Module 3 Movement and Sustainability

Welcome to module 3! This module will introduce you to movement and

sustainability in which the various impact of globalization on human populations and
environment will be discussed. At its core, it will go back to one of the basic questions
of the social science. How do people interact with their surrounding? These
interactions, as you will see, are increasingly being molded by the globalization process
discussed in the previous lessons.
The major learning outcome of this unit is to explain the interconnections
among population, migration, and environmental sustainability.
Yes, along the way, you may feel exhausted of reading through text. But always
remember, every achievement is rewarding especially if you put all of your effort on it.
Stay positive always!

This Module contain the following lessons:

Lesson 1: Global Demography

Lesson 2: Global Migration
Lesson 3: Environmental Crisis and Sustainable Development

The major learning outcomes of this module are to:

 Familiarize the relationship between population and economic welfare.
 Identify the reasons for the migration of people.
 Discuss the effects of global migration on the economic well-being of
states.
 Differentiate between contrasting positions over reproductive health
 Examine the policies and programs of governments around the world
that address the environmental crisis.
 Relate everyday encounters with pollution, global warming,
desertification, ozone depletion, and many others with a larger picture
of environmental degradation.

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Module 3 Movement and Sustainability

LESSON 1: Global Demography

Objectives
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
 Discuss the relationship between population and economic welfare
 Identify the effect of aging and overpopulation and
 Differentiate between contrasting positions over reproductive health
Introduction
Hello! Welcome to lesson 1. How are you today? In this lesson, we
will discuss about population which really changes and has potentially huge
implications for the pace and progress of the economic development.
Countries that are able to absorb the baby boom generation into productive
employment can experience a rapid increase in economic growth. Countries
unable to take advantage of this opportunity run the risk of creating large,
chronically underemployed and increasingly restive working-age populations.
So let’s know more about it in this lesson. Have a productive learning!
.
Activity
Activity

Illustrate inside the box the impact of “globalization” to the environment

and human living.

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Analysis

Does globalization really important to attain interconnectedness with other

regions across the world? Yes or No and why?
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________

Based on your observation, did globalization become beneficial for all or

not? Why?
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________

Abstraction

When couple are asked why they have children, their answers are almost
always about their feelings. For most having a child is the symbol of successful
union. It also ensure that the family will have successor generation that will
continue its name. The kinship is preserved and the family’s story continues. A
few how however, worry how much strains a child can bring to the household
as he/she “compete” for the parents’ attention, and in reverse, how much energy
the family needs to shower its love to an additional member. Viewed from
above, however, having or not having children is mainly driven by economics.
Behind the laughter of the tears lies the question: will the children be an
economic asset or a burden to the family?
Rural communities often welcome an extra hand to help in crop
cultivation, particularly during planting and harvesting season. The poorer
districts of urban centers also tend to have families with more children because
the success of their “small family business” depends on how many of their

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 members can be hawking their wares on the streets. Hence, the more children
the better it will be for the farm of the small by-the-street corner enterprises.
Urbanized, educated, and professional families with two incomes,
however, desire just one or two progenies. With each partner tied down, or
committed to his/her respective professions, neither has the time to devote to
having a kid, much more to parenting. These families also have their sights on
long-term saving plans. They set aside significant parts of their incomes for their
retirement, health care, and the future education of their child/children.
Rural families view multiple children and large kinship network as
critical investments. Children, of example, can take over the agricultural work.
Their houses can also be the “retirement homes” of their parents, who will then
proceed to take care of their grandchildren. Urban families, however may not
have the same kinship network anymore because couples live on their own, or
because they move out of the farmlands. Thus, it is usually the basic family unit
that is left to deal with life’s challenges on its own.
Since then, global agricultural population has declined. In 2011, it
accounted for over 37 percent of the total world population, compared to the
statistics in 1980 in which rural and urban population percentages were more or
less the same. The blog site “Nourishing the Planet.” However, noted the even
as “the agricultural population shrunk as a share of total population between
1980 and 2011, it grew numerically from 2.2 billion to 2.6 billion people during
this period.
Urban population have grown, but not necessarily because families are
having more children. It is rather the combination of the natural outcome of
significant migration of the cities by people seeking work in the “more modern”
sector of society. This movement of people is especially manifest in the
developing countries where industries and business in the cities are attracting
people from the rural areas. This trend has been noticeable since the 1950s, with
the pace accelerating in the next half-a-century. By the start of the 21st century,
the world had become “44 percent urban, while the corresponding figures for
developed countries are 52 percent to 75 percent.”
International migration also plays a part. Today, 191 million people live
in countries other than their own, and the United Nation project that over 2.2
million will move from the developing world to the First World countries (more
on this in Lesson 11). Countries welcome immigrants as they offset the
debilitating effects of an aging population, but they are also perceived a threats
to the job markets because they compete against citizens for jobs and often have
edge because they are open to receiving lower wages. Voters’ has often
constrained their governments to institute stricter immigration policies.
The “Perils” of Overpopulation
Development planner see urbanization and industrialization as indicator
of a developing society, but disagree on the role of the population growth of
decline in modernization. This lengthy discussion brings back ideas of British

