Globalization

​Learning Targets

• ​I can describe the cultural and intellectual integration of countries into the world economy through the development of television, satellites, and computers

• I can analyze global and political connections including multinational corporations, the United Nations, OPEC, and the World Trade Organization

• I can explain how governments cooperate through treaties and organizations to minimize the negative effects of human actions on the environment

Satellites

• ​Development of technology made it possible to spread information around the world easily and instantly

• What are satellites used for?

Television

• ​Television spreads information and art to large numbers of people simultaneously

• American and British programs broadcast internationally = English principle world language

• Diversity - telenovelas popular

• CNN's broadcast of the Persian Gulf War inspired international news versions

Computers

• ​Changed problem solving and processing capabilities

• Artists also provided with new tools for film, photography, music and writing

• Miniaturization made computers and other technologies made it more available to more people

• Internet allowed instant exchange of information

• E-commerce

Corporations

• ​Multinational corporations - agents of technological change

• Companies in industrialized countries have economic power to invest in mines and plantations in poorer countries

• Trade agreements - companies relocate

• Developing nations lower standards

UN Alphabet Soup

• ​1945 - United Nations created

• General Assembly - each member nation has one vote

• Security Council - 10 rotating members and 5 permanent members

• WHO - fights disease

• FAO - guards against food scarcity

• UNICEF - protects children

• UNESCO - education, science, culture

Oil

• ​1951 - Iraq nationalized oil industry

• 1960 - oil countries in Middle East and Latin America formed OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries)

• OPEC has considerable political and economic power

• 1973 - no oil for support of Israel in Yom Kippur War

Trade

• ​WTO - facilitated free and reliable trade around the world

• 100 nations joined in 1995

• Designed to reduce trade barriers and enforce trade agreements

• Free trade not universally beneficial

• 2003 disagreement - left poorer nations at a disadvantage

Environment

• ​Industrialization plundered natural resources and polluted the environment

• Strip mines ruined land, pesticides destroyed soil, water, and insects, oil spills killed marine life, air pollution led to acid rain

• 1984 - pesticide plant in India - 3,500

• 1986 - Chernobyl

• 1997 - Kyoto Protocol - 100 nations - United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

• US is not part of the Kyoto Protocol