Week 6 Assignment Reading Response: Assessing Globalization Benefits and Drawbacks of Trade and Integration (Final)

In Kohut and Wike’s Paper "Assessing Globalization, Benefits and Drawbacks of Trade and Integration", the authors recognize both the economic benefits of globalization as well as other negative drawbacks such as income disparity in countries, environmental degradation, and loss of tradition.

The paper states that "Europeans also expressed high levels of concern for the environment, particularly in Spain (70 percent) and France (68 percent)" showing the negative impacts of globalization caused on the environment. In contrary, globalization does not only pose negative threats to the environment. In fact, globalization brings about better economies around the world. With better economies, countries have more income to engage in research and development activities to create better technologies for the environment. Some good examples of these technologies include air filters and catalytic converters in cars which are environmentally friendly. These technologies could also be spread to the rest of the world through the forces of globalization. Professor Kahn from the University of California, Los Angeles, states that, as America’s economy progressed, smog levels in California decreased over time due to better equipment used in industries.

Hence, globalization may not be a devil to the environment after all. As it takes place, economies improve and people think of better ways to improve the environment. This can be seen from the decrease in pollution levels in California.

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