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scholar Thomas Malthus who warned in his 1798 “An Essay on the Principle of
Population growth will inevitably exhaust world food supply by the middle of
the 19th century. Malthus’ prediction was off base, but it was revived in the late
1960s when American biologist Paul R. Ehrlich and his wife, Anne, wrote The
Population Bomb, which argued that overpopulation in the 1970s and 1980s
will bring about global environmental disaster that would, in turn, leas to food
shortage and mass starvation. They proposed that countries like the United
States take the lead in the promotion of global population control in order to
reduce the growth rate to zero. Their recommendations ranged from the bizarre
(chemical castration) to the policy-oriented (taxing an additional child and
luxury taxes on the child-related products) to monetary incentives (paying of
men who would agree to be sterilized after two children) to institution-building
( a powerful Department of Population and Environment).
There was some reason for this fear to persist. The rate of global
population increase was at its highest between 1955 and 19, the aA75 when
nation were finally able to return to normalcy after the devastation wrought by
World War II. The growth rate rose from 1.8 percent per year from 1955 to
1975, peaking at 2.06 percent annual growth rate between 1965 and 1970.
By limiting the population, vital resources could be used for economic
progress and not be “diverted” and “wasted” to feeding more mouths. This
argument became the basis of government “population control” programs
worldwide, in the mid-20th century, the Philippines, China, and India sought to
lower birth rates on the belief that unless controlled, the free expansion of family
member would lead to crisis on resources, which in turn may result in
widespread poverty, mass hunger, and political instability. As early as 1958, the
American policy journal, Foreign Affairs, had already advocated “contraception
and sterilization” as the practical solution to global economic, social, and
political problems. While there have been criticisms that challenged this
argument (see the next section), it persist even to this very day. In May 2009, a
group of American billionaires warned of how a “nightmarish” explosion of
people was “a potentially disastrous environmental, social, and industrial
threat” to the world.
This worry is likewise at the core of the economist argument for the
promotion of reproductive health, advocates of population control contend of
universal access to reproductive technologies (such as condoms, the pill,
abortion, and vasectomy) and, more importantly, giving women the right to
choose whether to have children or not. They see these tools as crucial to their
nation’s development, thus in Puerto Rico, reproductive health supporters
regarding their work as the task of transforming their “poor country” into a
11’modern nation.”
Finally, politics determine these “birth control” programs. Development
countries justify their supports for population control on developing countries
by depicting the latter as conservative societies, for instance, population experts
blamed the “irresponsible fecundity” of Egyptians for the nation’s run-on

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 population growth, and the Iranian peasant’s ‘’natural” libidinal tendencies for
the same rise in population. From 1920 onwards the Indian government marked
lower castes, working poor, and Muslims a hypersexual and hyper-fecund and
hence a drain on national resources. These policy formulations lead to extreme
policies like the force sterilization of twenty million “violators” of the Chinese
government’s one-child policy. Vietnam and Mexico also conducted coercive
mass sterilization.

It’s the Economy, Not the Babies!

The use of population control to prevent economic crisis has its critics.
For example, Besty Hartmann disagrees with the advocates of neo-Malthusian
theory and accused governments of using population control as a “substitute for
social justice and much-needed reforms- such land distribution, employment
creation, provision of mass education and health care, and emancipation.” Other
pointed out that the population did grow fast in many countries in the 1960s,
and this growth “aided economic development by spurring technological and
institutional innovation and increasing the supply of human ingenuity.” They
acknowledged the shift in population from the rural to urban areas (52 percent
to 75 percent in the developing world since the 1950s). They likewise noted that
while these “megacities” are now clusters in which incomes disparities along
with “transportation, housing, air pollution and, waste management” are major
problem, they also have become, and continue to be, centers of economic
growth and activity.
The median of 29.4 years for females and 30.9 for males in the cities
means a young working population. With this median age, states are assured
that they have a robust military forces. According to two population experts:
“As a country’s baby-boom generation gets older for the tine it
constitutes a large cohort group of working-age individuals and later a large
cohort of elderly people. In all circumstances, there are reasons to think that this
very dynamic age structure will have economic consequences. A historically
high proportion of working-age individuals in a population means that,
potentially, there are more workers per dependent than previously. Production
can therefore increase relative to consumption, and GDP capita can receive a
boost.
The productive capacities of this generation are especially high in
regions like East Asia’s remarkable growth in the past half century coincided
closely with demographic change in the region. As infant mortality fell from
181 to 34 pre 1000 birth between 1950 to 2000, the regions working age
population grew nearly four times faster than the dependent population. Several
studies have estimated that this demographic shift was responsible for one-third
of East Asia’s economic growth during the period (a welcome demographic
dividend).

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 Population growth has, in fact, spurred “technological and institutional
innovation” and increased “the supply of human ingenuity.” Advances in
agricultural production have shown that the Malthsian nightmare can be
prevented. The “Green Revolution” created high-yielding varieties of rice and
other cereals and, along with the development of new methods of cultivation,
increased yields globally, but more particularly in the developing world. The
global famine that neo-Malthusians predicted did not happen. Instead, between
1950 and 1984, global grain production increased by over 250 percent, allowing
agriculture to keep pace with population growth, thereby keeping global famine
under control.
Lately, a middle ground emerged between these two extremes. Scholar
and policymaker agree with the neo-Malthusian but suggest that if government
pursue population control programs, they must include “more inclusive growth”
and “greener economic growth”
Women and Reproductive Rights
The chapter in the middle of these debates- women- is often the subject
of these population measures. Reproductive rights supporters argue that if
population control and economic development were to reach their goals, women
must have control over whether they will have children or not and they will have
their progenies, if any. By giving women this power, they will be able to pursue
their vocation—be they economic, social, or political— and contribution to
economic growth.
This serial correlation between fertility, family and fortune has
motivated countries with growth economies to introduce or strengthen their
reproductive health laws, including abortion. High-income First World nations
and fast-developing countries were able to sustain growth in part because
women were given the power of choice and easy access to reproductive
technologies. In North America and Europe, 73 percent of government allow
abortion upon a mother’s request. Moreover, the more educated a women is the
better are her prospects of improving her economic position. Women can spend
most of the time pursuing either their higher education or their careers, instead
of forcibly reducing this time to take care of their children.
Most countries implement reproductive health laws because they worry
about the health of the mother. In 1960, Bolivia’s average total fertility
rate(TFR) was 6.7 children. In 1978, the Bolivian government put into effect a
family planning programs that included the legalization of abortion (after
noticing a spike in unsafe abortion and maternal deaths). By 1985, the TFR went
down to 5.13 and further declined to 3.46 in 2008. A similar pattern occurred in
Ghana after the government expanded reproductive health law out of the same
corner as that of Bolivian government. As a result, “fertility declined steeply…
and continued to decline {after} 1994. Such examples seemed to draw the
attention of other countries, thus, in 2014, the United Nation report noted that
proportion of countries allowing abortion to preserve the physical health of a

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 women increasing from 63 percent to 67 percent, and those to preserve the
mental health of a woman increased from 52 percent to 64 percent.
Opponents regarding reproductive rights as nothing but false front for
abortion. They contend that this method of preventing conception endanger the
life of the mother and must be banned. The religious wing of the anti-
reproductive right flank goes further and describes abortion as a debauchery that
sullies the name of God; it will send the mother to hell and prevent a new soul,
the baby, to become human. This position was a politically powerful one partly
because various part of the developing world remain very conservative.
Unfailing pressure by Christian groups compelled the government of Poland,
Croatia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and even Russia to impose restrictive
reproductive health programs including making access to condoms and other
technologies difficult. Muslim countries do not condone abortion and lime
wives to domestic chores and delivering babies. Senegal only allow abortion
wen the mother’s life is threatened. The Philippines, with a Catholic majority,
now has reproductive health law in place, but conservative politicians have
enfeebled it through budget cuts and stalled its implementation by filing a case
against the law of the Supreme Court.
A country being industrialized and developed, however, does not
automatically assure pro-women reproductive regulations. In the United States,
the women’s movement of the 1960s was responsible for the passage and
judicial endorsement of a pro-choice law, but conservatives controlling state
legislatures have also slowly undermined this law by imposing a restriction on
women’s access to abortion. While pro-choice advocates argue that abortion is
necessary to protect the health of the mother, their conservative rivals shift the
focus on the death of the fetus in the mother’s womb as the reason of reserving
the law. This battle continues to be played out in all the political arenas in the
United States.

