South East Asia has been developing since the last couple of decade.

Its nickname as the Little

Tigers does indeed show that the countries in this region have very high potential in world economy and
industry. Nations in South East Asia have banded together to create an organization called ASEAN, that
would help in facilitating meetings, agendas, trade, and other acts of diplomacy between these nations.
There are high hopes for ASEAN to bring its nations into a developed level of economy. However, like
any other nation and organization in the world, the acts of these nations have led to the manifestation
of vulnerability in individual nations, across ASEAN, and the world.
Global climate change has an outstanding grip on South East Asia. Climate change can cause
changes in the environment of the nation as well as the economy of it. The actions taken by several
nations also determine the conditions of its population South East Asia is seen to have a lot of problems
when it comes to the environment aspect of its nations. This can be seen is countries such as Indonesia.
Indonesia possesses a huge resource of palm oil. However, due to this resource, Indonesia has one of
the highest carbon emissions in South East Asia. The economic driven mentality of the state has cause
the government to support tree-cutting companies causing deforestation while the police remain
corrupt in the country. Research done by Edwards David called "Land-Sharing Versus Land-Sparing
Logging: Reconciling Timber Extraction With Biodiversity Conservation" has shown that high intensity
logging in very degrading to the tropics. At the end of the process, the locals are the ones who are
vulnerable and remain victims (Epstein, Jack, 2011). This is not only limited to the cutting down of forest,
but also to imbalance development that countries such as Indonesia move towards to. The economic
driven nation has caused floods to occur in cities such as Jakarta due to the poor management of
development (Kotarumalos, Ali, 2013). Once again, the government has done little to mitigate such a
disaster and the locals are the ones that have to suffer. A regular pattern that can be seen here is that
the actions of the government determine the position of its population. Because the government has
shown a lack of management and responsibility, the locals suffer as a whole.
However, when it comes to the environment aspect of globalization, climate change is an
important factor that has to be looked upon. South East Asia as a whole is vulnerable towards climate
change due to its close proximity towards the equator and high vapor density. Countries such as
Vietnam are being threatened by climate change especially in the Mekong Delta. The Mekong Delta
houses a large percentage of rice in Vietnam making Vietnam one of the largest exports of rice in the
world. However, the continuing of sea level-rise accompanied by river-level drops caused by climate
change has caused changes in the salinity of the Delta (Le Dinh Tinh, 2013). The effect of global climate
change extends to the local scale and even to the nation-state scale. This phenomenon threatens the
security of the population of Vietnam that relies on the farming of rice.
The Philippines also demonstrate vulnerability towards climate change but in a different aspect.
Due to climate change, Philippines have become more vulnerable towards the advances of typhoons.
Super Typhoon Yolanda has clearly demonstrated the vulnerability that the nation of Philippine face.
Billions of dollars of damage to the infrastructure took place and thousands of lives were lost during this
disaster. However, actions have been taken especially by the United Nation. A program called the Green
Climate Fund was established to provide the Philippines with monetary funds to the nation-state to

combat the effects of climate change at a regional and local scale (Bernice Camille V. Bauzon, 2014). A
pattern that can be noticed through the nations of Vietnam and Philippines is that global climate change
pose a serious threat that could potentially cripple the nations. And it can be seen that the local scale
experiences the highest level of vulnerability when it comes to global climate change.
The claims above regarding global climate change mainly affect the well-being of the locals.
However, global climate change can also affect the nations economic standing in the region. South East
Asias economy is determined by the forces of global climate change. The forces of global climate
change cause the sea level to rise and this affects small pacific islands as they face the threat of
submerging underwater. It has been said this would cause the economy in the region to have losses
ranging from 3 percent to 15 percent. And this would also cause economy to be hurt in several aspects
such as the agriculture sector, tourism sector, and the fishing sector (Climate change will cause 'serious
economic losses' in Pacific, 2013). With that said, government officials of South East Asia have come
together to deal with the problem of carbon emissions. A discussion regarding financing low-carbon
green growth is already underway as they plan on investing in sectors such as energy, transportation,
agriculture, and manufacturing. This is all so that the agent of climate change, carbon emissions, can be
reduced. Countries such as Vietnam have strategies to help improve peoples living standards
(Transforming Economies: How to Fund Green Growth in Southeast Asia?, 2014).
The connection of globalization through climate change affects multiple nations at one time.
This is apparent if we take a look at the country Malaysia. Due to climate change affecting other
countries economy, Malaysia has lowered its economic expectation in South East Asia. Malaysia has
relied heavily on its exports which are determined by the economic drive of the region of South East
Asia. As other countries are not succeeding financially, Malaysia suffers from it (Jeremy Grant, 2013).
This shows the global economy that nations in South East Asia live in. Individual economies can be
stronger but it can also be more vulnerable as they have connections to other situations with very little
control over them. This phenomenon shows that global climate change affects the economy of nations
throughout the region. This can also be explained by a geographic concept called place with
globalization eliminating social-spatial reality. (The Dictionary of Human Geography)
Globalization has made it very clear that countries are interconnected with one another. Global
climate change affects both the well-being of the locals as well as the global economy of the nations in
South East Asia. An emerging pattern that can be found throughout the claims above is that nationstates play a vital role in mediating the vulnerability faced by the locals. If the nation-state fails to do so
or lacks the management in handling these situations, the locals suffer. Another pattern that can be
seen would be the participation of countries in the South East Asia region to come together and discuss
ways to solve problems related to global climate change. Since the countries in the region are
interconnected, solving the problem of global climate change will not only help nations affected by it,
but also improve the overall economy in South East Asia.

References

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