Pevehouse Chapter 11 PDF

**Pevehouse Chapter 11** **11.1 Interdependence and the Environment** Global environmental threats create interdependence among states, as actions regarding climate change, conservation, and natural resources affect others. Environmental effects are diffuse and long-term, spreading easily across l...

**Pevehouse Chapter 11** **11.1 Interdependence and the Environment** Global environmental threats create interdependence among states, as actions regarding climate change, conservation, and natural resources affect others. Environmental effects are diffuse and long-term, spreading easily across locations, international environmental politics creates difficult collective goods problems. A sustainable environment is a collective good, and states negotiate the costs of providing it. Managing the environment involves complex technical, scientific, and ethical aspects, but states\' interests are straightforward. The collective goods problem also arises in issues related to resources and population. For example, the world\'s major fisheries in international waters are not owned by any state and thus a collective good, requiring cooperation among fishing states to avoid depleting fish stocks (e.g., regulating multinational corporations \[MNCs\]). If too many states fail to cooperate, the fish populations decline, and everyone\'s catch drops. From 1997 to 2007, global fish catches declined significantly, with 90% of large fish stocks disappearing. Fishers have moved to new species, depleting a third of them, with the rest projected to be depleted by midcentury. Due to the failure to solve this collective goods problem, states pay \$20 billion annually in subsidies to bankrupt fishing industries. Efforts to end these subsidies failed at the 2017 WTO meetings, highlighting the challenge of addressing illegal fishing. This depletion occurred because each additional fishing boat (and the MNC that owns it as well as its state of origin) gains by catching an additional fish, while the costs of depleted stocks are shared by all. Without a world government to set fair quotas, states must negotiate multilateral negotiations, agreements, and regimes. These efforts promote functionalism and international integration but can also lead to conflicts and Prisoner\'s Dilemmas. In 1999, an UN-sponsored agreement aimed to reduce fleet overcapacity among major fishing states. With over 4 million fishing boats worldwide, including 40,000 large ships, nations agreed to cap and gradually reduce fleet sizes while cutting subsidies. This approach aims to share the pain of economic and unemployment adjustment. However, the voluntary nature of the agreement means implementation varies, and its impact on collapsing fisheries may be insufficient. The \"tragedy of the commons\" refers to the overuse of shared resources. Centuries ago, the commons were shared grazing land in Britain. As with fisheries, if too many people kept too many sheep, the commons would be overgrazed. Yet adding one more sheep was profitable to that sheep\'s owner. Britain solved the problem by enclosure of the commons-splitting it into privately owned pieces on each of which a single owner would have an incentive to manage resources responsibly. Similarly, states have extended territorial waters to control coastal fisheries. Global commons include shared parts of the earth, such as oceans and outer space. **tragedy of the commons**: A collective goods dilemma that is created when common environmental assets (such as the world\'s fisheries) are depleted or degraded through the failure of states to cooperate effectively. One solution is to \"enclose\" the commons (split them into individually owned pieces); international regimes can also be a (partial) solution. **Enclosure**: The splitting of a common area or good into privately owned pieces, giving individual owners an incentive to manage resources responsibly. Solving environmental collective goods problems involves achieving shared benefits by overcoming conflicting interests. Regimes are an important part of the solution, providing rules based on the reciprocity principle to govern bargaining over who gets the benefits and bears the costs of environmental protection. Functional international organizations (IOs) specialize in the technical and management aspects of environmental issues. Increasingly, international organizations (IOs) overlap with broader communities of experts from various states, known as epistemic communities (knowledge-based communities). These communities help structure how states manage environmental issues. For example, the transnational community of experts and policymakers addressing pollution in the Mediterranean Sea is an epistemic community. In global environmental politics, managing collective goods problems is challenging due to the large number of actors involved. Collective goods are easier to manage in small groups where individual actions have a noticeable impact and cheating is more detectable. However, the opposite is true with the environment, with nearly 200 states, their actions collectively cause significant, indirect consequences worldwide. Interest in the environment has grown since the first Earth Day in 1970. The first UN conference on the international environment was held in Stockholm, Sweden in 1972, adopting principles to prevent environmental damage between states and raised awareness about international aspects of environmental damage. A second, less publicized conference took place in Nairobi, Kenya in 1982 (headquarters of the UN Environment Program). The larger and more ambitious the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, brought together over 100 state leaders. Most recently, the 2022 Stockholm+50 conference focused on promoting environmentally safe and sustainable economic development and growth. **Sustainable Development** A major theme of these conferences has been sustainable development, which means economic growth doesn\'t rapidly deplete resources or destroy ecosystems, ensuring the basis of economic growth isn\'t undermined. This concept applies to both industrialized regions and the global South. The 1992 Earth Summit established the Commission on Sustainable Development to monitor states\' compliance with their environmental promises made at the Earth Summit and hear evidence from NGOs like Greenpeace. In 2013, the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development replaced the Commission. However, this forum, like its predecessor, lacks enforcement power over national governments, reflecting the dominance of state sovereignty. All UN members can participate, and the forum aims to discourage cheating by monitoring and publicizing state actions (a version of \"naming and shaming\" discussed by constructivist scholars), but progress has been slow. China and other emerging markets in Asia are central to the sustainable development debate. Rapid economic growth has led to serious pollution and environmental problems. In early 2013, Beijing\'s smog reached dangerous levels, causing health issues for residents like burning lungs and stinging eyes. Because of China\'s size, its economic development could significantly impact the global environment. Recently, while China has been scouring the planet for raw materials, it has become a leader in green technology, dominating solar panel production. After the 2013 air pollution crisis, China implemented strict pollution controls. However, much of its growth relies on polluting, coal-burning power plants. **11.2 Managing the Environment** **The Atmosphere** Preserving the earth\'s atmosphere benefits everyone globally, regardless of individual state contributions. Two major international issues of the atmosphere are climate change and ozone layer depletion **Climate Change** Global climate change, including global warming, is a long-term rise in the average world temperature. Evidence shows that global warming is caused by carbon dioxide and other gas emissions and will worsen without significant action. Over the past decade, it has become politically important due to Arctic ice melt, unusual weather patterns, and severe storms and droughts. Unfortunately, the international community has struggled to address the issue effectively. **climate change**: A long-term change in average weather patterns that now define the earth\'s local, regional, and global climates caused by the emission of greenhouse gases produced by burning fossil fuels-oil, coal, and natural gas. See also greenhouse gases. **global warming**: A slow, long-term rise in the average world temperature caused by the emission of greenhouse gases produced by burning fossil fuels. See also greenhouse gases. If no action is taken, global temperatures may rise by 3 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the coming decades. This could lead to polar ice caps melting and sea levels rising by a few feet, causing flooding in coastal towns and cities, and devastating low-lying areas like Bangladesh and China. The warming trend is accelerating faster than what had been considered the worst-case scenarios. The warmest six years globally occurring since 2015. Island states in the Pacific urgently call for action to combat global warming, as they risk disappearing this century. The Maldives has even created a fund to buy land in another country to relocate its 300,000 residents. Global climate change is altering weather patterns, causing droughts, floods, freezes, and disrupting ecosystems. Some regions might benefit from more productive agriculture. Melting polar ice is opening new shipping routes north of Canada and Russia, could potentially cut weeks off transit time from northern Europe or America to Asia, saving global business costs. The Arctic seas hold large oil and gas deposits, becoming accessible as ice melts, which could ironically further contribute to global warming and climate change. The UN Environment Program (UNEP) monitors environmental conditions and collaborates with the World Meteorological Organization to track global climate changes annually. Since 1989, the