Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Apocalypse now or never?
- 2 Global interdependencies: Basic tools and principles
- 3 For our children's children
- 4 Global house
- 5 Architecture of institutions
- 6 Change we must: Evolutionary concerns
- 7 Equity among nations?
- 8 Near horizons
- References
- Author index
- Subject index
4 - Global house
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Apocalypse now or never?
- 2 Global interdependencies: Basic tools and principles
- 3 For our children's children
- 4 Global house
- 5 Architecture of institutions
- 6 Change we must: Evolutionary concerns
- 7 Equity among nations?
- 8 Near horizons
- References
- Author index
- Subject index
Summary
In their desire to attract readers, the news media and popular magazines have characterized the world as besieged by a host of challenges from deteriorating environments, diminishing resources, spreading hostilities, expanding populations, increasing inequality, emerging plagues, and escalating terrorism. For environmental concerns, in particular, one is often left with the impression that seemingly different problems – ozone shield depletion, global warming, acid rain – stem from the same sources. Most people cannot answer whether ozone depletion is related or not to the global-warming problem. If all of these contingencies were due to the same source, then a single solution could serve as a panacea. Global challenges would be easy to address. Unfortunately, the world and its contingencies are far more complicated so that no panacea exists. Similarities are present among the environment crises, but crucial differences that influence the prognosis and the appropriate intervention, if any, are also present. Consider ozone depletion from chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) emissions and global warming from the release of greenhouse gases (GHGs). CFCs are an extremely efficient GHG that add to global warming, but, given their relatively small concentration in the atmosphere, the primary damage from CFCs is in terms of depleting the protective ozone layer. Other GHGs – CO2, methane, nitrous oxide – trap solar energy in the atmosphere, thereby heating the planet but without degrading the ozone shield. CFCs production and consumption are concentrated within relatively few countries, while GHG emissions are widespread, involving virtually every nation.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Global ChallengesAn Approach to Environmental, Political, and Economic Problems, pp. 84 - 141Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1997