In our ever changing world of globalized economies and massive corporations, the biodiversity we are able to experience is getting greatly diminished compared to how it was 100 years ago, which is tragic for our ecosystem as a whole. In my eyes, biodiversity is the total variety that occurs in natural life, the minuscule differences between species that differentiate them from their closest relatives. I think the fascinating part of biodiversity is that it can be applied in the macro, where one can look at all the different species of dog, or as micro as the species of algae in a tiny pond, which allows us to look at the complete landscape of life and compare them. With this massively wide breadth of living creatures out there, it is easy to see how threats to cultural diversity can affect biodiversity, and I can see a clear connection between the two. Any kind of globalization can change the culture within a certain area, which can mean changing the ecosystem of an area for development or a changing climate or landscape, which can facilitate a huge change in the biodiversity of an area. On the other end of this question, I do believe that governments should be involved through protective legislature to safeguard cultural landmarks within communities, so in 100 years we do not become a bulldozed society of total commercialism, stripped of our character.
With the fragility of our remaining natural ecosystems, the mass scale developing being done across the United States will have a huge effect on biodiversity. We already have undertaken most of the major development in highly populated areas, but the difference between 300 years ago and now where we have transitioned into a nation of concrete parking lots and massive malls. This has made us sacrifice biodiversity, but I believe it has allowed us to keep our cultural diversity as a whole of the country, but that is due to the unique size and culture background that we have in the United States. We are lucky to be a country built on starkly different cultures, all arriving through different means, which all have meshed together through a long period of time to give us a rich and diverse cultural base that we draw from as a big society. This is very different than what I can see Bhutan going through to keep their precious culture, while trying to allow the tentacles of globalization get a hold of them, but not by too much so they do not lose all of their culture. Bhutan is a country that takes great pride in the culture they have developed, mostly by staying very closed off from the outside world, which has kept them steeping in their own culture for a long time. Bhutan’s biodiversity is rich due to the massive mountain ranges that occupy the midlands of Bhutan, which give great housing to all of the forest creatures looking to thrive in an area that is mostly untouched by development. Due to the minimal development done to grow output of exports, the biodiversity has been able to be kept rather static over time, which has allowed for greater development of their ecosystem outside of the small towns that have undertaken some globalization. In Bhutan only some of the bigger cities have experienced any kind of widespread globalization, with televisions and cellphones only beginning to surface within the last 10 years. This means that they have been able to keep their culture almost in a glass case, unfazed by the ever advancing global world outside of the sovereign state. Bhutan’s government have also undertaken the task of trying to secure Bhutan’s rich and homegrown culture via programs that keep production in Bhutan as to make sure they are not having to import a massive amount of goods from different countries. The way Bhutan has been able to stay entrenched in their culture, while all the way being on the other side of the looking glass, seeing the rest of the world rapidly advancing through rampant globalization, is noble and frankly amazing. Globalization in some manifestation is inevitable within our ever advancing world, and it is up to us to find the balance between too much development and too little biodiversity in our ecosystem, which is a hard line to walk when there are so many hands in the pot of today’s economy. In countries like America, we expect there to be a healthy balance between keeping our rich biodiversity alive through national forests and parks, which all allow our ecosystem to stay untouched and stay working to serve our animals. In countries like Bhutan, it is easy to keep globalization from taking a foothold on their ecosystem, since the level of output from their country is minimal, which means the need for globalized development in in turn minimal. This lack of a need for development allows a country with an already rich ecosystem to keep letting it thrive without having to interfere with nature’s ways. Of course on the other hand of this coin with more globalization coming to Bhutan in the form of industry would be good in terms of advancing them economically truly into the 21st century, allowing them to experience some great growth and development within their economy and stature at the global table. The issue with this is that in a country so entrenched in it’s well developed culture, that any type of wide spread globalization would be met at every route with challenges from the locals who are adamant in keeping Bhutan’s rich culture the same as it always has been within their walls. I think overall Bhutan has seen minimal change when it comes to their biodiversity in relation to globalization, because they have minimal overall globalization when compared to most other far Eastern countries. A country like Bhutan easily can resist the sweeping changes seen in ecosystems when globalization is in full swing within countries because they do not have a need for true sweeping globalization within their culture, which allows them to keep their culture untouched, just like they want it.
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Hey y'all, I just posted my report on education in Bhutan on my Politics/Economics page, feel free to check it out and leave some comments here! Cheers!
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November 2016
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