ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES OF GLOBALIZATION Resource development Urbanization International Agreements

RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT AND THE OIL INDUSTRY Environmental Implications of Canada’s oil sands rush –Each day 600 million cubic feet of natural gas is used to produce oil sands –Producing an barrel of oil from the oil sands produces three times the level of greenhouse gases of conventional oil –Oil producers have licenses to divert 349 million m3 of Water per year from the Athabasca River –According to Suncor’s own records, it has reclaimed only 9% of the land it has developed since 1967 –Areas of boreal forest leased for development of deep oil sands development 35,680 km2 –

RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT AND THE OIL INDUSTRY Energy related royalties make up one third of all revenue collected by the provincial government demand for fossil fuels grows demand for fossil fuels grows

RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT IN LESS DEVELOPED COUNTRIES Most European countries harvested all easy to access timber in the 1990s So what right do developed countries have in trying to limit resource development in under developed nations Today nations like Brazil and Borneo are under intense pressure to leave their forests pristine

URBANIZATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT By 2015 only 20% of the population in the world’s most developed regions will not be urbanized During this same period a 17% increase in urbanization is expected in the less developed regions Urban sprawl takes over food producing areas tch?v=lm7N4PlQiXc tch?v=lm7N4PlQiXc h?v=7IN0BG39BEA h?v=7IN0BG39BEA

URBANIZATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT

URBANIZATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT

ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION The Mackenzie River Pipeline is a proposal to run a 1300 km from the South Beaufort Sea though the Northwest Territories to Alberta The project will take three years to complete at a cost of over $7 billion The idea for the project dates back to the late 1970s, but an investigation by Chief Justice Thomas Berger called for a 10 year moratorium on development in order to settle land claims In 2002 the deal was finalized that would give Aboriginal peoples 1/3 ownership in the pipeline

INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS In 1982 the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Sea gave all countries the right to a 200 mile/320 km exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in which they alone could fish In 1995 a second agreement called the UN Agreement on Straddling and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks addressed the following issues –Fishing quotas in international waters –Sustainability and conservation –Each countries right to protect it EEZ, and legal means of enforcing the agreement

INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS Another international agreement the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITIES) is designed to draw attention to and discourage people from capturing and trading endangered plants and animals The Kyoto Protocol is an example of an international agreement aimed at reducing greenhouse gases More than 150 nations have signed Kyoto Many countries have backed away because the structure of the deal puts the developed nations as responsible for the bulk of the reductions w w

ENDANGERED SPECIES