UN-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has served as a forum for climate negotiations. Reports from the IPCC, based on global scientific research, conclude that global warming is \"unequivocally\" caused by human behavior. **UN Environment Program (UNEP)**: A program that monitors environmental conditions and, among other activities, works with the World Meteorological Organization to measure changes in global climate. Reducing emissions of gases like carbon dioxide, which cause climate change and global warming, is costly. These gases are by-products of burning fossil fuels (oil, coal, and natural gas) used to run cars, tractors, furnaces, factories, and so forth. Greenhouse gases, named because, when concentrated in the atmosphere, these gases act like the glass in a greenhouse: They trap heat. Examples include carbon dioxide (responsible for two-thirds of the effect), methane, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and nitrous oxide. Particulate matter from diesel engines (in the global North) and dirty cookstoves also contribute. Ironically, data centers storing \"cloud\" data seemingly free from earthly concerns, live in data centers that use vast amounts of electricity and run large diesel generators that contribute to climate issues. **greenhouse gases**: Carbon dioxide and other gases that, when concentrated in the atmosphere, act like the glass in a greenhouse, holding energy in and leading to global warming and climate change. Reducing the greenhouse effect requires curbing economic growth or adopting new technological paths, both of which are costly. These actions would likely increase unemployment, reduce corporate profits, and lower personal incomes. While Arctic sea ice melts threaten polar bears with extinction, they, like today\'s children, do not have a voice in international climate negotiations, despite facing long-term consequences. For individual states, the costs of reducing greenhouse emissions don\'t directly relate to the benefits. One state\'s efforts will have little impact unless others also take action. If most states reduce emissions, a free rider state that doesn\'t participate would save money and still benefit from the overall solution. Therefore, climate change presents states with a triple dilemma: 1. Short-term, predictable costs versus long-term, less predictable benefits. 2. Specific groups like oil companies and industrial workers bear the costs, while benefits are distributed across domestic societies and international states. 3. The collective goods dilemma, where global benefits are shared, but costs must be borne individually by each state. The third dilemma is complicated by the North-South divide. Industrializing poor countries like China and India especially without increasing greenhouse emissions is challenging. Seventy percent of greenhouse gases come from China, the U.S., EU states, Japan, Russia, and India, with the U.S. and China alone contributing 45%. U.S. carbon dioxide emissions are over 15 tons per person annually, about twice the European and Chinese rate (although China\'s aggregate emissions exceed those of the United States and Canada combined). However, the global South, including densely populated countries like Bangladesh, will likely face the most severe impacts of climate change. However, there\'s a growing realization that global climate change could cause environmental catastrophes across both North and South. All these elements make for a difficult multilateral bargaining situation, one not yet resolved. The Framework Convention on Climate Change, adopted at the 1992 Earth Summit, set a nonbinding goal to limit greenhouse emissions to 1990 levels by 2000, but this goal was not met. The treaty did not commit signatory states to specific target levels due to U.S. objections. Western Europe and Japan have been more willing to regulate emissions than the U.S., which burns more fossil fuel per person. The 1997 Kyoto Protocol adopted a complex formula aiming to reduce greenhouse emissions to 1990 levels in the global North over a decade. Countries in the global South received preferential treatment due to their lower per capita emissions. However, China\'s coal-burning economy and India\'s carbon dioxide emissions are significant factors in climate change. The United States signed the treaty, but Congress did not ratify it. **Kyoto Protocol (1997)**: A major international treaty on global warming, which entered effect in 2005 and mandated cuts in carbon emissions. Almost all the world\'s major countries, except the United States, were participants. **Public Opinion and International Relations** **Climate Change** Climate change and its threat to the natural environment have become key political issues globally. Policies to address climate change are discussed, debated, and enacted at various levels---international, national, regional, and local. These policies can be quite controversial. The controversy over climate change policies often revolves around their cost and who should bear it. Additionally, opinions vary within countries on the severity of the threat. Some individuals see climate change as severe and advocate for immediate policy changes, while others view it as less of a threat. In 2022, a Pew Global Attitudes survey asked individuals in 12 countries about their views on global climate change. Most states had well over half of their population seeing climate change as a major threat. Countries with extensive coastlines, which could suffer the most from climate change, had higher concern levels. Over 70% of residents in Japan, Germany, France, the UK, Australia, Italy, South Korea, and Spain see climate change as a major threat. However, only about half of the citizens in the United States and Israel feel the same way. Another interesting trend is that nearly every country has seen a rise in the percentage of citizens who view climate change as a major threat. This increase has been particularly significant in countries like France and Poland. Even if large portions of the population see climate change as a threat, there\'s no guarantee that governments will act. This could be due to nondemocratic governments not responding to public opinion. Or interest groups that push policy one way or another may influence the government\'s policies. For example, in 2017, 56% of Americans saw climate change as a major threat, yet the Trump administration withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Agreement. These multifaceted patterns illustrate the complexity of climate change and the difficulty in forming coalitions of states, making international agreements challenging. Combined with the high cost of combating greenhouse gases, this has contributed to slow progress at the international level. In 2001, 160 countries agreed to implement the Kyoto Protocol without U.S. support. The agreement required 40 industrialized countries to reduce emissions to 5% below 1990 levels by 2012, with binding penalties for non-compliance. The EU pledged \$400 million annually to help the global South reduce emissions. The treaty came into effect in 2005, and mandatory carbon cuts began in 2008, but they generally fell short of targets. The European Union created markets to trade carbon emission credits for 11,000 industrial European facilities, but the economic slowdown in 2011 caused a price drop for carbon credits and prices stayed very low through 2014, raising concerns about the market\'s future. Despite this, countries like South Korea, China, and Japan developed similar schemes. These markets use free market principles to efficiently reduce carbon emissions. For example, a Brazilian venture earned carbon credits by burning methane from a garbage dump to generate electricity instead of venting it as a strong greenhouse gas, which European investors bought and sold to polluting factories in Eastern Europe where reducing carbon might be especially expensive. With the Kyoto Protocol set to expire after 2012, 180 states negotiated for years on the next steps. The United States rejoined these talks. In late 2011, states agreed in Durban, South Africa, to extend the Kyoto framework to 2013-2017. In late 2014, at a meeting in Peru, participants agreed that all states, rich and poor, should commit to limiting greenhouse emissions. In late 2014, the United States and China agreed to accelerate their efforts to reduce emissions. The U.S. aimed to reduce emissions by over 25% below 2005 levels by 2025, while China planned to shift away from coal plants. By 2013, the U.S. was already 10% below 2005 emission levels, and China\'s coal use declined for the first time in a century. In 2015, global emissions declined for the first time since the Great Recession (emissions usually fall during economic crises since many factories shut down), but this decline was short-lived, and emissions did not fall during the COVID pandemic despite economic shutdown. The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement was a significant global climate accord, with 195 parties signing it (some UN observers were allowed to sign). It aims to limit the global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. States set their own emissions targets and self-report their compliance, but the agreement lacks enforcement mechanisms for non-compliance. **Paris Climate Agreement**: The main international agreement on global warming signed in 2015. Calls for keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. Nearly all countries of the world are participants. In the summer of 2017, the Trump administration announced the U.S. would leave the Paris Agreement, with the withdrawal taking effect in 2020 because of the provisions of the agreement. This decision faced global condemnation. On his first day in office, President Biden signed an executive order to rejoin the agreement, resulting in the U.S. being out of the agreement for 107 days. States have started implementing their Paris Agreement targets through various measures. China has doubled its use of solar energy and imposed new coal consumption restrictions. India has significantly