Increasing global integration – economic, cultural, technological, environmental – has been a dominant process of the post-World War II epoch. This panel will explore globalization’s complex and contradictory consequences. On one hand, access to global markets, capital, and technology has brought growing material prosperity to billions of citizens of the Global South. From an international perspective, there is growing economic equality and a growing number of nations on a path toward democratization. On the other hand, hundreds of millions live with persistent hunger and poverty; nations are dependent on decisions of global corporations and vulnerable to international financial crises; critical resources are being depleted; pollution from agriculture, industry, and urbanization has soared; and fossil fuel-centered growth has escalated greenhouse gas emissions. We may share “One World,” but poor people in poor countries are most vulnerable to the effects of global warming and “weirding.”
Panelists:
- Contradictions of South Asian Development: Wealth, Poverty, Pollution – Rachel Sturman (History)
- Indonesian Deforestation: Global Institutions, Corporate Accountability, and Climate – Allen Springer (Government)
- The Plight of Arctic Peoples – Susan Kaplan (Arctic Studies)
- Is the Global Capitalist Order Just? Sustainable? – David Vail (emeritus Economics)
There will be a concurrent Arctic Museum exhibit of Inuit carvings reflecting the impacts of climate change.