The Feminist perspective

Feminists approach the issue of reproductive rights from another
angle. They are, foremost, against any form of population control
because they are compulsory by nature, sorting to a carrot-and stick
approach (punitive mechanisms co-exist alongside benefits) that
actually does not empower women. They believe that government
assumptions the poverty and environment degradation are caused by
overpopulation are wrong. These factors ignore other equally important
causes like the unequal distribution of wealth, the lack of public safety
nets like universal health care, education, and gender equality programs.
Feminists also point out that there is very little evidence that point to
overpopulation as the culprit behind poverty and ecological devastation.

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 Governments have not directly responded to these criticisms, but
one of the goals of 1994 United Nations International Conference on
Population and Development suggests recognition of this issue. Country
representatives to that conference agreed that women should receive
family planning counseling on abortion the dangers of sexually
transmitted diseases, the nature of human sexuality, and the main
elements of responsible parenthood. However, the conference also left
it to the individual countries to determine how these recommendations
can be turned into programs. Hence, globally, women’s and feminist
arguments on reproductive rights and overpopulation are acknowledged,
but the struggle to turn them into policy is still fought at the national
level. It is the dilemma that women and feminist movements face today.

Population Growth and Food Security

Today’s global population has reached 7.4 billion, and it is
estimated to increase to 9.5 billion in 2050, then 11.2 billion by 2100.
The median age of this population is 30.1, with the male median age at
29.4 years and female, 30.9 years.
95% of this population growth will happen in the developing
countries, with demographers predicting that by the middle of this
century, several countries will have tripled their population. The
opposite is happening in the developed world where populations remain
steady in general, but declining in some of the most advanced countries
(Japan and Singapore). However, this scenario is not arun-off that could
get of control. Demographers predict that the world population will
stabilize by 2050 to 9 billion, although they warn that feeding this
population will be an immense challenge.
The decline in fertility and the existence of a young productive
population, however, may not be enough to offset this concern over food
security. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warns that in
order for countries to mitigate the impact of population growth, food
production must increase by 70 percent; annual cereal production must
rise to 3 billion tons from the current 2.1 billion; and yearly meet
production must go up to 200 million tons to reach 470 million. The
problem here is that the global rate of growth of cereals had declined
considerably – from 3.2% in 1960 to just 1.5% in 2000.
The FAO recommends that countries increase their investments
in agriculture, craft long-term policies aimed at fighting poverty, and
invest in research and development. The UN body also suggests that
countries develop a comprehensive social service program that includes
food assistance, consistent delivery of health services, and education
especially for the poor. If domestic production is not enough, it becomes
essential for nations to import. The FAQ, therefore, enjoins governments

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 to keep their markets open, and to eventually “move towards a global
trading system that is fair and competitive, and that contributes to a
dependable market for food.
The aforementioned are worthy recommendations but nation-
states shall need the political will to push through these sweeping
changes in population growth and food security. This will take some
time to happen given that good governance is also a goal that many
nations, especially in the developing world, have yet to attain.
Conclusion
Demography is a complex discipline that requires the integration
of various social scientific data. As you have seen, demographic changes
and policies have impacts on the environment, politics, resources, and
others. Yet, at its core, demography accounts for the growth and decline
of the human species. It may be about large numbers and massive
effects, but it is ultimately about people. Thus, no interdisciplinary
account of globalization is complete without an accounting of people.

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 Application

ACTIVITY

Create two family trees based on interviews with each of your

parents. Try to trace your family connections as far back as you can.
Expand lateral connections as well. The “higher” you go vertically, the
better. Unless you are the child of a single parent, please remember that
you have to trace the lines of two families – your mother’s and father’s.
If you are a family of migrants, determine if your family moved from the
provinces to the big cities (Metro Manila or Metro Cebu) or vice versa. If they
migrated to the cities, ask them when the family moved, and why they left the
provinces for the cities.
Use a diagram to show the movement from both sides of your family. Do not
forget to include the provinces they move in. and answer the following
questions;

a. Did you move around much? Why did you move and to where?
b. How was your family’s movement affected your economic and social
status today?

Wonderful! You have finished lesson 1. The structure of the lessons that
follow will discuss the global migration. Reasons why people migrate differ
depending on an individual’s situation. Congratulations, you are now moving on the
next lesson. You will explore there what exactly is global migration and highlighting
some of the factors that cause global migration.
“Treat each lesson not as an end in itself but as window to the broader
phenomenon of globalization”

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Module 3 Movement and Sustainability

LESSON 2: GLOBAL MIGRATION

Objectives
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
 identify the reasons for the migration of the people;
 explain why states regulate migration; and
 discuss the effects of global migration on the economic well-being of states.

Introduction
Hello! Welcome to lesson 2. How are you today? Are you ready to feed your
mind with informative view of global migration?
This lesson will look at the global migration and its impact on both the sending
and receiving countries. Although we will cite numerous challenges relating to
migration should not be considered a “problem”. There is nothing moral or immoral
about moving from one country to another. Human beings have always been migratory.
It is the result of their movements that areas get populated, communities experience
diversity, and economies prosper. Thus, rather than looking migration in terms of
simplistic good vs. bad lens, treat it as a complex social phenomenon that even predates
contemporary globalization. Enjoy reading!