increased its projected use of renewable energy to address air pollution. The European Union, Canada, South Korea, Japan, South Africa, and the United Kingdom have pledged to achieve net carbon neutrality by 2050, while China aims for carbon neutrality by 2060. Russia\'s invasion of Ukraine posed significant challenges to the Paris Agreement. Ukraine\'s allies stopped buying Russian energy, making it difficult to maintain commitments to reduce fossil fuel usage. France halted plans to close coal-powered plants, Great Britain lifted its ban on oil fracking, and coal production increased in the U.S. The war highlighted the need to transition to greener energy to reduce dependence on Russian oil and gas, but this transition requires time and money. Consequently, countries returned to using fossil fuels in the short term. About half of the U.S. states, including California, and several cities have started limiting greenhouse emissions. However, these efforts are not sufficient or timely enough to decisively reverse climate change. The issue of climate change, including global warming, remains unresolved. Experts hope the Paris Agreement will reduce emissions and stabilize temperatures, but its lack of strong enforcement measures means states must self-monitor their compliance. **Ozone Depletion** The depletion of the ozone layer is a significant atmospheric issue. Ozone high in the atmosphere protects us from harmful ultraviolet rays. However, chemicals like CFCs, used in refrigeration and aerosol sprays, break down this ozone layer. There is a difference between atmospheric ozone and ozone created by burning fossil fuels, which accumulates in the lower atmosphere (troposphere) and contributes to air pollution. As the ozone layer thins, more ultraviolet radiation reaches the earth, causing a seasonal hole over Antarctica to grow. This increased radiation could harm vegetation, reduce agricultural yields, and disrupt ecosystems. **ozone layer**: The part of the atmosphere that screens out harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun. Certain chemicals used in industrial economies break down the ozone layer. The issue of CFCs presents a collective goods problem, where one state could benefit from using CFCs if others prohibited them. However, replacing CFCs was relatively inexpensive as they could be replaced with other chemicals at modest costs compared to addressing global warming. The consequences of ozone depletion were also better understood and more immediate than those of global warming. States had more success managing ozone depletion than global warming due to cost. The 1987 Montreal Protocol saw 22 states agree to reduce CFCs by 50% by 1998. By 1990, 81 states aimed to eliminate all CFCs by 2000. In 1992, as evidence of ozone depletion mounted, the schedule was again accelerated, with major industrial states phasing out CFCs by 1995. A fund was established to help developing countries adopt alternative technologies. Without such an effort, the states of the global South would be tempted to free-ride and could ultimately undermine the effort. These countries were also given until 2010 to phase out production. The Montreal Protocol was strengthened in 1997 and 1999, with rich countries contributing about \$3 billion and stopped making CFCs in 1996. This effort has helped support thousands of projects in more than a hundred countries and helped the global South reduce emissions over the past 25 years. The ozone hole is projected to shrink over the next 40-50 years if current arrangements continue. Calculations in 2018 show that between 2005 and 2016, ozone depletion declined by 20%. **Montreal Protocol (1987)**: An agreement on protection of the ozone layer in which states pledged to reduce and then eliminate use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). It is the most successful environmental treaty to date. The Montreal Protocol on CFCs is considered the most successful international environmental agreement, praised by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who called it \"perhaps the single most successful international agreement to date.\" It demonstrated that states could collaborate to address urgent environmental threats, set targets, and share costs effectively. However, similar international cooperation has not been achieved for most other environmental issues. Environmental negotiations are like trade talks as they rely on the reciprocity principle. If all countries contribute, goals like restoring the ozone layer can be achieved. As with trade, these agreements are complex and require monitoring to prevent free riding. However, unlike trade talks, which provide immediate economic benefits, solving environmental issues involves short-term costs and long-term benefits. This difference in costs makes global warming solutions more challenging compared to the more affordable ozone solutions. Thus, reciprocity works better with low costs or tangible benefits (like ozone and trade) than with high costs and distant benefits (like climate change). **Biodiversity** Biodiversity, the variety of plant and animal species in ecosystems (global, regional, and local), is crucial for the environment. Human activities like overhunting, overfishing, introducing non-native species, and especially habitat loss (due to deforestation, pollution, and urban sprawl) have led to many species becoming extinct. The extinction of even a few species can disrupt ecosystems, for example, the loss of native microorganisms can cause issues like chronic river pollution or turning arable land into deserts. **Biodiversity**: The tremendous diversity of plant and animal species making up the earth\'s (global, regional, and local) ecosystems. Ecosystems are complex, making it difficult to predict the consequences of a species extinction or habitat loss. Activities causing habitat loss are often economically profitable, leading to real costs when limiting them. Therefore, species preservation is a collective good like addressing global warming, with immediate and substantial costs but long-term and unclear benefits. Reaching international agreement on sharing the costs of preserving biodiversity has been challenging. A UN convention on trade in endangered species has reduced but not eliminated such trade. At the 1992 Earth Summit, a biodiversity treaty committed signatories to preserving habitats and had rich states pay poor ones for the rights to use biological products from rare species (e.g., medicines from rain forest trees). However, the U.S. never ratified it due to concerns about limiting its patent rights in biotechnology and is the only UN member not to do so. As of 2023, the treaty had 196 member states. The U.S. does participate in other biological treaties, such as a 1971 wetlands convention and the 1973 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). International regimes to protect whales and dolphins have had limited success. The International Whaling Commission is an IGO that sets quotas for hunting certain whale species, but participation is voluntary, and governments are not bound by decisions they disagree with. **International Whaling Commission**: An intergovernmental organization (IGO) that sets quotas for hunting certain whale species; states\' participation is voluntary. The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (another IGO) regulates tuna fishing methods to minimize dolphin losses. The U.S., consuming half the world\'s tuna, requires dolphin-safe methods for tuna sold in its territory under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Other countries have challenged this act as an unfair trade restriction. This conflict highlights future battles between environmentalists and free trade advocates, with free traders opposing the use of domestic laws for global environmental goals, while environmentalists defend national laws that they pushed for decades to enact despite industrial opposition. The U.S. Clean Air Act reduced air pollution in American cities, but WTO ordered revisions in 1997 to allow gasoline from Venezuela and Brazil in U.S. markets. Environmentalists opposed the WTO using the sea turtle as a symbol after it overturned U.S. regulations on shrimp nets from which sea turtles (an endangered species) can escape. Recent conflicts include U.S. laws restricting imports of foods with pesticide residues and European laws on genetically engineered agricultural and pharmaceutical products, which the U.S. wants to export. Thus, unilateral approaches to biodiversity issues are problematic because they disrupt free trade; multilateral approaches are problematic because of the collective goods problem, where it\'s challenging to get all countries to cooperate and share the costs. It is not surprising that the international response has been ineffective to date. **Forests and Oceans** Tropical rain forests and oceans are crucial for biodiversity and the atmosphere. Both contain commercially valuable resources like wood and fish. The key difference is that forests are mostly within state territories, while oceans are largely beyond any state territory, in the global commons. **Rain Forests**: As many as half of all the world\'s species live in rain forests, which replenish oxygen and reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere-slowing down global warming. Rain forests thus benefit all the world\'s states; they are collective goods. International bargaining on preserving rain forests has progressed significantly, likely because most rain forests are in a few states. These states can control the rate of forest destruction, and international agreements aim to shift the costs from these few states to a broader group of states that benefit from the rain forests. Most of the largest rain forests are in emerging markets and developing states like Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Madagascar. These states can benefit economically from exploiting the forests through activities like logging, agriculture, and mining. Developed states have often encouraged this economic growth to help pay their foreign