Is the End Nigh?: Internationalism, Global Chaos and the Destruction of the Earth (Avebury Series in Philosophy)

This work examines the environmental crisis within the context of the internationalization or globalization of people and nations. The existence of life on Earth - and certainly human life - has been called into question in the twentieth century, first through the threat of nuclear obliteration and climate alteration (the enhanced greenhouse effect and destruction of the Earth’s ozone shield), environmental pollution, exploding human population growth and the destruction of species and genetic diversity. Many people believe that these ’global’ dangers represent a crisis of such a magnitude that they can only be effectively dealt with by a ’global’ response, in particular by the abandonment of the sovereignty of nations and the construction of a one world government in some shape or form. This ’new world order’ would also save us from ourselves, bringing about an era of sustainable peace on Earth. It is argued here that this internationalist vision cannot succeed; it will destroy the environment, not preserve it, and bring about an era of turmoil and warfare, not peace. In particular, it is demonstrated that the environmental crisis is in part a product of internationalism. This book examines the deleterious consequences of internationalism with respect to major environmental and political debates such as ecologically sustainable development, technology and human freedom, economic rationalism and economic internationalism, immigration and human population expansion, racial and ethnic conflict and the globalization of epidemic diseases.