor countries argue that they should not be bound by the
same carbon measures or trading schemes as developed
countries.
© TWO REASONS:
1. They need to build up their industries and infrastructures
in order to pull themselves out of poverty.
Placing significant carbon emissions restrictions on their
industries would seriously impede their economic
development.
TWO REASONS:
2. They argue that poor countries have not been

responsible for the production of most of the
greenhouse gases that have caused the current
problem.
©December 2015:
UN Framework Convention on
Climate Change summit in Paris,
France
Paris ‘global climate deal’

GLOBAL CLIMATE DEAL
KEY ELEMENTS:
1.the parties committed themselves to arresting the
rise of global temperatures.
2.they pledged to limit the amount of greenhouse

gases emitted by human activity to the same levels
that trees, soil, and oceans can absorb naturally,
beginning at some point between 2050 and 2100.
GLOBAL CLIMATE DEAL
KEY ELEMENTS:
3. countries agreed to review each other’s
contribution to cutting emissions every five years so
as to scale up the challenge.
4. rich countries promised to help poorer nations by

providing ‘climate finance’ to adapt to climate
change and switch to renewable energy.
GLOBAL CLIMATE DEAL
DRAWBACK:
Not all of the provisions of the treaty are legally binding, which
means that international peer pressure constitutes the most effective
form of enforcement available for addressing domestic activities that
are protected by national sovereignty.
® The negotiations over climate change serve as an instructive example

for how the various dimensions of globalization intersect.
® Political globalization simply has not kept up with the demands of

ecological globalization.
© There are five deep-seated and interlocking
problems that stand in the way of an effective
global environmental treaty system
© comprehensive study Globalization and the Environment
(2013)by the Australian political scientists Peter
Christoff and Robyn Eckersley
© five deep-seated and interlocking problems that stand in the way of an
effective global environmental treaty system:
1.States have failed to integrate environmental and economic
governance at the national level.
2.States have failed to integrate environmental and economic

governance at the international level.
3.Powerful social forces continue to resist or co-opt efforts to

transform economies and societies in a more ecologically sustainable
direction
© five deep-seated and interlocking problems that stand in the way of an
effective global environmental treaty system:
4. The neoliberal economic discourse remains globally

dominant, undermining sustainable development and
ecological modernization discourses and practices.
5. All of the above persists because national and international

accountability mechanisms remain weak and inadequate in a
globalizing world.
© TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE
slow, gradual action would make it impossible to
avoid the disastrous impacts of climate change and
ecological degradation
 it has become clear to many people that the
contemporary phase of globalization has been the
most environmentally destructive period in human
history
CHALLENGE:
whether the growing recognition of the
ecological limits of our planet will
translate swiftly into profound new forms
of political cooperation across borders

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In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Heavenly Father and Your Beloved Son Jesus Christ,

 Global environmental issues such as global climate

 The ecological effects of globalization are now

 The worldwide impact of natural and man-made disasters

 Our planet’s ecosystems are subjected to continuous human

b. Judaeo-Christian humanism, on the other hand,

c. In Western modernity, the environment has

The most extreme manifestation of this

The capitalist culture industry seeks to convince its

2. LAVISH CONSUMPTION PATTERNS IN THE GLOBAL NORTH

 The health of Mother Earth is likely to deteriorate

1. Current food crisis plaguing vast regions of our planet

Large-scale food riots in Haiti, Indonesia, the

® The current food crisis highlights the interconnections between

2. Worldwide reduction of biodiversity

® Some experts fear that up to 50 per cent of all plant and

 Some of the measures currently undertaken to safeguard

4. Human-induced climate change

©In September 2015, Pope Francis I stood before

© Indeed, global warming represents a grim example of the decisive shift

© The rapid build-up of gas emissions, including carbon dioxide, methane,

© Higher temperatures are worsening many

© Indeed, transboundary pollution, global warming, climate change, and

more significant for less developed countries

a.Poor countries do not have the necessary

developing regions are already warmer on average

b. less developed countries are heavily dependent

e. cost of living will continue to rise, leaving poor

© They are economic, political, cultural, but,

2. They argue that poor countries have not been

Paris ‘global climate deal’

2.they pledged to limit the amount of greenhouse

4. rich countries promised to help poorer nations by

® The negotiations over climate change serve as an instructive example

® Political globalization simply has not kept up with the demands of

2.States have failed to integrate environmental and economic

3.Powerful social forces continue to resist or co-opt efforts to

4. The neoliberal economic discourse remains globally

5. All of the above persists because national and international

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