debts, with little regard for whether growth contributed to environmental damage. Rich states are now using development assistance to encourage Global South countries to protect their forests. Under international agreements reached in the early 1990s, rich countries have contributed hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid for this purpose. In some poorer countries with large foreign debts, debt-for-nature swaps have been arranged, where debts are canceled in exchange for forest preservation. For example, in 2006, the U.S. and NGOs helped Guatemala cancel over \$20 million in debts in exchange for conservation programs. In 2014, Liberia and Peru agreed to end deforestation in exchange for significant foreign aid from Norway. In 2021, Brazil announced plans to end deforestation by 2028, though some environmentalists find this goal overly optimistic (Brazil had previously promised to end deforestation by 2020). This effort is part of a broader movement to end deforestation due to the value of rain forests and their role in countering climate change. At the 2021 UN Climate Change Summit, 141 countries agreed to end deforestation by 2030. As a part of that agreement, private businesses pledged over \$7 billion to reduce the impact of farming on rain forests. **Oceans** Oceans, covering 70% of the earth\'s surface, are crucial (like the rain forest) for regulating climate and preserving biodiversity. Oceans, like forests, face long-term environmental damage from short-term economic activities like overfishing, dumping toxic and nuclear waste (and other garbage), and long-distance oil shipments with their recurrent spills. Unlike rain forests, oceans are global commons with no single authority to enforce regulations, making the collective goods problem more challenging. Preserving oceans requires cooperation from over 100 states and numerous nonstate actors. Free riders have great opportunities to profit. For example, by using drift nets, which are miles long and scoop up everything in their path. They are very profitable but harmful to the ocean environment. Most states have banned these nets, but no state can enforce this ban on high seas (nonterritorial waters). **high seas**: The portion of the oceans considered common territory, not under any kind of exclusive state jurisdiction. See also territorial waters. One solution pursued by states is \"enclosing\" more of the ocean by expanding territorial waters to hundreds of miles off the coast and around islands. This allows state sovereignty to enclose substantial resources like fisheries and offshore oil and mineral deposits. This approach has been part of larger multilateral negotiations on ocean management. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), negotiated from 1973 to 1982, governs ocean uses. After delays and renegotiations of some of the deep-sea mining aspects, the U.S. signed UNCLOS in 1994 but hasn\'t ratified it. The treaty established rules for 12-mile territorial waters for shipping and a 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) for economic activities like fishing and mining, placing significant ocean resources under the control of about a dozen states. **UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)**: A world treaty (1982) governing use of the oceans. The UNCLOS treaty established rules on territorial waters and a 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ). See also territorial waters. Economic rights are disputed in the South China Sea, where China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, Brunei, and Vietnam all claim small islands and reefs near valuable oil reserves. Over the past decade, China has used large sand dredgers to create new land on reefs, claiming these human-made islands and using them as military bases. UNCLOS established that the oceans are a common heritage of humankind and created the International Seabed Authority to share wealth from deep-sea mineral extraction beyond 200 miles. In 2023, the UN agreed to a High Seas Treaty to protect marine life and share genetic resources on the high seas. **Antarctica** Antarctica, like the oceans, belongs to no state and has limited strategic and commercial value. This has made it easier for states to reach agreements on its use. The Antarctic Treaty of 1959, one of the first multilateral environmental treaties, forbids military activity, nuclear weapons, and nuclear waste dumping. It also sets aside territorial claims and establishes a regime under which various states conduct scientific research. All states with interests in the area, including both superpowers, signed the treaty. By 1991, Greenpeace had convinced treaty signatories to designate Antarctica as a \"world park.\" Overall, Antarctica is considered a success story in international environmental politics. **Pollution** Pollution typically creates a collective goods problem, but it\'s usually regional or bilateral rather than global. With some exceptions, like dumping at sea, most pollution effects are limited to the state where it occurs and its close neighbors. For example, U.S. industrial emissions cause acid rain in Canada but don\'t affect distant states. China\'s severe air pollution kills nearly half a million Chinese people each year but few foreigners. Even when pollution crosses borders, its strongest effects are usually near the source, making it easier to control as a collective goods problem because the polluting state can seldom free ride, and few actors are involved. In regions like Western and Eastern Europe and the Middle East, states are closely packed in shared air, river, or sea basins, necessitating multilateral negotiations for pollution controls. During the Cold War, Western European states struggled to impose pollution limits on Eastern European states, worsening the international pollution problem. Several regional agreements aim to limit acid rain caused by air pollution. European states, whose forests have been heavily damaged, agreed to limit air pollution and acid rain for mutual benefit. In 1988, 24 European states signed a treaty to limit nitrogen oxide emissions to 1988 levels by 1995. The United States and Canada also signed bilateral agreements to limit such pollution after long negotiations. These regional agreements have been fairly successful. **acid rain**: Rain caused by air pollution that damages trees and often crosses borders. Limiting acid rain (via limiting nitrogen oxide emissions) has been the subject of several regional agreements. Water pollution often crosses borders due to industrial pollution, human sewage, and agricultural fertilizers and pesticide runoff, which tend to run into rivers and seas. In 2005, a huge chemical spill in northeast China polluted a river flowing into Russia. Regional agencies in Europe now address pollution in heavily used rivers. The Mediterranean basin is severely polluted and challenging to manage due to its many bordering states. In 2010, the largest accidental oil spill in history occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. The spill resulted from an explosion on an oil platform and took months to contain, highlighting the dangers of deep-water oil drilling. British Petroleum, the company that operated the well, set aside billions of dollars to compensate affected residents in the southern U.S. states. Toxic and nuclear wastes pose long-term dangers, leading states to sometimes ship them abroad. International agreements now ban dumping these wastes at sea. However, they are still sent to developing countries for disposal, for a fee. For example, toxic ash from Pennsylvania was used for bricks in Guinea, and Italian nuclear waste was shipped to Nigeria. Norms against exporting toxic wastes have developed, as it\'s seen as exploitative. In 1989, 100 states signed a UN treaty to regulate toxic and nuclear waste shipments and prevent secret movements under corrupt deals. Forty African countries did not sign the treaty but called for a complete halt to toxic waste shipments to Africa. However, in 2006, a Singapore-based multinational company tried to dispose of toxic waste in the Netherlands but, facing higher fees than anticipated, dumped it in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. A local company dumped it at locations around the city, causing illness and deaths. In 2007, the company paid \$200 million to settle claims. In 1986, a meltdown at the Soviet nuclear power plant at Chernobyl in Ukraine caused airborne radioactivity to spread across much of Europe, from Italy to Sweden. The accident highlighted how economic and technical decisions in one state can have severe environmental impacts on others. Soviet leaders worsened the situation by not promptly notifying neighboring countries. During the Ukraine war, Chernobyl was in the news again when Russian forces captured the city, raising concerns about potential radioactivity release if the containment structure was damaged. **Chernobyl**: A city in Ukraine that was the site of a 1986 meltdown at a Soviet nuclear power plant. Both unilateral state actions and international agreements have often been effective in addressing water and air pollution. River water quality has improved in most industrialized regions in recent decades. Market economies now treat pollution as a production cost to be charged to the polluter, not society. Some governments have started allocating \"pollution rights\" that companies can buy and sell on a free market. Decades of centrally planned industrialization in the former Soviet bloc caused severe environmental problems and health effects. With staggering environmental damage and human health effects, the economically struggling former Soviet republics had to negotiate pollution limits and damage repair. The Aral Sea, once the world\'s fourth-largest inland sea, shrank by half and lost its fisheries due to a Soviet-era irrigation project to grow cotton. Now shared by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the sea\'s inlet rivers were diverted and polluted with pesticides. Former fishing towns found themselves many miles from the shoreline. Local populations suffered from widespread health effects as political leaders, both local and international, failed to address the problem. **11.3 Natural Resources** The natural environment is both a delicate ecosystem needing protection and a source of valuable resources. The extraction of these resources brings wealth to states and often fuels international conflicts. However, since these resources are mostly within individual states, they do not present a collective goods problem. Instead, states negotiate over these vital resources. Three aspects of natural resources shape their role in international conflict: 1. They are essential for industrial and agrarian economies. 