Assess The Contribution Of Globalsiation To Cultural Diffusion- Evaluate The Impact Of Global Culture On The Environement And People

Question 1

Point 1- impact of global culture on the environment ( theme=changing diets)

Answer 1

Globalisation has facilitaed a faster dispersion of westernised meat heavy diets especially with the fast rise of fast food chains like mcdanlds. Asian diets are often low in meat and high in vegetables. However, this healthy mix is giving way to more meat and fast food among the emerging middle classes, especially in china.
In the 1990s, chinas annual meat consumption per capita increased tenfold from 5kg to 50kg and by 2015, china had become the world’s biggest market for processed food.

The physical environment is affected by this at both the local and global scale as livestock farming has become the new focus of Asian agriculture, bringing in a steep rise in emissions of methane. The more methane produced by the livestocks can contribute to greenhouse effect, where the gas becomes trapped in the earths atmosphere, leading to more global warming.

This is sig as chinas food demands will continue to grow as more people escape poverty, meaning more livestock farming and methane is released damaging the environment

However, which an emergence of meat heavy diets, there are cultural resistance in countries like India, where they protect their culture by emphasing a vegetarian diet which can reduce methane production in the area. Moreover, china has pledgedto reduce the populationeat cosumption by 50% to tackle global warming.

Question 2

Point 2- impacts of global culture on people

Answer 2

Westernised culture is emerging as a result of cultural erosion in different places which is termed ‘hyper globalisation’
For example, America use of soft power, where they spread their culture and ideology onto other countries. For example, Disney is an American company that promotes American values in its movies which are presented all across the globe. For example, white weddings makes a familiar appearance in Hollywood films and Disney films. Due to these promotions, white weddings is now a dominant global wedding style, despite most cultures having a different wedding tradition.

However, hyperglobalosts would argue that this a positive thing cuz it can promote cultural exchange which can allow for the blending of different cultures which can make people closer. E.g. nick jonas had a wedding which incorporated Indian and western traditions. This can be seen as enriching rather than erasing local cultures.