1. Environment

2. Ecology can be defined as the branch of biology that deals with the relations between living organisms and their environment.
Ecology holds that we can never do (only) one thing in a natural environment since actions often have unintended consequences.
Globalization process played a significant role within the insertion of the “ecology” term into the international community’s agenda

3. Environmental Security
Threats to global life systems such as global warming, ozone depletion, deforestation are just as important as the threat of nuclear catastrophe.
States cooperate with IGOs and NGOs to cope with environmental challenges

4. Environmental issues first entered the international agenda in the 19thC
became a major focus of international politics from the 1960s as a result of pollution
Industrialization, population growth, exploitation of natural resources

5. Global Commons
Resources shared by the whole of the international community
Some environmental problems are fundamentally global or transnational
Some problems are local in scale but are experienced in a variety of places
Processes linked to broader socio-economic-political issues

6. Environmental degradation can be summarized as following;
1. Greenhouse-Induced Global Warming
The great majority of scientists who have studied the problem of “global warming” believe that human activities, particularly those involved with the burning of fossil fuels, are altering the world’s climate.
Greenhouse gases (such as carbon-dioxide and other substances released from burning fossil fuels) prevent atmosphere to reflect excessive energy coming from the outer space, especially from the sun. Automatically, energy that is trapped within the atmosphere warms up the earth.

7. 2. Ozone Depletion
Next to the earth’s atmosphere, ozone layer acts as a filter for harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun. A second layer of ozone has been created by the industrial revolution.
Chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), used in manufacturing furnitures, refrigerators, and air conditioners, are entering the atmosphere and will remain there for decades.
In 1985, scientists discovered a hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica. In 1987, 154 states signed Montreal Protocol calling for the elimination of the production of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

8. Ozone Depletion

10. Atmospheric Pollution
Poor air quality in many of the world’s cities affects people’s health. The Pollutions Standards Index is used to measure the pollutants in the air.
The World Health Organization and the World Bank estimate that 2.7 million people die each year as a result of air pollution.

11. 4. Loss of Agricultural Land, Desertification, and Erosion
In the lexicon of ecology, the carrying capacity of the earth could be increased to feed the world’s people. Unfortunately, agricultural land is finite, and it is decreasing due to both natural and human-made causes.
5. Deforestation
Economic development indirectly creates some implications on forests. Local owners of forest resources want to capitalize on their holdings, and they sometimes ignore the future effects (i.e. %15 of Brazilian rain forests vanished).

12. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Often the international debate concerning environmental degradation and protection turns into a fruitless debate between those from advanced-industrial states who point their fingers at developing countries, accusing them for not doing enough to limit the causes of environmental degradation,
and those from developing countries who argue that concern about the environment is a luxury of rich countries since developing countries are concerned with the survival of their states and citizens.

13. Global Pollution Today

14. Global Pollution 19th C

15. Solutions
Exploit and move on
Privatization
Collective governance

16. Tragedy of the Commons

18. Sustainable Development
The Brundtland Commission
Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the needs of the future.

19. Kyoto Protocol 1997
Reduce carbon emissions primarily from industrialized states
Obstacles
AOSIS promoted 20% reduction
OPEC argued against major cuts
EU, US, Australia, Canada, Japan 5-10%
Russia Eastern Europe fear cuts limit development
Agreement
US, EU, Japan – 8-6% reduction
Russia, Ukraine, keep emissions at 1990 leves
Australia, Norway, Iceland negotiate limited reduction

20. Flexibility Mechanisms
Joint implementation
States claim emissions credit for shared initiatives
Emissions Trading
States can purchase emissions credit from other states
Clean Development
Emissions credit for clean development projects