2. Their sources, like mineral deposits and rivers, are tied to specific territories, leading to potential conflicts over control. 3. They are unevenly distributed, with some states having abundant supplies and others having none. These factors make trade in natural resources highly profitable and politicized, leading to market imperfections such as monopolies, oligopolies, and price manipulation, sometimes by cartels. **World Energy** Energy resources, particularly fuels, are crucial for states. The main commercial fuels are oil (40% of world energy consumption), coal (30%), natural gas (25%), and hydroelectric and nuclear power (5%). Fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas) make up 95% of world energy consumption. While some electricity comes from hydroelectric dams and nuclear power plants, most is generated by burning fossil fuels. The energy North Americans use per person daily is equivalent to burning a 65-pound pile of coal. Wealthier individuals consume more energy than poorer ones, but 65 pounds is the average. This pile is four times larger than that of a person in China and 20 times that of an African. Energy consumption per person varies significantly across nine world regions. The four industrialized regions in the North use much more energy per person than those in the South. North America, for example, uses at least 15 times more energy per person than South Asia and Africa, which have little industry. Among industrialized countries, there are differences in energy use efficiency, measured by GDP produced per unit of energy consumed. The former Soviet Republics are the least efficient, North America is also rather inefficient, while Europe and Japan are the most energy efficient. International trade in energy is crucial for the world economy. Europe and Japan/Pacific are large net importers, while the Middle East, Africa, and Russia are major exporters. Oil is the most important energy resource traded due to its ease of transport. Russia relies on oil exports for hard-currency earnings, which is why one way that Western countries punished sanctioned Russian oil exports after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Other significant oil exporters include Venezuela, Mexico, Nigeria, and Angola. However, the Middle East, especially the Persian Gulf countries (Saudi Arabia; Kuwait; Iraq; Iran; and the small sheikdoms of United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman) are the largest source of oil exports. Saudi Arabia is the top exporter and holds the largest reserves. Much of global energy politics centers around Middle Eastern oil shipped to Western Europe, China, Japan, and North America. Oil\'s importance in industrialized economies underscores the political significance of the Middle East in world politics. Energy is a crucial economic sector, vital for industrial activity, and politically sensitive due to the West\'s dependence on energy imports from the Middle East and the global South. To secure a steady oil supply from the Middle East, Britain and other European countries colonized the area in the early 20th century, carving up territory into protectorates where European power supported local monarchs or protectorates. The U.S. did not claim colonies or protectorates but had its multinational corporations (MNCs) heavily involved in developing oil resources from the 1920s to the 1960s, wielding significant power. These U.S. and European oil companies kept prices low for local states while maintaining high profits, with local rulers relying on their expertise and capital investment. After World War II, the British relinquished colonial claims in the Middle East, but Western oil companies continued producing cheap oil for Western consumption. In 1973, during an Arab Israeli war, oil-producing Arab states cut off oil exports to the U.S. to punish it for supporting Israel, causing world oil prices to skyrocket. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) realized its power and the high price the world would pay for oil. This 1973 oil shock had a profound impact on the world economy and politics. Huge amounts of hard currency accumulated in the treasuries of the Middle East oil-exporting countries, which in turn invested them around the world (these were called petrodollars). It led to high inflation in the U.S. and Europe. The economic instability and sense of U.S. helplessness-combined with problems like the Vietnam War-seemed to mark a decline in American power and perhaps the rise of the global South. The 1979 Iranian revolution caused a second oil shock, leading to higher oil prices. This prompted the expansion of oil production in new locations outside OPEC, such as the North Sea (Britain and Norway), Alaska, Angola, and Russia. By the mid-1980s, the Middle East\'s market share in world oil trade declined. Industrialized economies also became more energy efficient. As a result, with increased supply and decreased demand, oil prices dropped to historic lows of less than \$20 a barrel in the late 1980s. In the late 1990s, the Caspian Sea region emerged as a new oil source. However, the oil must travel overland by pipeline to reach world markets (the Caspian is an inland sea). The main pipeline from Azerbaijan to the Black Sea passed through war-torn Chechnya, so Russia built a bypass route around Chechnya for Caspian oil exports for export through the Black Sea. Western powers sought alternative routes that didn\'t cross Russia, while Turkey aimed to control a larger market share and reduce environmental damage to the Bosporus waterway (through which Russian tankers must travel). After long negotiations, a large-capacity pipeline costing billions of dollars was built through Azerbaijan and Georgia to Turkey\'s Mediterranean coast between 2002 and 2004. The Caspian Sea, the world\'s largest inland body of water, can be defined as either a lake or a sea under international law. If defined as a lake, it has a joint area in the middle that can only be exploited if countries agree on terms, with coastal zones under each country\'s control. If defined as a sea which is less than 400 miles across, the bordering countries\' 200-mile exclusive economic zones (EEZs) split the whole sea. If the area is divided as shown in the map on the right, sectors can be defined by median lines (dashed line) or by dividing it into five equal sectors (dotted line), which would give Iran a larger sector. In 2010, a summit meeting agreed to give each of five countries a 25-mile zone for oil development. In 2012, Russia and Kazakhstan held joint military exercises to defend oil facilities from potential Iranian attacks. The conflict was largely resolved however, not through dominance, but with reciprocity, and in 2018, the five bordering countries signed a treaty treating the water as both a sea and a lake, with the surface as an international zone and the seabed as territorial zones. Violent conflicts complicate pipeline routes. All three countries on the new pipeline route were at war in the past 20 years. Other existing and proposed oil pipelines for Caspian Sea oil face similar challenges. Turkmenistan wants to export natural gas to Pakistan and Asia, but a pipeline would have to cross war-torn Afghanistan. In 2003, a \$4 billion pipeline began carrying oil from Chad through Cameroon, but rebels in Sudan attacked in Chad, diverting oil money to military purposes. Borders and geopolitics are becoming less relevant due to globalization, but still heavily influence international economic transactions like oil pipelines. This was highlighted during the Ukraine war when Germany canceled and shut down the existing Nord Stream oil pipeline and another project with Russia to protest its invasion. After 2000, oil prices remained high, peaking at \$140 a barrel in 2008, which pushed U.S. gas prices above \$4 a gallon. These high prices had two major benefits: they incentivized reduced oil consumption and increased energy efficiency, and they boosted export earnings for oil-producing countries. Nations like Venezuela and Mexico relied on oil revenues for economic development and debt repayment, easing their debt problems. High oil prices also contributed to Russia\'s economic recovery. However, the concentration of wealth from oil exports in a few hands led to dictatorships and extremism in countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela. The global recession of 2008-2009 pushed oil prices lower. Between 2015 and 2018, oil prices remained relatively low due to high productivity among OPEC countries, especially Saudi Arabia, and increased oil production in the United States, which became the world\'s largest oil producer in 2017. The global pandemic further lowered oil prices as demand for oil-based products from jet fuel to gasoline dropped drastically. At one point, excess oil production led to negative oil prices, with producers paying to have it shipped away. However, as the global economy restarted post-pandemic, oil prices rose again, reaching \$100 per barrel in 2022. **Minerals** To build infrastructure and manufactured goods, states need raw materials like metals and minerals, in addition to energy. The political economy of metals, minerals, and related materials (iron, copper, platinum, etc.) differs from that of world energy. The value of international oil trade far exceeds that of any mineral. Moreover, mineral supply is not concentrated in one region. Industrialized