Final answer:
The 'race to the bottom' details how corporations exploit weaker environmental regulations in developing countries to maximize profits, leading to severe environmental damage. This includes pollution, habitat destruction, and resource exploitation, which directly harm local communities and ecosystems.
Step-by-step explanation:
When discussing environmental impacts, the concept of 'horizontal mobility' refers to the movement of industries between locations, often facilitated by globalization. This shift frequently leads to significant environmental degradation, especially in developing countries where corporations take advantage of looser environmental regulations to maximize profits. This practice is commonly referred to as the 'race to the bottom' scenario.
Globalization has indeed enabled profit-seeking multinational companies to relocate their production facilities from countries with stringent environmental protections to those with weaker standards. This allows firms to reduce costs and increase profits. In response, some host countries may lower their environmental standards to attract these multinationals, causing a proliferation of pollution and a decline in global environmental laws. The immediate effects include industrial pollution, hazardous waste issues, and natural resource exploitation, leading to habitat destruction, water contamination, and a loss of biodiversity.
Moreover, the environmental damage in poorer countries is exacerbated by other factors such as deforestation, overgrazing, mining, and the reliance on extractive industries like oil and gas. Local communities, whose health and livelihood may be compromised by these activities, often look to their governments or international organizations for protection and the enactment of environmental safeguards.