Economics of Happiness (Part 2)

3. Globalization Wastes Natural Resources
In addition to its many social and psychological costs, the globalized consumer culture results in more and more of nature being drawn into the production of unneeded, disposable, and frequently toxic commodities.  Consumerism is at dramatically unsustainable levels in the industrialized industrialized societies, and yet globalization is foisting the same pattern across the world, expanding the exploitation of nature and the outpost of harmful waste.

“Mother Earth has enough for the healthy appetites of her children and something extra for rare cases of abnormality.  But she has not nearly enough for the sudden growth of a whole world of spoilt and pampered children.”
                                      -Rabindranath Tagore

Here's  a short video to get you thinking:

This is a great animated film that will help you learn more about the ecological impacts of consumerism.

Now check out this movie trailer:

4. Globalization Accelerates Climate Change
“Americans import Danish sugar cookies, and Danes import American sugar cookies. Exchanging recipes would surely be more efficient."
                                                                      -Herman Daly, ecological economist

The Economics of Happiness argues that economic globalization accelerates climate change, one of the most significant global environmental challenges of our time.  The situation confronting us is dire: to stabilize the climate at even the uppermost limit before irreversible "tipping points" are reached will require massive reductions of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Watch this video for a brief history lesson on our relationship with fossil fuels.

Check out this interesting time-lapse of CO2 emissions:

There is a new phenomenon in the global arena called “Climate Refugees”.  A climate refugee is a person displaced by climatically induced environmental disasters.  Such disasters result from incremental and rapid ecological change, resulting in increased droughts, desertification, sea level rise, and the more frequent occurrence of extreme weather events such as hurricanes, cyclones, fires, mass flooding and tornadoes.  All this is causing mass global migration and border conflicts.

MAKE-UP ASSIGNMENT

If you were gone when we watched these clips in class you'll need to watch them and for write about two things you learned from each of the videos and why you think they're important.