countries have reduced their vulnerability by stockpiling strategic minerals. Most important to industrialized economies are minerals, which are essential for industrial equipment, with iron being the most important for steel production. Leading steel producers include China, India, Japan, the U.S., Russia, and Germany, followed by Brazil, Italy, South Korea, France, and Britain. Major industrialized countries produce their own steel, with Germany and Japan as top exporters. To maintain self-sufficiency, countries like the U.S. have used trade policies to protect domestic steel industries, such as the 2018 U.S. steel tariffs. Some countries, like Japan, rely heavily on importing iron ore for their steel industry. Iron ore is not concentrated in one location but is exported from developing and industrialized countries globally. The supply and trade of important industrial minerals like copper, nickel, and zinc are more diffuse than oil, with industrialized countries largely self-sufficient. Poor states, despite being main suppliers of minerals like tin and bauxite, haven\'t gained OPEC\'s power. However, there are various cartels for minerals: producer cartels (copper), producer-consumer cartels (tin), and separate producer and consumer cartels (bauxite). China holds a near-monopoly on rare earth minerals, crucial for electronics, and has sometimes cut exports to boost prices. Recently, countries like Vietnam have started producing these elements to challenge China\'s market dominance. Certain agricultural products have spawned producer cartels such as the Union of Banana Exporting Countries (UBEC) and the African Groundnut Council. Like minerals, some export crops come mainly from just a few countries. These include sugar (Cuba), cocoa (Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria), tea (India, Sri Lanka, China), and coffee (Brazil, Colombia). Despite the concentrations, producer cartels have not been very successful in boosting prices of these products, which are less essential than energy. **Water** States need water in addition to energy and minerals. As societies industrialize, intensify agriculture, and grow in population, their water needs increase. World water use is now 35 times greater than a few centuries ago and grew twice as fast as the population in the 20th century. However, water supplies are relatively unchanging and depleting in many places. One-fifth of the world\'s population lacks safe drinking water, and 80 countries face water shortages. Water supplies often cross international boundaries, leading to conflicts. Sometimes several states share access to a single water table (underground water stores), posing potential collective goods problems. The UN estimates over 1.4 billion people live in areas with high water vulnerability, and 4 billion people experience water scarcity at least part of the year. Water problems are especially important in the Middle East. For instance, the Euphrates River runs from Turkey through Syria to Iraq before reaching the Persian Gulf. Iraq objects to Syrian diversion of water from the river, and both Iraq and Syria object to Turkey\'s diversion. The Jordan River, originating in Syria and Lebanon, flows through Israel to Jordan. In the 1950s, Israel built a canal to use the river\'s water, leading to complaints from Jordan and its Arab neighbors to the UN, which failed to mediate. Each state pursued its own water plans, with Israel and Jordan adhering to UN-proposed allocations. In 1964, Syria and Lebanon attempted to divert the river rendering Israel\'s new water system worthless. However, Israeli attacks halted the project. Israel\'s 1967 capture of the Golan Heights also prevented Syria from renewing efforts. This situation illustrates the dominance principle in resolving natural resource conflicts. Conflicts over fuels, minerals, agricultural products, and territorial waters share a common theme: they are produced in fixed locations but traded globally. Controlling these locations provides states with greater self-sufficiency (valued by mercantilists) and valuable market commodities, generating wealth (valued by liberals). These resources are directly related to international security. International relations scholars have expanded their studies to include the relationship between the environment and military/security affairs. The environment can contribute to international conflict, with environmental degradation leading to collective goods problems among many states and competition for territory and resources creating conflicts among smaller groups of states. Climate change has caused shifts in weather and precipitation patterns, leading to water surpluses in some areas and droughts in others. In 2017, Cape Town, South Africa, announced it would run out of water by spring 2018. The government imposed strict water usage limits, delaying \"zero day\" by several months. However, without new water sources or increased rainfall, Cape Town faces an uncertain future with less water. **11.4 Population** The global population, which reached 8 billion in 2023, will grow by 67 million annually. Forecasting future population is relatively straightforward, as today\'s children will grow up and have their own children. For the next 20 to 30 years, population growth will be driven by the large number of children in the global South. The projected world population in 2030 is about 8.5 billion, with little that can be done to change this projection. Of the population increase, 96% will occur in the global South. Currently, half of the world\'s population growth happens in six countries: India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. In the world\'s poorest countries, the population is expected to triple in the next 50 years, while many rich countries will experience population decline. Forecasting beyond 25 years is challenging. Future population growth will depend on the incomes of today\'s children and the wealth accumulation in developing countries, which can slow population growth. Government policies on women\'s rights and birth control will also influence population growth rates. Due to these uncertainties, projections beyond a few decades vary. By 2050, the world population could reach 9.5 billion and level out at around 10 billion in the next 100 years. New data in 2002 show that higher women\'s status and literacy are reducing population growth more than expected in large, poor countries. The actions of states and international organizations now will determine the earth\'s population in 200 years. Over two hundred years ago, British writer Thomas Malthus warned that population growth would outpace food supply, leading to famine and disease. Today, those who warn against overpopulation are sometimes called Malthusian. Critics argue that technology has kept pace with population growth, allowing more food and resources to be extracted from the environment even as the population keeps growing. **The Demographic Transition** Population growth results from the difference between rates of birth and rates of death. In agrarian (preindustrial) societies, both birthrates and death rates are high. Population growth is thus slow-even negative at times when death rates exceed birthrates (during a famine or plague, for instance). Economic development and industrialization lead to a demographic transition, a universal pattern where birthrates and death rates change. Initially, death rates fall as food supplies increase, and healthcare access expands. Later, birthrates decline as people become more educated, secure, urbanized, and as women\'s status rises. At the end of the transition, birthrates and death rates are similar, limiting population growth. However, during the transition, population grows rapidly as death rates fall faster than birthrates. **demographic transition**: The pattern of falling death rates, followed by falling birthrates, that generally accompanies industrialization and economic development. One reason poor people tend to have many children is that under harsh poverty, a child\'s survival is uncertain due to disease, malnutrition, or violence. Having many children increases the likelihood that some will survive to care for their parents in old age. As a state undergoes the demographic transition, its population structure changes significantly. Initially and at the middle of the process, most of the population is young, with many children and short adult life expectancy. This large number of economically unproductive children in poor countries slows wealth accumulation. By the end of the transition, adults live longer, and families have fewer children, resulting in an older average population age. Eventually, a substantial portion of the population becomes elderly, creating a different nonproductive group that the economy must support. Industrialized countries have completed the demographic transition and now experience slow population growth. Russia, Europe, and Japan have shrinking populations, while China\'s population is also decreasing. Most developing countries are in the middle of the transition and have rapid population growth. In simple terms, demographic transition involves four stages: -**High Birth and Death Rates**: In the initial stage, both birth and death rates are high, resulting in a stable population with slow growth. This stage is typical of poorer societies with limited access to healthcare and family planning. -**Declining Death Rates**: As a country begins to develop, improvements in healthcare, sanitation, and nutrition lead to a significant decline in death rates. However, birth rates remain high, causing a rapid increase in population. -**Declining Birth Rates**: With further economic development, birth rates start to decline due to factors such as increased access to contraception, better education, and changing social norms. The population growth rate slows down during this stage. -**Low Birth and Death Rates**: In the final stage, both birth and death rates are low, leading to a stable population with slow or no growth. This stage is characteristic of more affluent societies. The