Global Issues

Issues that affect us all. The key characteristics of global issues are the following:

  1. The issue has a significant impact on a large number of people across national boundaries – it is transnational in scope and pays no heed to borders.
  2. The issue is beyond the capability of any one nation to resolve.
  3. The issue is interconnected with other global issues (for example, global capitalism with energy use, and both with climate change).
  4. Resolving the issue requires a global regulatory approach.
  5. The issue is a social or economic issue of global concern (such as global poverty) rather than a military aspect.
  6. The issue is or has been the subject of a major UN declaration or conference.

A list of global issues:

  1. chemical plants, nuclear reactors and radioactive waste
  2. AIDS, SARS ("China sneezes and Toronto shuts down"), Avian flu
  3. global warming, deterioration of the ozone layer, acid rain and other pollution
  4. nuclear war, terrorism, cross border human trafficking, slavery and child sex trade
  5. poverty (because of the civil wars and instability it engenders) and inequality

From Thomas Homer-Dixon: The world's supply of cheap energy is tightening, and humankind's enormous output of greenhouse gases is disrupting the earth's climate. Together, these two constraints could eventually hobble global economic growth and cap the size of the global economy...The most important resource to consider in this situation is energy, because it is our economy's "master resource" - the one ingredient essential for every economic [and social] activity. Dixon shows how these trends extend out and converge to frightening scenarios in The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization