Political Science 2137 Lecture Notes - Global Warming, Economic Globalization, Environmental Policy
19 Mar 2014
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Document Summary
The whole planet is now one economic community, and the proper exploitation of its natural resources demands one comprehensive direction. (h. g. The present-day global set of local sovereign states is . not capable of saving the biosphere from man-made pollution or of conserving the biosphere"s non-replaceable natural resources . This is the enigmatic question which now con- fronts (sic) man. (arthur toynbee, 1976) The facts are plain and uncontestable: the biosphere is finite, nongrowing, closed (except for the constant input of solar energy), and constrained by the laws of thermodynamics. Any subsystem, such as the economy, must at some point cease growing and adapt itself to a dynamic equilibrium, something like a steady state. (h. e. Globalization: erosion of borders, increase of global trade, communication and technology expanding, interconnection of crisis. After wwii (1945-1946) we see movement into new world order. Since end of wwii: we see unprecedented growth in population and economy.