image shows two curves: one representing the birth rate and the other representing the death rate, both plotted against income per capita. The area between the curves indicates population growth. As income per capita increases from poor to rich, the death rate declines first, followed by a decline in the birth rate, illustrating the demographic transition process. The dilemma of the demographic transition is that rapid population growth and a child-heavy population lower per capita income, but raising per capita income is the best way to slow population growth. Population growth thus creates a vicious cycle in many poor states. When population growth matches overall wealth growth, the average person doesn\'t become better off. Even if the economy grows faster than the population, so that the average income rises, the total number of poor people may still increase (e.g., income inequality, structural issues, resource allocation, etc.). The demographic transition widens international wealth disparities. States that raise incomes enter an upward spiral: slower population growth leads to higher per capita income, further slowing population growth. Conversely, states that don\'t raise incomes face unabated population growth, keeping per capita incomes low and fueling more population growth---a downward spiral. Globally, the disparity in population growth contributes to the wealth gap between the North and South. Within the South, disparities are sharpened as some countries manage to slow population growth and raise incomes, while others do not. Even within a single country, the demographic transition sharpens disparities. Cities, richer classes, richer ethnic groups, and richer provinces tend to have lower birthrates compared to the countryside and poorer classes, ethnic groups, and provinces. In countries like France, Israel, and the United States, wealthier ethnic groups have much slower population growth than poorer ethnic groups. In recent decades, the global South has split into two groups of states. The first group, including China and India, entered the demographic transition phase with falling birthrates in the 1970s. However, in nearly 70 other poor states, death rates fell faster than birthrates, leading to accelerating population growth. These trends contributed to disparities within the global South, particularly between Africa and Asia, emerging in the 1990s. **Population Policies** The policies that governments adopt-not just economic and demographic conditions-influence the birthrate. Among the most important policies are those regarding birth control (contraception). State policies vary widely. At one extreme, beginning in 1980, China used its strong government control to enforce a limit of one child per couple. Penalties for having a second child included being charged for services that were free for the first child. The Chinese one-child policy had significant drawbacks, including limiting individual freedom and reports of forced or coerced abortions. In traditional Chinese society, sons are valued more than daughters, leading to practices like killing newborn daughters or using ultrasound scans (and some places in India) to abort female fetuses. Bribing officials or paying fines became common ways to circumvent the policy. China\'s 2000 census revealed a significant gender imbalance, with a lower percentage of female births (the percentage of female births at 0.85 per boy rather than the normal 0.95) and a higher sex differential in the countryside (twice as high as in the cities, reaching 140 men per 100 women in some areas). Additionally, young women from neighboring states like Vietnam, were sometimes kidnapped and sold as brides in China. In 2013, the Chinese government relaxed its one-child policy to address gender imbalance and an aging population. Urban residents with sufficient resources could apply to have a second child. However, only 12 to 18 percent of eligible families applied, citing high living costs in large cities and the preferences of older children to remain only children. The government was disappointed by the low uptake. In 2016, China replaced its one-child policy with a two-child policy, and in 2021, the cap was raised to three children due to slowing birth rates and population growth. Despite these changes, the fertility rate continued to decline, reaching 1.3 per woman by 2023, partly due to the availability of free contraceptives and abortions. India\'s birthrate has gradually declined from nearly 6 per woman in the 1970s to 2.05 in 2023, thanks to the government\'s strong commitment to birth control and has tried to make information and means widely available. However, as a democracy, India lacks the extreme control over society that China has. Countries with higher incomes than India or China can more easily promote lower birthrates. For instance, Mexico\'s noncoercive family-planning program, adopted in 1974, successfully halved birthrates over 15 years, reaching 2.7 per woman and 1.9 by 2023. Pronatalist policies, which encourage or force childbearing and limit access to contraception, have been adopted by some governments. These policies are based on the belief that a larger population enhances national power, with more babies today translating to more soldiers in the future. **Pronatalist**: Describing government policy that encourages or forces childbearing, and outlaws or limits access to contraception. Today, only a few governments have strongly pronatalist policies. However, many do not provide birth control or sex education to poor women. In some states, population is not seen as a problem or is considered an asset, while in others, the government cannot afford effective measures to lower birthrates. According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), 200 million women lack access to effective contraception. Birthrates are significantly influenced by the status of women in society. In cultures where women are valued primarily for childbearing, they face sanctions if they stop having children. Many women do not use birth control because their husbands forbid it, viewing many children as a sign of manliness. However, as women\'s status improves, allowing them to work, own property, and vote, they gain the power, education, and financial means to limit family size. The UNFPA highlights that improving women\'s status is crucial for controlling global population growth. Government policies on women\'s status vary, and international programs like the UN Commission on the Status of Women are addressing this issue globally. **Disease** Population growth is influenced by both birth and death rates. In poorer countries, people often die younger from infectious diseases, while in richer countries, people live longer and are more likely to die from cancer and heart disease. The infant mortality rate, which measures the proportion of babies who die within their first year, is a key indicator of overall health. It reflects access to nutrition, water, shelter, and healthcare. Globally, infant mortality is just under 3 percent, with rates of 1 percent or less in rich countries and up to 10 percent in the poorest countries, especially in areas of extreme poverty and war zones. **infant mortality rate**: The proportion of babies who die within their first year of life. Death rates vary by region, but overall trends are stable over decades. Local events like wars and disasters have limited global impact. Wars, droughts, epidemics, and disasters have an effect locally but hardly matter globally. In the poorest countries, death rates fell from nearly 30 per thousand in 1950 to under 6 per thousand in 2023, though they rose to almost 10 during the COVID-19 pandemic. In industrialized countries, death rates bottomed out around 10 per thousand by 1960 and are now about 7 in the West. Stable mortality trends mean death rates are not a viable way to control population growth. Worsening poverty might increase death rates, but this is not a realistic population control method. It would mean moving backward through the demographic transition, which would wreck any chance of lowering birthrates. Nor do wars kill enough people to reduce population growth. Most of the world is near the end of the transition in death rates; the key issue is how long it takes for birthrates to complete the transition. HIV/AIDS, other infectious diseases, and smoking are three mortality factors that deserve special attention due to their high costs. Although they do not significantly affect global population trends, actions taken in the short term have long-term and often international consequences, with both short-term costs and long-term benefits. **HIV/AIDS** In the global AIDS epidemic, a state\'s success or failure in controlling HIV impacts other states. Symptoms appear 5-10 years after infection, during which the virus can spread through sex or blood transfer. AIDS spreads internationally via business, tourism, migration, and military operations, highlighting the interdependence of states. By 2017, the HIV/AIDS epidemic had killed about 35 million people, with an estimated 36-37 million more infected, most of whom were unaware. Two-thirds of the infected population lived in Africa, and half of the remainder in South Asia. The epidemic also left 16 million orphans worldwide, over 75 percent of whom were in Africa. Annually, about 1.8 million people were newly infected with HIV, and 1 million died from AIDS, including over 100,000 children. In Africa, the world\'s poorest region, AIDS is a major force driving deeper poverty. About 5 percent of adults are infected with HIV, with more than half being women. In southern Africa, one in six adults has HIV, with Botswana being the worst case at one in four. HIV infection is also widespread in African armies, affecting international security. In Angola, after a long civil war, increased traffic with neighboring states led to rising HIV rates. However, Angola\'s military implemented education programs and comprehensive HIV testing, keeping the infection rate below 10 percent, like the general population. In North America and