Pom Perspective Of Globalization And The Race For Resources
...extraction constrain what kinds of technologies can produce what kinds of commodities at what kinds of prices (pg. 33). He shows that there are two types of civilizations at play in the Amazon’s situation. One civilization, being the indigenous people of the Amazon, learned to work and coexist with the ecosystem surrounding them. The other type of civilization is a society that extracts an ecosystem’s resources and ships them around the world for commercial purposes. It was interesting to see what happened to the Amazon over the 400 years that the author covered. Market leadership was passed between many societies. It is apparent that whoever had the leading innovations or technology at the moment lead the market. First to dominate the Amazon was the Portuguese who were the first to bring its resources to the world market and create a demand for such things as turtle oil. When the use of rubber was introduced, Europe took control of the market because they possessed the technology to produce and extract the rubber. It was then discovered that the Amazon also had many raw mineral deposits that could be mined. The Japanese lead this effort with canny politics and mining strategies. It was a difficult book to read, but the author makes a good point; globalization is really just a race for resources, essentially wealth. This is a point that can be spread to many situations, not just the one in the Amazon. After reading over the Amazon, I realize that this is a sustainability issue. It is impossible for the Amazon’s ecosystem to sustain the current rate of resource extraction. The resources being sought now will soon run out and create a block in multiple industrial sectors, much like it did with the supply of rubber during the industrial period (pg. 43).
In a POM perspective, one should always be looking at the big picture. Globalization has had a past that proves...
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