Globalization has had an impact on the lives and environment of people both in the "Global South" and in America itself. We in America are often the unwitting beneficiaries of patterns of globalization. Much that we take for granted in the realization of the "American dream" results directly from the patterns of exploitation or

Global Village or Global Pillage?

 

environmental degradation that is undertaken elsewhere in the world in order to make that "dream" possible in America. The environmental "footprint" of the culture of consumption is global, yet the sense of moral responsibility for the global environment has become manifest only in certain portions of our society.