Depends on how you define it. The text is talking about global variables, which are available to code outside their containing block:

{ 
    $i = 3;
}

print "$i\n";
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Prints 3. Compare with:

{ 
    my $i = 3;
}

print "$i\n";
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Without strict, this prints only a newline. This code declares a lexically scoped $i, which only persists through the end of its enclosing block. One of the best things about strict/warnings is that perl will complain about this kind of thing, possibly saving you a bunch of time hunting down a confusing error in a large program.