Activity
Activity

Story Reading

A Story: "The most difficult thing about Britain has been the sexism"
Gillian, 35, moved from Quebec, Canada to Surrey

As a Canadian who is also black, I find myself in this funny area of the immigration Venn
diagram. No one complains about Canadians, Americans, Australians or South Africans
coming here and taking jobs. We are taking a heck of a lot of them - we are being head hunted,
recruited and paid even more than you, but no one minds. Is it because we are normally white?
I have experienced more racism than I ever did in Canada.

People are always nice to me when they hear my accent. I can't help feel that my Canadian
upbringing is welcome but my brown skin is not. I have been called a "paki" and had guys
making monkey noises at me. But I can't talk about these things with friends because they
want to pretend that Britain does not have a race problem. So I basically just stopped going
out.

The most difficult thing about living in Britain for me has been the sexism. I was not used to
sexual harassment in public places or sexual 'banter' as some sort of acceptable norm, but there
are topless women in newspapers, lads mags, the pay gap, lack of promotion, discrimination
against pregnant women, as well as high levels of rape and sex assaults. I feel very
uncomfortable and unsafe and I am happy to be moving back to Canada soon. Quite simply, I
think British men just hate women.

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 Analysis

How did Gillian reacts to her encounters with people upon migrating to
Great Britain based on the story?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________

If you were Gillian in the story, how will you cope with the same situation
she had experienced?
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

Abstraction

What is Migration?

There are two types of migration: internal migration, which refers to people
moving from one area to another within one county; and international migration, in
which people cross borders of one country to another. The latter can be further broken
down into five groups. First, are those who move permanently to another country
(immigrants). The second refers to workers who stay in another country for a fixed
period (at least 6 months in a year). Illegal immigrants comprise the third group, while
the fourth are the migrants whose family have “petitioned” them to move to the
destination country. The fifth group are the refugees (also known as asylum-
seekers),i.e., those “unable or willing to return because of a well-founded fear of
persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in particular social
group, or political opinion.”

Demographers estimate that 247 million people are currently living outside the
countries of their birth. Ninety percent of them moved for economic reasons while the
remaining 10 percent were refugees and asylum-seekers. The top three regions of origin
are Latin America (18% of global total), followed by Eastern Europe and Central Asia
(16%), and the Middle East and North Africa (14%). On a per country basis, India,
Mexico, and China are leading, with the Philippines, together with Afghanistan, only
ranking 6th in the world. The top 10 country destinations of these migrants are mainly
in the West and the Middle East, with the United States topping the list.

Fifty percent of global migrants have moved from the developing countries to
the developed zones of the world and contribute anywhere from 40 to 80 percent of

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their labor force. Their growth has outstripped the population growth in the developed
countries (3 % vs. only 0.6%), such that today, according to think-tank McKinsey
Global Institute, population in Western Europe, 15 % in North America, and 48% in
the GCC countries. The majority of the migrants remain in the cities. The percentages
of migrants in cities are 92% and 99% in Australia. Once settled, they contribute
enormously to raising the productivity of their host countries.

Table 1. Migrant Contribution to Destination Country in Dollars and as National

percentage of national GDP, 2015
COUNTRY CONTRIBUTION Percentage of GDP
United States $ 2 trillion 11 %
Germany $ 550 billion 17 %
United Kingdom $ 390 billion 14 %
Australia $ 330 billion 25 %
Canada $ 320 billion 21 %

The migrant has led to a debate in destination countries over the issue of whether
migrants are assets or liabilities to national development. Anti-immigrant groups and
nationalists argue that governments must control legal migration and put a stop to illegal
entry of foreigners. Many of these anti-immigrant are gaining influence through
political leaders who share their beliefs. Examples include US President Donald Trump
and UK Prime Minister Theresa May, who have been reversing the existing pro-
immigration and refugee-sympathetic policies of their states. Most recently, Trump
attempted to ban travel into the United States of people from majority-Muslim
countries, even those with proper documentation. He also continues to speak about his
election promise of building a wall between the United States and Mexico.
The wisdom of these government actions has been consistently belied by the
data. A 2011 Harvard Business School survey on the impact of immigration concluded
that the “likelihood and magnitude of adverse labor market effects for native from
immigration are substantially weaker than often perceived.” The fiscal impact of
immigration on social welfare was noted to be “very small.” Furthermore, the 2013
report on government welfare spending by Organization for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD) clearly shows that native-born citizens still receive higher
support compared to immigrants.

The massive inflow of refugees from Syria and Iraq has raised alarm bells once
again, but has not proved to be damaging as expected. The International Monetary
Fund predicted that the flow of refugees fleeing the war in Syria and Iraq would actually
grow Europe’s GDP, albeit “modestly.” In Germany, the inflow of of refugees from the
Middle East has not affected social welfare programs, and had very little impact on
wages and employment. In fact, they have brought much-needed labor to the economy
instead.

Benefits and Detriments for the Sending Countries

Even if 90 percent of the value generated by migrant workers remain in their

host countries. They have sent billions back to their home countries (in 2014, their
remittances totalled $580 billion). In 2014, India held the highest recorded remittance
($70 billion, followed by China ($62 billion), the Philippines ($28 billion), and Mexico
($25 billion). These remittances make significant contributions to the development of

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small-and-medium-term industries that help generate jobs. Remittances likewise
change the economic and social standing of migrants, as shown by new or renovated
homes and their relatives’ access to new consumer goods. The purchasing power of a
migrant’s family doubles and makes it possible for children to start or continue their
schooling.

Yet, there remain serious concerns about the economic sustainability of those
reliant on migrant monies. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) observes that in
countries like the Philippine remittances “do not have significant influences on other
key items of consumption or investment such as spending on education and health
care.” Remittances, therefore may help in lifting “households out of poverty…but not
in rebalancing growth, especially in the long run.”

More importantly, global migration is “siphoning…qualified personnel,[and]

removing dynamic workers.” This process has often been referred to as “brain drain”.
According again to McKinsey Global Institute, countries in sub-Saharan Africa and
Asia have lost one-third of their college graduates. Sixty percent of those who moved
to OECD destinations were college graduates, compared just 9 percent of the overall
population in the country. Fifty-two percent of the Filipinos who leave for work in the
developed world have tertiary education, which is more than double the 23 percent of
the overall Filipino population.

Furthermore, the loss of professionals in certain key roles, such as doctors, has
been detrimental to the migrant’s home countries. In 2006, some 15 percent of locally
trained doctors from 21 sub-Saharan African countries have emigrated to the United
States or Canada; the losses were particularly steep in Liberia (where 43% of doctors
left), Ghana (30%) and Uganda (20%).