other industrialized regions, new drug therapies significantly lowered the AIDS death rate starting in the late 1990s. However, these treatments were too costly for Africa and other poor regions. India and Brazil began exporting cheap generic versions, violating Western drug companies\' patents. The U.S. government threatened to punish South Africa and other countries for importing these drugs without compensating U.S. corporations and filed a complaint against Brazil with the WTO. AIDS activists responded by demonstrating and mobilizing public opinion to change the policies. In 2001, the United States withdrew its complaint against Brazil. Drug companies started offering lower prices to poor countries, but the delivery of drugs remained slow. In 2004, the international community began large-scale delivery of antiviral drugs to AIDS patients in poor countries. Over the past 20 years, significant progress has been made, with nearly 20 million people now having access to these drugs, according to UNAIDS. Increased access to drugs and care for AIDS was facilitated by a significant rise in funding. In 2001, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan proposed a \$7 billion to \$10 billion annual global budget to combat AIDS (a fivefold increase in funding). The G8 states pledged over \$1 billion, which Annan deemed insufficient. In 2003, President Bush pledged \$15 billion over five years to combat AIDS in Africa, and the program has since expanded. The U.S. has provided nearly \$20 billion since 2003 and pledged \$48 billion between 2009 and 2014 to combat AIDS, TB, and malaria. In 2006, five countries (France, Britain, Norway, Brazil, and Chile) agreed to raise \$300 million annually for medications for children with AIDS, TB, and malaria, mostly funded by taxing airline tickets. Despite these efforts, more work is needed, including care for 12 million children orphaned by AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. AIDS has exacerbated the global North-South divide. The 2001 UN session highlighted differences between Western secular states and several Islamic states that opposed references to gay people. This was emphasized when Iran\'s president claimed in in a 2007 speech at Columbia University that there were no gay people in Iran. Catholic authorities have also opposed programs promoting condom use. These examples show that effective prevention measures, such as public education, outreach to at-risk groups, condom distribution, and free needles for drug users, are culturally and politically sensitive. To control the AIDS epidemic, states must cooperate internationally, with efforts coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and funded mainly by industrialized countries. However, the WHO budget is limited, equivalent to that of a midsize hospital in the global North. WHO relies on national governments for information and policy implementation, but responses have been slow. Some governments falsify statistics to underreport cases to attract tourism, and many are reluctant to support sex education and condom distribution due to religious or cultural taboos. In recent years, HIV has spread rapidly in China and Russia/Eastern Europe due to growing prostitution and drug use. In China, government inaction and stigma hinder effective identification and treatment of the HIV-positive population. In many rural areas, unscrupulous cash-for-blood businesses and poorly sterilized needles in medical practices have caused massive HIV infections. Consequently, 60 percent of China\'s population has had hepatitis B, compared to 1 percent in the United States and Japan, indicating a potential future growth of HIV. In 2019, China had an estimated 1.25 million infected people, though these numbers are hard to confirm. AIDS highlights the transnational connections that diminish the significance of international borders. Effective international cooperation could save millions of lives and boost economic development in the poorest countries. However, a collective goods problem exists in allocating costs and benefits, as a dollar spent by WHO has the same effect regardless of the contributing country. **COVID and Other Infectious Diseases** The COVID-19 pandemic, lasting over two years, brought significant political, economic, and scientific challenges. The world continues to deal with its effects years later. Originating in China, the virus spread rapidly worldwide, a coronavirus like the SARS outbreak in 2003. With no vaccine initially and the virus spreading exponentially, many countries closed schools, banned travel, limited public services, and encouraged businesses to do the same. By 2023, the pandemic had claimed 7 million lives and caused an economic crisis. COVID-19 shutdowns caused significant economic distress globally as economic activity slowed. Restrictions on shipping disrupted supply chains and production, leading to shortages in many goods. The International Monetary Fund estimated the pandemic cost the global economy \$17.5 trillion. International efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic largely fell short. The United States criticized the WHO\'s handling of the crisis, China delayed providing important information, and most countries focused on their own populations and economies. Over time, the international community learned more about the virus and developed a vaccine in the fall of 2020. Different versions of the vaccine were created by China, Russia, the United States, and European countries, showing a lack of coordination. The virus mutated, causing more waves of illness, and new vaccines and boosters were developed in 2021 to adapt to the new variants. Few disease outbreaks, including previous COVID variants, have caused the social and economic challenges of the 2019 variant. This was due to the virus\'s rapid spread, mutation, and other virological factors. Politics also played a role; early international cooperation was lacking, China delayed information sharing, and domestic political debates on policy responses (e.g., mask mandates) complicated efforts. In our interdependent world, a similar virus may emerge again, and time will tell if the global response differs. **Other Diseases** TB, malaria, hepatitis, dengue fever, and cholera have reemerged or spread in recent decades, often mutating into drug-resistant forms. TB kills 1.6 million people annually, including AIDS patients. Malaria affects hundreds of millions and kills over half a million per year, mostly in Africa. New campaigns have distributed millions of mosquito nets in Africa (a proven, cost-effective measure), and a malaria vaccine approved in 2015 has been given to over a million children by 2022. Vaccination programs have reduced polio and measles incidence, with a measles campaign reaching over 80 percent of infants worldwide, reducing deaths by nearly 60 million since 2000. Vaccine resistance has increased globally over the past decade, affecting COVID vaccines in the U.S. and TB and malaria vaccines in developing countries. Growing numbers of people refuse vaccinations for themselves or their children. In extreme cases, this rejection can turn violent, as seen in Pakistan in 2012 when Taliban militants killed health workers during a polio vaccination drive, claiming it was a Western plot to sterilize Muslim children. The WHO has identified vaccine hesitancy as one of the top ten threats to global health. Iodine deficiency, affecting up to 2 billion people globally, has historically received little attention. Even moderate deficiencies in unborn babies can lower intelligence by 10 to 15 IQ points, while serious deficiencies can stunt growth, cause brain development issues, and lead to goiter. Adding iodine to salt, costing about 5 cents per person yearly, can completely prevent the deficiency. However, many countries in the global South and former Soviet bloc still do not implement this. An international campaign increased the use of iodized salt from 25 percent of households worldwide in 1990 to 88 percent in 2021. Epidemics among animals can have significant impacts. Scientists fear that bird flu could mutate and spread person to person, potentially causing a global pandemic. In 2009-2010, swine flu (H1N1) spread rapidly worldwide, leading countries to restrict travel to Mexico (where the flu originated) and adopt quarantine policies for patients. **Smoking** Around 1.3 billion people smoke worldwide, with five-sixths in developing countries, leading to 6 million deaths annually from tobacco-related diseases. States that don\'t curb nicotine addiction face high future healthcare costs, impacting their citizens and economy. However, the tobacco trade is an international issue, with marketing campaigns targeting women in the global South potentially increasing smokers in that group. Gender differences in smoking are notable: about 4 percent of women smoke in most developing countries, compared to up to 75 percent of men in Indonesia. In the U.S., about 30 percent of men smoke compared to 20 percent of women. In 2001, tobacco companies, with some U.S. support, tried to weaken the proposed Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. However, in 2003, the U.S. dropped its objections, and WHO member states adopted the treaty, which took effect in 2005. Member states pledged to ban tobacco advertising and were encouraged to raise tobacco taxes by 5 percent annually above the inflation rate. By 2023, the U.S. was the only major power that had not ratified the treaty. Population issues are often seen as too many people using too few resources. However, overpopulation is not the main cause of hunger today. Poverty and politics are the primary causes of malnutrition and hunger. There is enough food, water, petroleum, and land, but these resources are unequally distributed. The unequal distribution of resources is linked to the gap between the global North and South. Environmental and natural resource strains are global, but in the North, they stem from industrialization and growing GDP per capita, while in the South, they are more influenced by growing populations.