Global efforts to mitigate climate change, such as the 2015 Paris Agreement, are a promising start. However, world leaders struggle to gain consensus on how to address this existential challenge. Most people have moved past questioning whether global warming exists because the science is clear: climate change already has led to more natural disasters, more migration, and more loss of life. Our world is getting warmer and this change in climate is already disrupting the lives of people around the globe, from where they can safely live to how they can make a stable living. This video lesson from our Nuclear Proliferation module surveys how nuclear weapons are developed, the effect of the NPT and other nonproliferation treaties on our daily lives, and how world leaders attempt to prevent nuclear technology from ending up in the wrong hands. Though 191 countries are now signatories of the NPT, the dangers of nuclear war remain present, especially as countries such as Iran and North Korea continue to develop their own bombs. As more governments began to develop stockpiles of these weapons of mass destruction, treaties engineered to stop their spread, such as the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), gained steam. Nuclear ProliferationĪ nuclear war could end most life on Earth, which is why nonproliferation, or stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them, has been a top priority for world leaders since the United States detonated the first nuclear weapons more than seventy years ago. This video lesson from our Terrorism module explores the diverse political agendas that have motivated individuals and groups to perform violence throughout history and what tools governments around the world employ to stop them. But understanding what terrorism refers to-and how that definition has changed over time-is vitally important because counterterrorism policies enacted in the name of national security affect a wide range of issues, from immigration policy to information privacy. Terrorism is one of those words that’s used so widely that what it means, and what makes it distinct from other forms of violence, can be hard to nail down. In recent decades, many acts of international terrorism can be attributed to Islamist extremism, but the word “terrorism” was first used during the French Revolution, and the practice has been around much longer than that. This video lesson from our Globalization module breaks down the challenges governments face as they try to balance the benefits and drawbacks of this defining force in our lives. From global pandemics and climate change to automation and inequality, understanding how the most pressing issues of today connect back to globalization is essential for successfully navigating our interconnected world. The COVID-19 pandemic spread so quickly because of the same international travel system that makes it possible to catch a flight to just about every country on earth any day of the week the 2008 financial crisis got as bad as it did because of the same interlinked finance system that enables Americans to buy cheap prescription drugs manufactured in India and import avocados from Mexico. But globalization is about more than just access to a wider world of people, goods, and ideas-it’s at the root of some of the biggest challenges we face. Most of what we interact with comes to us via a different part of the world. If any (or all) of these ideas fascinate you, each is an excerpt from a longer module-slash-rabbit hole that we invite you to fall down to learn more. Getting a handle on these fundamental challenges and how they connect to each other now will prepare you to understand and participate in that future. You’ll find this idea animated in the lesson below, which takes a curated look through the global issues that define our modern lives and will likely continue to define them in the future. But as we wrap up our journey through the history books exploring how our intricately connected world came to be, one overarching idea should be coming into focus: what happens in one part of the world, one way or another, has an effect on us all. You’re not alone in feeling overwhelmed-the world is mind-bogglingly complex. Three hours later, you emerge from an internet rabbit hole more confused than ever about how the world’s biggest issues overlap and why they matter. Picture this: You’re scrolling through Instagram when your curiosity is piqued by an interesting fact about the relationship between climate change and immigration.
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