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Issues Global Climate
Contemporary Political Issues
Central question: What constitutes a global issue?
Global issues are the talk of the day nowadays, no matter where you are in the world. On some occasions it may be at a high-profile conference with political leaders, whilst on others it may be simply people trying to figure out how to survive. Humanity seems to be facing more different global issues than ever before. But how different are all these issues really? To what extent are they interrelated and how do they affect each other? The objective of this paper is to define what constitutes a global issue, and to test this ‘definition’ against an example of the present reality.
So when is something considered a global issue, and when is it not? Even though almost anyone can probably name at least one or two global issues – some examples that come to mind easily are poverty, conflict, health, food and climate – there is no general agreement on this. There are however certain characteristics that global issues have in common, and as such may be seen as some very basic kind of definition.
You can get expert help with your essays right now. Find out more...First of all it has to have a considerable impact on large numbers of people. In addition the issue should affect people in different countries and there should be interconnection between a certain global issue and other global issues. Another characteristic of a global issue is the fact that it requires an effort by different countries in order to resolve it. (Bhargava, 2005) And finally global issues tend to be persistent and long-term.
The aforementioned characteristic of interconnection needs some explanation. What it comes down to is that if you change something about a certain global issue, it is bound to affect other global issues in some way as well. An example: One starts by looking at the world population and notices that it is growing explosively. The global issue is obviously population growth. When one then continues to look at the bigger picture, it will become clear that as a result of the growing population the total consumption increases.
This will lead to a decline in resources which will then result in migration: in order to make sure they have enough resources to survive, people move to another place. This in its turn can lead to poverty and/or scarcity in that place which has a certain effect on the economy, which then goes on to affect the environment. This example is, though a definite possibility, only a rather simplified version of the reality; everything seems to be connected with each other.
This observation leads to an important characteristic of how to handle global issues: they need to be dealt with on multiple levels. (Bhargava, 2005) In order to create a decent long-term solution it is necessary that one looks not only at one global issue in particular, but also takes into consideration what kind of effects may be created for other global issues when changing something about that particular issue where one started.
In order to get a more concrete picture it is useful to have a look at a real, current global issue. These days the newspapers are full of the current rising food prices and its effect on the global food crisis. To provide some figures about the issue:
854 million people have not enough to eat, 820 million of them live in the developing countries; every day 25,000 people die as a result of hunger and poverty; more than 60% of the hungry are women; the number of people that suffer from chronic hunger increases annually with 4 million on average. (World Food Programme)
In the period of time from March 2007 till March 2008 the price of corn has increased by 31%; rice has become 74% more expensive, soya has gone up 87% and wheat has seen the most explosive price rise with an extraordinary 130%. (BBC, 2008) As a result of all this, food riots have broken out in Africa, as well as consumer protests in Europe and panic in countries that depend greatly on the import of food. (Mortished, 2008) This goes to show right away the transnational character of the issue: multiple continents are affected and as such, involved.
The logical question to ask is what is causing the price rises, and what is being done in order to improve the situation? To begin with the first: many different factors are being mentioned to play a role in the issue. First of all on the supply side there is less food production as a result of unfavourable weather circumstances. Second, prices have gone up as global stock levels have diminished while demand has increased. In addition fuel prices have skyrocketed, which in its turn caused important resources such as fertiliser to become more expensive as well. On the demand side the arising market for biofuels has become a new factor of demand for agricultural products that are used to feed people, such as sugar, maize, oilseeds and palm oil.
There are the financial investors, who see a lucrative business opportunity because of the scarcity, and as such they drive up prices. In addition there are subsidies in place that change the market unnaturally and as such cause less supply. In addition people keep mentioning factors such as drought, high fuel prices, poor crops, explosive demand, changing diets etc. (Cassidy, 2008)There is one thing that the experts have in common as far as their opinions are concerned: all the different causes are interconnected. (Cassidy, 2008)
Find out how our expert essay writers can help you with your work...The second question is not all that easy to answer either; one has to look at both short-term and long-term actions. Short-term actions are needed to help improve the situation on the spot, but will definitely not be enough to really help solve the problem. In order to do that, a more structural approach will be necessary on multiple levels. Short-term actions involve at this time several prosperous nations that have donated extra money and food.
As far as the long-term action goes, an important role is played by several international organisations on food. First of all there is the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). This organisation, founded in 1945, is a joined initiative by the member states of the UN. It functions for a large part on a political level, trying to defeat hunger. FAO functions as a neutral forum where all nations can meet for negotiation debate on food issues. In addition to that FAO is a place to go for knowledge and information about the topic. The organisation aims to help countries modernise and improve agriculture, forestry and fishery to ensure ‘good nutrition for all’. (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations)
Another important United Nations subdivision that has a more pragmatic approach is the World Food Program (WFP), the official UN food aid agency. It was created in 1963 and was originally supposed to last for only three years, but it ended up becoming a permanent organisation.(World Food Programme) The objective of this program is to provide food to people that are needy of it anywhere in the world. This can be on a long-term basis in countries where there is a long tradition of food shortages, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, but also on a short-term basis in places where there is a temporary but severe shortage of food. Examples of this are the 2004 tsunami in South-East Asia and the Pakistan earthquake in 2005. (World Food Programme)
In addition to these UN parts there are numerous other initiatives all over the world that have made it their mission to fight hunger in one way or another.
Bibliography
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BBC. (2008, June 4). UN increases food aid by $1.2bn. Retrieved June 4, 2008, from BBC News | Europe: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7435265.stm
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