Governments are aware of this long-term handicap but have no choice but to
continue promoting migrant work as part of the state policy because of the remittances’
impact on GDP. They are equally “concerned with generating jobs for an under-utilized
workforce and in getting the maximum possible inflow of worker remittances.”
Governments are thus actively involved in the recruitment and deployment of works,
some of them setting up special departments like the Bureau of Manpower,
Employment and Training in Bangladesh; the Office of the Protector of the Emigrants
within the Indian Labor Ministry; and the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency
(POEA). The sustainability of migrant-dependent economies will partially depend on
the strength of these institutions.

The Problems of Human Trafficking

On top of the issue of brain drain, sending states must likewise protect migrant
workers. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation lists human trafficking as
the third largest criminal activity worldwide. In 2012, International Labour
Organization (ILO) identified 21 million men, women and children as victims of
“forced labor”, an appalling three out of every 1000 persons worldwide. Ninety percent
of the victims (18.7 million) are exploited by private enterprises and entrepreneurs; 22
percent (4.5 million) are sexually abused; and 68 percent (14.2 million) work under
compulsion in agriculture, manufacturing, infrastructure and domestic activities.
Human trafficking has been very profitable, earning syndicates, smugglers, and corrupt

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state officials profits as of high as $150 billion a year as of 2014. Governments, the
private sector, and civil society groups have worked together to combat human
trafficking, yet the results remain uneven.

Integration

A final issue relates to how migrants interact with their new home countries.
They may contribute significantly to host nation’s GDP, but their access to housing,
healthcare, and education is not easy. There is, of course, considerable variation in the
economic integration of migrants. Migrants from India, China, and Western Europe
often have more success, while those from the Middle East, North Africa, and sub-
Saharan Africa face greater challenges in securing jobs. In the United States and
Singapore, there are blue-collar as well as white-collar Filipino workers (doctors,
engineers, even corporate executives), and it is the professional, white-collar workers
that have oftentimes been easier to integrate.

Democratic states assimilate immigrants and their children by granting them

citizenship and the rights that go with it (especially public education). However,
without a solid support from citizens, switching citizenship may just be a formality.
Linguistic difficulties, customs from the “old country “and, of late, different religions
may create cleavages between migrants and citizens of receiving countries, particularly
in the West. The latter accuse migrants of bringing in the culture of their home
countries and amplifying differences in linguistic and ethnic customs. Crucially, the
lack of integration gives xenophobic and anti-immigrant groups more ammunitions to
argue that “these new citizens are often not nationals (in the sense of sharing the
dominant culture).”

Migrants unwittingly reinforce the tension by “keeping among themselves”.

The first-time migrant’s anxiety in coming into a new and often “strange” place is
mitigated by “local networks or fellow citizens” that serve as the migrant’s safety net
from the dislocation of uprooting oneself. For instance, the Chinese Consolidated
Benevolent Assimilation of California provides initial support for new Chinese
migrants, guiding then in finding work or setting up their small businesses (restaurants
and Laundromats) in the state and elsewhere. The drawback of these networks is that
instead of facilitating integration, they exacerbate differences and discrimination.

Governments and private businesses have made policy changes to address

integration problems, like using multiple languages in state documents (in the case of
United States, Spanish, and English). Training programs complemented with
counselling have also helped migrant integration in Hamburg, Germany, while retail
merchants in Barcelona have brought in migrant shopkeepers to break down language
barriers while introducing Chinese culture to citizens. Whether these initiatives will
succeed or not remains an open question.

Conclusion

Global migration entails the globalization of people. And like the broader
globalization process, it is uneven. Some migrants experience their movements as
liberating process. A highly educated professional may find moving to another country

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financially rewarding. At the other end, a victim of sex trafficking may view the process
of migration as dislocating and disempowering.

Like globalization, moreover, migration produce different and often

contradictory responses. On the other hand, many richer states know that migrant labor
will be beneficial for their economies. With their aging populations, Japan and
Germany will need workers from demographically young countries like the Philippines.
Similarly, as working population in countries like the United States move to more
skilled careers, their economies will require migrants to work jobs that their local
workers are beginning to reject. And yet, despite these benefits, developed countries
continue to excessively limit and restrict migrant labor. They do so for numerous factors
already mentioned. Some want to preserve what they perceive as local culture by
shielding it from newcomers. Other states use migrants as scapegoats, blaming them
for economic woes that are, in reality, caused by government policy and not by
foreigners.

Yet, despite the various contradictions, it is clear that different forms of global
interdependence will ensure that global migration will continue to be one of the major
issues in the contemporary world. Countries whose economies have become entirely
dependent on globalization and rely on foreign labor to continue growing (e.g.,
Singapore, Saudi Arabia and even protectionist Japan) will actively court foreign
workers. Likewise, countries like the Philippines with an abundance of labor and a need
for remittances will continue to send these workers.

Hence, it is inevitable that countries will have to open up again to prevent their
economies from stagnating or even collapsing. The various response to these
movements—xenophobia and extreme nationalism in the receiving countries;
dependency in the sending countries—will continue to be pressing issues

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Application

OFW SURVEY
Do a survey in your neighborhood and ask families about their relatives (parents, children,
uncles, aunts-cousin, etc. who had migrated or worked abroad. List down who they are,
where they migrated/working, and for how long they have been there.
Your goal is to map your neighborhood and determine how much of the families there are
reliant on the relatives living and/or working abroad. After finishing your census, do a
second survey to determine how different homes are supported by immigrants /migrant
workers. Check the architecture of the homes, the way your neighbor dress, their vehicles,
etc.
After doing the survey, answer the following questions:
a. What has changed in our communities because of global migration?
b. How are people coping with the visit or return of the immigrants?
c. What changed among the immigrants/overseas work when they went back (or
visited) home?

Congratulations! You have finished lesson 2. The next

lesson will talk about environmental crisis and sustainable
development. This lesson will help you reflect the current state of the
earth and how we can help to prevent further damages for the benefit
of future generations to come.
“Treat each lesson not as an end in itself but as window to the
broader and greater understanding of this contemporary
world.”

