Kaitlyn Bretz

My time at USC has taught me many things, but one thing I know now without a doubt is that globalization is causing our world to become increasingly smaller. Improving technology, larger market supply chains, and massive amounts of development worldwide are cumulatively making the world a smaller, more fragile place. Global concerns are becoming increasingly more common as economies are gradually tied together, nations are vying to develop the best technology and development strategies, and our growing population is creating massive amounts of pollution, both locally and globally. As an Environmental Science major with an Anthropology minor, I plan to dedicate my career to researching global concerns like development, pollution, and climate change, and investigating how they affect human populations, especially communities in developing countries. By understanding the political and economic relationships created through increased globalization, I will begin to see the causes and effects of global problems and help create avenues for nations to work together.

 

Many current environmental issues are being framed in a global context, in part due to improved technologies like Global Information Systems (GIS) and analysis software, and the increased breadth and reach of media outlets. Today, more attention is brought to issues that were routinely ignored or covered up in the past, such as illegal waste disposal, illegal resource extraction, and the effects of climate change. Media attention and elevated levels of awareness allow for us as a society to see the underlying relationships between the involved actors, and thus better understand the situation. In GEOG 343: Political Ecology, we discussed the onset of globalization during the late 1900s and the effect is having on modern conservation practices. We have looked particularly into the role of large environmental non-profits such as World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Nature Conservancy (TNC), and Conservation International (CI), and their responses to different environmental issues. The interactions between environmental non-profits and local communities were also addressed in ENVR 202: Environmental Science & Policy II, where we discussed the shift in TNC’s policies to international conservation, from fenced parks to community-managed reserves ENVR 201_TNC Essay). In Political Ecology we used Ecuador, Panama, Malaysia, and Indonesia as examples of areas that have faced different environmental problems. We investigated the relationships between local communities, businesses, national governments, and environmental non-profit organizations through the idea of ‘common’ and ‘contested’ ground, which is described more in depth in my memo. I learned that the ways local citizens and national governments have reacted to global attention to environmental problems and past policies reached between governments and non-governmental organizations are good indicators of the power structure between the aforementioned actors. For example, utilizing outreach from citizens of developed nations to appeal to a developing nation’s values is often futile and will often result in outright backlash, as was seen in Malaysia when the Prime Minister harshly responded to a young English boy’s pleas for him to save the Malaysian rainforest for the animals (Brosius, 1999). I plan to investigate this idea that environmetnal management is changing due to globalization in my research in Bali, Indonesia this fall. My research proposal is about the traditional Subak irrigation method in Bali, which has been used for centuries, but has recently changed due to the Green Revolution in the 20th century. 

 

The effects of global change can also be seen in the economy. If you simply take a walk through your local grocery store, there is a likely chance that many of those shelved products came from all over the world: produce from Central and South America, fish from Asia, nuts and fruits from Africa, and meats and sweets from Europe, to name just a few. These products are part of an expanding global supply chain, an important topic covered in ENVR 202: Environmental Science & Policy II. In this course we looked specifically at the supply chain for papaya (Cook, et.al., 2004). Cook et.al. (2004) illustrate the long process of producing, harvesting, preparing, transporting, stocking, and finally removing the waste from papaya products; this process also applies to many other products, not just produce. This global supply chain relies heavily on pre-established relationships between nations, including import and export agreements, existing tariffs, and the demand created by global consumers. This global economy links not only the people around the world, but also currency exchanges between different economies, and intensifying sources of waste and pollution. These lessons on global economies have made me take a closer look at the relationships between nations and I can see different avenues for nations to collaborate to improve their economies and the environment simultaneously.

 

The global transfer of good has its benefits, but also comes with a price to people’s health — especially concerning meat and produce. In ENHS 660: Concepts of Environmental Health Science I learned the concept of ‘circle of poisons.’ Basically, if one nation outlaws the use of a certain chemical or method of production, but another nation does not have the same standards, that first nation is likely to still be affected by the banned chemical or procedure due to global trade. For example, the use of DDT as a mosquito repellent was banned in 1972 in the United States, but is still widely used in developing nations to combat mosquitos and the spread of malaria. Because of its extensive use, DDT is easily washed into water bodies that eventually reaches a product that will be shipped abroad, such as shrimp. Nearly every shipment of imported farmed shrimp has DDT in it. The ‘circle of poisons’ are created through the use of pesticides on produce, hormones and antibiotics in meat, and other added chemicals on foodstuffs. Global transport of these products through ships and planes, and the extensive use of plastic contributes to another global phenomenon: marine and atmospheric pollution. These forms of pollution are not held to any particular boundaries due to their fluid nature and disproportionately affect the globe. Increased ship traffic due to the transfer of economic goods increases the amount of fuel use, waste and bilge dumping, and the likelihood of a leak or crash between ships, whereas increased air traffic burns more fuel and produces more waste and greenhouse gas emissions. More goods increases the use and eventual disposal of plastics, which often do not naturally deteriorate on a human timescale. Again, the creation of novel relationships between nations regarding use of materials and transport methods would likely provide a way to reduce pollution and increase environmental health.

 

Our globalized view of the world has provided many benefits, but has also made environmental problems increasingly more complex by involving a multitude of new actors. In order to make positive changes, we need to have the skills to identify the reigning relationships among economic and political actors, and use or modify those relationships to improve the environment. Across the globe, we are inexplicably tied together and one slight change affects many others. We must be able and willing to critique the current network of actors in order to create and/or foster healthier relationships.