Is Global Cooperation Attainable?

Our world today is at a tipping point. We are on the brink of environmental disaster due to global warming, pollution, and destruction of ecosystems around the world. The world’s economic future is in question as the world’s only superpower is in one of its worst’s depressions. Even rising economies, like China, face economic unrest as the gap between rich and poor increases while overpopulation threatens to create civil unrest as services and resources become scarce.

Jeffery Sachs outlines a very optimistic, perhaps even unrealistic, plan on how to resolve these world problems. Although he uses various equations and strategies to explain how to fix the worlds problems, all of his ideas are dependant on true global cooperation. The world’s problems cannot be fixed by the traditional powers of the last century (U.S. & Europe) alone. China, India, Brazil, and the rest of the developing world must also be willing to put aside their ambitions to become world superpowers in favor of promoting environmental, societal, and economic stability. Assuming that the western world openly embraces changes to protect global sustainability, (Something that the United States has not been willing to do recently) we would still have to encourage developing countries to accept the same changes. Can we expect countries like China to curb things like their CO2 output when we have been pumping tons of it into the atmosphere with little concern for so long? Would developing countries see such demands as an attempt to curb their advances to maintain the western world’s dominance of the world’s economic and political institutions?

I fully agree with Sachs’ analysis of the world’s problems and find his solutions to be acceptable. However, my doubts lie with whether or not the entire world will be willing to cooperate together in today’s political climate. True cooperation may come only after a disastrous situation arises, and by that time, it may too late to fix our world’s problems.