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Module 3 Movement and Sustainability

LESSON 3: Environmental Crisis and

Sustainable Development

Objectives
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
 Discuss the origins and manifestations of global environmental crises.
 Relate everyday encounters with pollution, global warming,
desertification, ozone depletion, and many others with a larger picture
of environmental degradation.
 Examine the policies and programs of governments around the world
that address the environmental crisis.

Introduction
Hello! Welcome to lesson 3. How are you today? In this lesson, we will
delve into environment which is a combination of all natural resources both
living and non-living that plants and animals depend on for their living.
However, we cannot deny the fact that environmental crisis is one of the
cancerous problems faced by people because it has resulted in the depletion of
the ozone layer and development of the “greenhouse effect”. As a result, there
is the destruction of habitats for native species, discharge of polluting
substances into the environment and emission of greenhouse gases into the
atmosphere resulting in climatic change.
So, let’s take a look now and have a productive learning!

Activity
Activity

If you live in Metropolitan Manila and travel to school (or to work) everyday, the
moment you step out of your home, you are already exposed to the most serious problem
humanity faces today: the deteriorating state of the environment. As you walk out of the
gate, the fetid smell of uncollected garbage hits you and you go near the trash bin, curious
about what is causing the smell. You see rotting vegetables, a dead rat, and a bunch of
what not packed in a plastic. These three “wastes” are already indicative of some
environmental problems – the vegetables ought to be added to a added to a compost pile;
the rat either buried or burned (to also get rid of the lice that might jump into the hair of
the children playing nearby); and the plastics washed and recycled because, unlike the
other two wastes, it cannot decompose.
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 You hop on the first bus and as it approaches Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA), the traffic
slows down considerably. It is the normal Manila morning traffic where, as the joke goes, the
turtle can outpace even the fastest of motor vehicles. You look out of the window and see the
smoke coming out of diesel vehicles, and as you lift your head up to the sky, you see nothing but
smog, courtesy of the cars and buses, as well as the coal plant and several industrial sites located
alongside the Pasig River. You notice the oil spots on the river, not to mention the tons of
effluents (human and non-human wastes) floating alongside each other. In the city you live in,
there is a dying river, an increasingly poisonous sky, an enormous amount of waste, and a
declining quality of life.
It is at this point that you recognize the ecological crisis happening around you, and how
the deterioration of the environment has destabilized populations and species, raising the specter
of extinction for some and a lesser quality of life for the survivors and their offspring.

Are you familiar with sights

like this?

Write your insight about this on the space provided.

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
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_____________________________________________________________________
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Analysis

What are the major environmental problems you are exposed to? Write at
least 2.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________

How are those major problems listed above global?

__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________

Abstraction

The World’s Leading Environmental Problems

The Conserve Energy Future website lists the following environmental
challenges that the world faces today.
1. The depredation caused by industrial and transportation toxins and
plastic in the ground; the defiling of the sea, rivers, and water beds
by oil spills and acid rain’ the dumping of urban waste.
2. Changes in global weather patterns (flash floods, extreme
snowstorms, and the spread of deserts) and the surge in ocean and
land temperatures leading to a rise in sea levels (as the polar ice caps
melt because of the weather), plus the flooding of many lowland
areas across the world.
3. Overpopulation (see Lesson 9)
4. The exhaustion of the world’s natural non-renewable resources from
oil reserves to minerals to potable water.

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 5. A waste disposal catastrophe due to the excessive amount of waste
(from plastic to food packages to electronic waste) unloaded by
communities in landfills as well as on the ocean; and the dumping
of nuclear waste.
6. The destruction of million-year-old ecosystems and the loss of
biodiversity (destruction of the coral reefs and massive
deforestation) that have led to the extinction of particular species and
the decline in the number of others.
7. The reduction of oxygen and the increase in carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere because of deforestation, resulting in the rise in ocean
acidity by as much as 150% in the last 250 years.
8. The depletion of the ozone layer protecting the planet from the sun’s
deadly ultraviolet rays due to chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in the
atmosphere.
9. Deadly acid rain as a result of fossil fuel combustion, toxic
chemicals from erupting volcanoes, and the massive rotting
vegetables filling up garbage dumps or left on the streets.
10. Water pollution arising from industrial and community waste
residues seeping into underground water tables, rivers, and seas.
11. Urban sprawls that continue to expand as a city turns into a
megalopolis, destroying farmlands, increasing traffic gridlock, and
making smog cloud a permanent urban fixture (see Lesson 8)
12. Pandemics and other threats to public health arising from wastes
mixing with drinking water, polluted environments that become
breeding grounds for mosquitoes and disease-carrying rodents and
pollution.
13. A radical alteration of food systems because of genetic
modifications in food production.

Many of these problems are caused by natural changes. Volcanic

eruptions release toxins in the atmosphere and lower the world’s temperature.
The US Geological Survey measured the gas emissions from the active Kilauea
volcano in Hawaii and concluded “that Kilauea has been releasing more than
twice the amount of noxious sulfur dioxide gas (SO2) as the single dirtiest power
plant on the United States mainland. The 15 million tons of sulfur dioxide that
were released when Mount Pinatubo erupted on June 15, 2001 created a “hazy
layer of aerosol particles composed primarily of sulfuric acid droplets” that
brought down the average global temperature by 0.6 degrees Celsius for the next
15 months. Volcanologists at the University of Hawaii added that Pinatubo had
released “15 to 20 megaton… of [sulfur dioxide] into the stratosphere… to
offset the present global warming trends and severely impact the ozone budget.
Man-made Pollution
Humans exacerbate other natural environmental problems. In Saudi Arabia,
sandstorms combined with combustion exhaust from traffic and industrial waste has

