ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
agri-industrial corporations and rich farmers, but generating few jobs. As
agri-business acquires the best quality land, poor farmers are forced to cul-
tivate low-quality, marginal land, contributing to soil erosion and habitat
destruction.
In practice, the dynamic and multifaceted complexity of globalisation sug-
geststhat it will have both positive and negative effects on the environment,
which is reflected in the existence, between these two polarised positions, of
many other perspectives, which neither wholly glorify nor vilify globalisa-
tion. Liberal institutionalists, for example, whilst generally regarding globali-
sation in a positive light, recognise that it will have some detrimental impact
on the environment. None the less, they believe that most major environ-
mental problems can be resolved through the institutions of global gover-
nance, notably international environmental regimes, but also the greening
of global economic institutions such as the World Bank and the WTO, and
theinfluence of regional supranational organisations such as the EU and
NAFTA. Mol ( 2003 )offersasober assessment of the negative environmen-
tal consequences of globalisation, but uses the ecological modernisation
framework to argue that globalisation is also contributing to a greening
of many global production and consumption processes, primarily by the
export of green practices from richer to poorer countries. Even amongst its
fiercest opponents, it is recognised that globalisation opens up new opportu-
nities and sites of protest that have encouraged the emergence of a vibrant
global civil society, including international environmental groups and the
anti-globalisation movement, as a counter-balance to the hegemony of neo-
liberalism.Critical question 1
On balance, is globalisation good or bad for the environment?◗ International trade and the environment
Attheheart of the debate about the relationship between globalisation and
theenvironment is the impact of international trade on the environment
and the extent to which international trade organisations should integrate
environmental considerations into their activities. The liberalisation of inter-
national trade and the growing importance of global institutions such as
theWTOand regional trade organisations such as NAFTA and the EU are
keyempirical elements of globalisation. The sheer growth of international
trade – from 25 per cent of global GDP in 1960 to 58 per cent in 2001 – indi-
cates the potential significance of its impact on the environment. One of
theprincipal reasons for this expansion has been the steady removal of gov-
ernment barriers to trade. The tariffs that industrialised countries impose