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Review Of Open World: The Truth About Globalization By Phillipe Legrain

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With global temperatures increasing simultaneously with increased liberation of cross-border trade, one cannot help but question whether the two are interrelated. Phillipe LeGrain, author of ‘Open World: The Truth about Globalization’, states that the world consumes roughly 70 percent more energy than three decades ago with consumption steadily increasing. Critics of globalization assert that government reduction of trade barriers are the main culprit behind global warming, at first glance this may seem entirely plausible but it is important to delve into the details to see the real reasons, especially considering the fact that trade barriers are continuously decreasing. LeGrain maintains the belief that globalization and environmental …show more content…

After analyzing the forestry problem described earlier, the problems are clearly linked domestic government policy and not only the giant multinational corporations as Ellwood has posited. The incentive for corporations to conduct cross-border trade is not the unperturbed environmental laws, it is the comparative advantage they would gain from cheap labor and resources. LeGrain advances the argument that approximately 80% of polluting industries are in industrial nations, such as America where Greenpeace affirms that oil corporations receive billions of dollars in subsidies for their production purposes which does the most environmental damage that affects the rest of the world with it. Initiatives should be started to reduce the Global South’s dependency on the Global North because it is their high debt-GDP ratios which keep the prices of natural resources (often tied to their currency) low enabling large consumption. There is a clear incentive for the international community to reduce the Global South’s dependency because it is widely agreed that as the GDP per capita of a nation increases the residents are able to afford environmental remediation products and

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