These need not be caused by a worldwide scale of activity. Examples include climate change and depletion of stratospheric ozone. The causes may not be global but the effects are. In cumulative global issues, the causes are geographically widespread and the impacts are also worldwide. Examples include land degradation, deforestation, desertification, population, and urbanization.
Forest degradation goes back to the early history of humankind.
Fire was an agent that inadvertently extended human impacts beyond the initial site. Dregne et al. Here we have examples of worldwide problems that directly undermine the life-support system of billions of people and that indirectly affect the whole globe. There is, however, one element of difference between the climate issue and the land degradation issue that needs to be considered when world policies are set. For instance, the world community found it suitable to address the former issue with a United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.