What is meant by the Global Commons? How are they exploited and polluted?
What is meant by the Global Commons? How are they exploited and polluted?
The Global Commons refers to those areas or regions which are outside the exclusive jurisdiction of the nation states and requires common governance and management by the international community. Examples of the Global Commons are the Earth’s atmosphere, Antarctica, the ocean floor and the outer space.
It is in this regard that the environment is also one of the Global Commons and requires cooperation and protection by the global community.
The Global Commons are exploited in the following manner:
a. Industrialisation and technological development- For bringing about development and industrialisation and to satisfy the insatiable greed for more, human beings have permanently damaged the environment, inflicting permanent damage to the biodiversity leading to the extinction of many species of plants and animals. Excessive urbanisation and industrialisation have increased the pollution, led to deforestation and brought about dramatic changes in the climate.
b. Antarctica is facing a rapid environmental degradation due to increasing pollution and the effects of global warming. Parts of the Antarctic and Arctic regions have also degraded from the waste of oil spills.
c. The Global Ocean is polluted through the dumping of wastes and overfishing in the high seas, thereby endangering the marine life. The UN has called for active cooperation of the nation states in order to manage the ocean floor, to bring about fisheries management and to control the dumping of hazardous wastes and chemicals, oil spills, etc., into the water bodies.
Though a number of treaties with regard to the management of the Global Commons have been entered into, there has been a lack of consensus on the part of the nation states on environmental issues. One reason of it is revealed as the North-South divide and the question of responsibility. Some of the treaties entered into were the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, the 1987 Montreal Protocol, the 1999 Antarctic Environmental Protocol and the Outer Space Treaty.
The Global Commons refers to those areas or regions which are outside the exclusive jurisdiction of the nation states and requires common governance and management by the international community. Examples of the Global Commons are the Earth’s atmosphere, Antarctica, the ocean floor and the outer space.
It is in this regard that the environment is also one of the Global Commons and requires cooperation and protection by the global community.
The Global Commons are exploited in the following manner:
a. Industrialisation and technological development- For bringing about development and industrialisation and to satisfy the insatiable greed for more, human beings have permanently damaged the environment, inflicting permanent damage to the biodiversity leading to the extinction of many species of plants and animals. Excessive urbanisation and industrialisation have increased the pollution, led to deforestation and brought about dramatic changes in the climate.
b. Antarctica is facing a rapid environmental degradation due to increasing pollution and the effects of global warming. Parts of the Antarctic and Arctic regions have also degraded from the waste of oil spills.
c. The Global Ocean is polluted through the dumping of wastes and overfishing in the high seas, thereby endangering the marine life. The UN has called for active cooperation of the nation states in order to manage the ocean floor, to bring about fisheries management and to control the dumping of hazardous wastes and chemicals, oil spills, etc., into the water bodies.
Though a number of treaties with regard to the management of the Global Commons have been entered into, there has been a lack of consensus on the part of the nation states on environmental issues. One reason of it is revealed as the North-South divide and the question of responsibility. Some of the treaties entered into were the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, the 1987 Montreal Protocol, the 1999 Antarctic Environmental Protocol and the Outer Space Treaty.
