U.N.Presentation-ThreatstotheGlobalEnvironment.pptxU.N Millennium Development Goals
Current Threats to the Global Environment
The U.N. Millennium Development Goals
The United Nations (U.N) is the World’s largest intergovernmental organization with a membership made up of 193 sovereign countries each with equal representation in the General Assembly. (United Nations, United Nations 70th Anniversary, 2015)
This membership is characterized by states of all status which means it includes developed and developing sovereigns.
The contrast between the status of these states has created a conflict in the prioritization of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals agenda. This presentation is made in attempt to illustrate the focal global issues that should be addressed. (United Nations, United Nations 70th Anniversary, 2015)
Key Global Issues
The core global issues that impact the global environment have been selected on close observance of their impact and in effort to address the key global issues that affect both developed and developing sovereigns.
These four principal global issues are:
Civil War
Poor Health of Entire Populations
Climate Change
Globalization
Civil Wars
As early as the 90s, conflicts have been resolved through UN support and it remains a core principle of the UN objectives and the foundation of the Security Council. (Krieger, 2003)
The UN is built upon the maintenance of peace and the assurance of security to the citizens of sovereigns from the effects of wars. This validates the prioritization of addressing Civil Wars as it also manages to satisfy the objectives and goals of the UN and its core principles.
Civil wars found various other global complications such as overpopulation by involvement of refugees, mass migrations, genocides, etc. (Gelder, 2013)
Civil Wars
A number of ongoing civil wars (represented in Figure 1.0.) are the Civil Wars in South Sudan (since 2013), Afghanistan (1978), and the infamous Syrian Civil War since 2011 to name a few.
The UN Security Council and the ICC face numerous obstacles in their function to bring the persons responsible for these cruelties and international war crimes. (Gelder, 2013)
The influence of the UN has been observed in recent examples that include the efforts in the Sierra Leone, Liberia, Burundi and Nepal conflicts. However, there still remains a huge need for more intervention to quell the wars that continue to rampage on.
Figure 1.0: Chart illustrating the History of and Ongoing Civil Wars in UN Member States. (United Nations, United Nations 70th Anniversary, 2015)
Poor Health of Entire Populations
The UN has had a leading role in tackling the challenges of health in the member states’ territories, usually effected through the World Health Organization system since 1948. The goal to provide good standards of health and promoting the best medical practices in the sovereigns that make up the UN has been a more challenging task to achieve in developing countries.
Developing countries in Africa, and some parts of Europe and Asia have been marked with epidemics such as Ebola outbreaks, or succumbing to treatable communicable diseases in tuberculosis, malaria etc.
Poor Health of Entire Populations
The UN has made efforts to address the issues of poor health standards in their member states through vital intervention provided through the World Health Organization. The global response to HIV/AIDS has recorded about 30 million averted cases of new infections. (United Nations, United Nations 70th Anniversary, 2015)
Despite efforts by the UN via WHO, epidemics caused by Ebola, Zika, HIV/AIDS, cancer, diabetes, malaria, tuberculosis and even nutrition deficiencies still remain prime issues on the UN agenda that require extreme and urgent attention. (United Nations, United Nations 70th Anniversary, 2015)
Figure 2.0: Chart illustrating the impact of malaria infections in different Continental regions. The UN membership of developing countries found in the African Continent suffer the most from poor health conditions. (United Nations, United Nations 70th Anniversary, 2015)
Climate Change
Climate change is one of the core challenges faced on the global scale with its effects experienced all over the world through flooding, weather irregularities, rising sea levels etc.
It has been observed that the high carbon-emitters do not showcase concern about the potential impacts of climate change with the U.S., which has the highest carbon emissions per capita, exhibiting fairly less interest in the climate change movement. Lower level emitters in Africa and Latin America often lead the campaigns that are concerned about the negative impacts of climate change. (United Nations, 2019)
Climate Change
Climate change has prompted the occurrence of a number of alarming global disasters ranging from severe weather patters and weather events to natural phenomenon disaster in droughts. Droughts lead the death toll in most developing countries with more than 31 UN member countries suffering the effects of global warming. (Wike, 2016)
Whilst developing countries suffer the death toll effects of climate change in global warming, it is the burden of developed countries to contribute more towards the correction of global environmental degradation. This follows the reasoning that the developed countries are the main contributors to global warming and pollution through toxic substances. (Wike, 2016)
Figure 3.0: Chart illustrating the impact of global change and future projections. (United Nations, 2019)
Globalization
Since the conception of the U.N. there has been a steady increase in the intergovernmental connections between international sovereigns. Intercultural communication and trade has been a cornerstone of global relations resulting into what we understand in modern day as globalization.
The effect of globalization has seen conflict borne of international trade treaties and deals, loss/ dilution of culture and immigration which causes overpopulation as a direct result. (Daily Chart, 2019)
The U.N. membership in the West has however began to turn away from the increasing effects and occurrence of globalization. This is in contrast to many of the membership of the U.N in Europe that advocates for opening borders more to influence globalization.
Globalization
In the chart given in Figure 4.0., there is observed that there is an advantage to be enjoyed by developing countries in the wake of globalization whilst the developed countries do not recover as many merits. (Daily Chart, 2019)
This issue is prioritized to address the complications caused by stagnation in developing countries where they frustrate the progress of international customs. There is also a need to foster international trade and mediate international trade deal conflicts.
It is also observed that globalization offers little merit to the incomes and productivity of the poor in advanced economies. (Daily Chart, 2019)
Figure 4.0: Chart illustrating the distribution gains from globalization showing gains are more substantial for less globalized rather than more globalized states. (Daily Chart, 2019)
References
Daily Chart. (2019). What the World thinks about Globalization. Retrieved from Daily Chart: https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2016/11/18/what-the-world-thinks-about-globalisation
Gelder, S. V. (2013, September 5). 6 Peaceful (and Legal) Alternatives to War in Syria. Retrieved from Huffpost: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/six-peaceful-and-legal-al_b_3876621
Krieger, D. (2003, February 28). Five Ways to Stop War. Retrieved from Nuclear Age Peace Foundation: https://www.wagingpeace.org/five-ways-to-stop-war/
Stylianou, N., Rodgers, L., Dunford, D., & Guibourg, C. (2019, April 18). Climate change: Where we are in seven charts and what you can do to help. Retrieved from BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46384067
United Nations. (2015). United Nations 70th Anniversary. Retrieved from un.org: https://www.un.org/un70/en/content/70ways/index.html
United Nations. (2019). Climate Change. Retrieved from un.org: http://www.un.org/climatechange/
Wike, R. (2016, April 18). What the world thinks about climate change in 7 charts. Retrieved from FacTank: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/04/18/what-the-world-thinks-about-climate-change-in-7-charts/