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lead the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare Riyadh as one of the most
polluted cities in the world. It is this “human contribution” that has become an
immediate cause of worry. Coal fumes coming out of industries and settling down in
surrounding areas contaminated 20% of China’s soil, with the rice lands in Hunan and
Zhuzhou found to have heavy metals from the mines, threatening the food supply.
Greenpeace India reported that in 2015, air pollution in the country was at its
worst, aggravated by the Indian government’s inadequate monitoring system (there are
only 17 national air quality networks covering 89 cities across the continent!).
furthermore, 94% of Nigeria’s population is exposed to air pollution that the WHO
warned as reaching dangerous levels, while Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, is the
7th most polluted city in the world. The emission of aerosols and other gases from car
exhaust, burning of wood or garbage, indoor-cooking, and diesel-fueled electric
generators, and petrochemical plants are projected to quadruple by 2030.
Waste coming out of coal, copper, and gold mines flowing out into the rivers
and oceans is destroying sea life or permeating the bodies of those which survived with
poison (mercury in tuna, prominently). The biggest copper mine in Malanjkhand in
India discharges high levels of toxic heavy metals into water streams, while in China,
the “tailings” from the operations of the Shanxi Maanqiao Ecological Mining Ltd.,
producing 12,000 tons of gold per year, “have caused pollution and safety problems.”
Conditions in China have become very critical as the “toxic by-products of production
processes… are being produced much more rapidly than the Earth can absorb.”
Meanwhile, for over a century, coal mines in West Virginia have pumped “chemical-
laden wastewater directly into the ground, where it can leech into the water table and
turn what had been drinkable…water into a poisonous cocktail of chemicals.” The
system “goes back generation and could soon render much of the state’s water
undrinkable.”
Pollution in West Africa has affected “the atmospheric circulation system that
controls everything from wind and temperature to rainfall across huge swathes of the
region.” The Asian monsoon, in turn, had become the transport of polluted air into the
stratosphere, and scientists are now linking Pacific storms to the spread of pollution in
Asia. Aerosol is tagged the culprit in changing rainfall patterns in Asia and the Atlantic
Ocean. These climatic disruptions have similarly caused drought all over Asia and
Africa and accelerated the pace of desertification in certain areas. Twenty years ago,
there were over 50,000 rivers in China. In 2013, as a result of climate change,
uncontrolled urban growth, and rapid industrialization, 28,000 of these rivers had
disappeared.
People’s health has been severely compromised. An archived article in the
journal Scientific American blamed the pollution for “contributing to more than half a
million premature deaths each year at the cost of hundreds of billions od dollars.” The
International Agency for Research on Cancer blamed air pollution for 223,000 lung
cancer deaths in 2010. In Indonesia and Malaysia, the link between forest fires and
mortality had been well-established. The aforementioned coal mining in West Virginia
(mentioned above) has also made people sick, some with “rare cancers, little kids with

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kidney stones [and] premature deaths,” and children born with congenital disabilities
and adults having shorter life expectancy.
It has been the poor who are most severely affected by these environmental
problems. Their low income and poverty already put them at a disadvantage by not
having the resources to afford good health care, to live in unpolluted areas, to eat
healthy food, etc. In the United States, a Yale University research team studying areas
with high levels of pollution observed that the “greater the concentrations Hispanics,
Asians, African-Americans, or poor residents in an area, the more likely that dangerous
compounds such as vanadium, nitrates, and zinc are in the mix of fine particles they
breathe. In India, studies on adults health revealed that 46% in Delhi and 56% of in
Calcutta have “impaired lung function” due to air pollution. In China, the toxicity of
the soil has raised concerns over food security and the health of the most vulnerable,
especially the peasant communities and those living in factory cities. In 2006, 160, acres
of land in Xinma, China was badly poisoned by cadmium. Two people died and 150
were known to be poisoned; the entire village was abandoned. Hongkong faces the
same problem.
In Metropolitan Manila, 37% (4 million people) of the population live in slum
communities, areas where the effects of urban environmental problems and threats of
climate change are also most pronounced… due to their hazardous location, poor air
pollution and solid waste management, weak disaster risk management, and limiting
coping strategies of households.” Marife Ballesteros concludes that this unhealthy
environment “deepens poverty, increases the vulnerability of both the poor and non-
poor living in slums, and excludes the slum poor from growth.
One of the major ironies of urban pollution is that the necessities that the poor
has access to are also the sources of the problem. The main workhorse of the public
transport system is the bus. However, because it runs mainly on diesel fuel, it is now
considered “one of the largest contributors to environmental pollution problems
worldwide.” This problem is expected to worsen as the middle classes and the elites
buy more cars and as the road system are improved to give people more chance to travel.
The other mode of transportation that the poor can afford is motorbike (also
called the two – and three wheeled vehicles). According to the Centre for Science and
Environment in Delhi, India, “two-wheelers form a staggering 75%-80% of the traffic
in most Asian cities.” Motorbikes burn oil and gasoline and “emit more smoke, carbon
monoxide, hydrocarbons, and particulate matter than the gas-only four-stroke engines
found in newer motorcycles. Finally, adding to this predicament is the proliferation of
diesel-run cars. These vehicles usually command a lower price because of their
durability and low operating cost, and hence affordable to the middle class. However,
they also release four times the toxic pollution as the buses.
“Catching Up”
These massive environmental problems are difficult to resolve because
governments believe that for their countries to become fully developed, they must be
industrialized, urbanized and inhabited by a robust middle class with access to the best
of modern amenities. A developed society, accordingly, must also have provisions for

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the poor-jobs in the industrial sector, public transport system, and cheap food. Food
depends on a country’s free trade with other food producers. It also relies on a
“modernized” agricultural sector in which toxic technologies (such as fertilizers or
pesticides) and modified crops (e.g.,high-yielding varieties of rice) ensure maximized
productivity.
The model of this ideal modern society is the United States, which, until the
1970’s, was a global economic power, with a middle class that was the envy of the
world. The United States, however, did not reach this high point without serious
environmental consequences. To this very day, it is “the worst polluter in the history
of the world,” responsible for the 27% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. 60%
of the carbon emission comes from cars and other vehicles plying American highways
and roads, the rest from smoke and soot from coal factories, forest fires, as well as the
methane released by farms and breakdown of organic matter, paint, aerosol, and dust.
These ecological consequences , however, are far from the mind of countries
like China, India, and Indonesia, which are now in the midst of a frenzied effort to
achieve and sustain economic growth to catch up with the West. In the “desire to
develop and improve the standard of living of their citizens, these countries will opt for
the goals of economic growth and cheap energy,” which, inturn, would “encourage
energy over-consumption, waste, and inefficiency and also fuel environmental
pollution. With their industrial sector still having a small share of the national wealth,
these countries will be using first their natural resources like coal, oil, forest and
agricultural products, and minerals to generate a national kitty that could be invested in
industrialization.
These “extractive” economies, however, are “terminal” economies. Their
resources, which will be eventually depleted, are also sources of pollution. In Nigeria,
Niger Delta oil companies have “caused substantial and, water, and air pollution.”
Nigeria is caught in a bind. If it wants “to maintain its current economic growth path
and sustain its drive for poverty reduction, (the very polluting) oil exploration and
production will continue to be a dominant economic activity. If the United States lets
its environment suffer to achieve modernity and improve the lives of its people,
developing countries see no reason, therefore, why they could not sacrifice the
environment in the name of progress.
This issue begs the question: How is environmental sustainability ensured
while simultaneously addressing the development needs of poor countries?
Climate Change
Governments have their own environmental problems to deal with, but these
states’ ecological concerns become worldwide due to global warming, which
transcends national boundaries. Global warming is the result of billion tons of carbon
dioxide (coming from coal-burning power plants and transportation), various air
pollutants, and other gases accumulating in the atmosphere. These pollutants trap the
sun’s radiation causing the warming of the earth’s surface. With the current amount of
carbon dioxide and other gases accumulating in the atmosphere. These pollutant’s trap
the sun’s radiation causing the warming of the earth’s surface. With the current amount

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of carbon dioxide and other gases, this “greenhouse effect” has sped up the rise in the
world temperature. There is now a consensus that the global temperature has risen at a
faster rate in the last 50 years and it continues to go up despite efforts by climate change
deniers that the world had cooled off in and around 1998.
The greenhouse effect is responsible for recurring heat waves and long droughts
in certain places, as well as for heavier rainfall and devastating hurricanes and typhoons
in others. Until recently, California had experienced its worst water shortage in 1,200
years due to global warming. This changed recently when storms brought rain in the
drought-stricken areas. The result, however, is that the state is having some of its worst
flashfloods in the 21st century. In India and Southeast Asia, global warming altered the
summer monsoon patterns, leading to intermittent flooding that seriously affected food
production an consumption as well as infrastructure networks. Category 4 or 5
typhoons, like the Super Typhoon Haiyan that hit the central Philippines in 2013, had
“doubled and even tripled in some areas of the (Southeast Asian) basin. Scientists
claims that there will be more (of such) typhoons in the coming years. In the eastern
United States, the number of storms had also gone up, with Hurricane Katrina (2005)
and Hurricane Sandy (2012) being the worst.
Glaciers are melting every year since 2002, with Antarctica losing 134 billion
metric of ice. There is coastal flooding not only in the United States eastern seaboard
but also in the Gulf of Mexico. Coral reefs in the Australian Great Barrier Reef are
dying, and the production capacities of farms and fisheries have been affected. Flooding
has allowed more breeding grounds for disease carriers like the Aedes aegypti mosquito
and the cholera bacteria.
Since human-made climate change threatens the entire world, it is possibly the
greatest present risk to humankind.
Combating Global Warming
More countries are now recognizing the perils of global warmimg. In 1997, 192
countries signed the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gases, following the 1992
United Nations Earth Summit where a Framework Convention for Climate Change was
finalized. The protocol set targets but left it to the individual countries to determine how
best they would achieve these goals. While some countries have made the necessary
move to reduce their contribution to global warming, the United States – the biggest
polluter in the world – is not joining the effort. Developing countries lack the funds to
implement the protocol’s guidelines as many of them need international aid to get things
moving. A 2010 World Bank report thus concluded that the protocol only had a slight
impact on reducing global emissions, in part because of the non-binding nature of the
agreement.
The follow-up treaty to the Kyoto Protocol is the Paris Accord negotiated by
195 countries in December of 2015. It seeks to limit the increase in the global average
temperature based on targeted goals as recommended by scientists. Unlike the Kyoto
Protocol which has predetermined CO2 emission limits per country, the Paris Accord
provides more leeway for countries to decide on their national targets. It largely passed

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as international legislation because it emphasizes consensus-building, but it is not clear
whether this agreement will have any more success than the Kyoto Protocol.
Social movements, however, have had better success working together, with
some pressure on their governments to regulate global warming. In South Africa,
communities engage in environmental activism to pressure industries to reduce
emissions and to lobby parliament for the passage of pro-environment laws. Across the
Atlantic, El Salvador, local officials and grassroots organizations from 1,000
communities push for crop diversification, a reduction of industrial sugar cane
production, the protection of endangered sea species from the devastating effects of
commercial fishing, the preservation of lowlands being eroded by deforestation up in
rivers and inconsistent release of water from a nearby dam. Universities also partner
with governments in producing attainable programs of controlling pollution. The
University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute sent teams to India to work with
government offices, businesses, and communities in coming up with viable ground-
level projects that “strike a balance between urgently needed economic growth and
improved air quality.”
When the local alliances between the state, schools, and communities are
replicated at the national level, the success becomes doubly significant. In Japan,
population pressure forced the government to work with civil society groups, academia,
and political parties to get the parliament to pass “ a blizzard of laws – 14 passed at
once – in what became known as the Pollution Diet of 1970. These regulations did not
eliminate environmental problems, but today, Japan has some of the least polluted cities
in the world.
The imperative now is for everyone to set up these kinds of coalitions on a
global scale. For at this point, when government still hesitate in fully committing
themselves to fight pollution and when international organizations still lack the power
to enforce anti-pollution policies, social coalitions that bring in village associations,
academics, the media, local and national governments, and even international aid
agencies together may be the only way to reverse this worsening situation.
Conclusion
Perhaps no issue forces people to think about their role as citizens of the world
than environmental degradation. Every person, regardless of his/her race, nation, or
creed, belongs to the same world. When one looks at an image of the earth, he/she will
realize that, he/she belongs to one world - a world that is increasingly vulnerable. In the
fight against climate change, one cannot afford to simply care about his/her own
backyard. The CO2 emitted in one country may have severe effects on the climate of
another. There is no choice but to find global solutions to this global problem.

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 Application

Go around your neighborhood and list the different kinds of pollutants that you see.
Widen your observation by looking at the areas surrounding your neighborhood.

 Create a video that shows your response to the call of being a responsible citizen
to our environment. Your theme could focus on the Nature Conservancy, Clean Water
Action, solid waste management, clean air act .

Wonderful! Keep up the good work! You have finished lesson 3. This
lesson helps us to widely open our eyes on what are environmental problems we’re facing
and what are the severe effects it already offered to humans and environment. Thus, finding
global solutions to this global problem is badly needed. Congratulations! You are done with
this module YEHEY!!!

“Treat each lesson not as an end in itself but as window to the broader phenomenon of
globalization”

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