GLOBAL ADJECTIVE (ENVIRONMENT)

In environmental jargon: relating to or affecting the Earth as an ecological unit. Used especially in: global consciousness, receptiveness to (and understanding of) cultures other than one's own, often as part of an appreciation of world socio-economic and ecological issues; global warming, a long-term gradual increase in the average temperature in climate systems throughout the world as a result of the greenhouse effect. Etymology: Both these phrases use global in its dominant modern sense of 'worldwide', and are influenced by Marshall McLuhan's famous concept of the global village (coined in Explorations in Communication, 1960), which recognized the way in which technology and communications allow everyone to experience world events simultaneously and so effectively 'shrink' world societies to the level of a single village or tribe. Global consciousness also draws on the fashion for consciousness-raising in the sixties. History and Usage: Global consciousness is originally a US term which arose during the seventies, but became commoner as a catch-phrase (expressing the basis of the 'we are the world' culture) once the green movement gained widespread popular support during the second half of the eighties. It was also during the eighties that global warming entered popular usage, although scientists had begun to use the term in the late seventies, as research began to show that increased carbon dioxide emissions in industrialized countries burning large quantities of fossil fuels would almost certainly contribute to the greenhouse effect to such an extent as to affect worldwide climate. The repercussions of even a small increase in world temperatures could be far-reaching, including a rise in sea level and widespread flooding or permanent submersion of land; this is one reason why governments started to treat the problem as a serious one requiring prompt preventive action. One of the least pleasant characteristics of our era must surely be its transformation of global consciousness into a sales item. Nation 17 Apr. 1989, p. 529 After the Prime Minister's Downing Street seminar on global warming last year, 'government sources' were quoted as saying that nuclear power had a major part to play. Which? Apr. 1990, p. 222