Environmental change

Examine the growth of environmental awareness as a consequence of these global interactions

Since the industrial revolution in the 19th century we, the human race, have been consuming the earths natural resources at an alarming rate. Our production and consumption of fossil fuels and other natural resources, such as wood and minerals, grew exponentially and are still at a high rate of production and consumption. Global interactions drive this production and consumption due to transnational corporations, transportation, sports, tourism, advancements in technology, and globalization in general since it requires a lot of energy and resources for global interactions. As a result we are starting to feel the after effects with the increase of air, land and see pollution, human impact on the surface of the earth, erratic weather patterns, endangered and even extinct species, and the threat of global warming. Due to this and the action of key people, we have all gained an environmental awareness in our everyday lives from corporate businesses to our living habits. 

Recently, effects have been made to try and counteract the damage that has already been done or at least prevent any more from occurring. Various international environmental agreements have been signed, organizations have been formed and business practices have been implemented such as the Kyoto Protocol, the Montreal Protocol, the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change 1992, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the World Wide fund for Nature (WWF), Emissions Trading, and Carbon credits for businesses. The combination of these three major drivers of an enivronmentally friendly future are a direct result of trying to fix the damage and harm we have caused due to global interactions.

Outsourcing

I found this diagram about outsourcing and what growing companies think about when deciding where and what operation they are outsourcing interesting because the country and the operation they are outsourcing are heavey depent on each other. For example, many companies are outsourcing parts of their companies to the Philippines due to the lower cost, can focus on core business, and to avoid paying health insurance, pension contribution and other benefits that the company would have had to pay for in the orgin country of the company. The main operation that they are outsourcing to the Philippines are call centers due the focus on educating Filippinos in english and the lower costs for the labour.

My question is what factors, other than money, cause the top five countries for the best offshore destination from a Western European perspective to be India, China and countries from Southeast Asia? What makes them so different compared to lower ranked countries such as Bularia, Ghana, Romania, Russia and South Africa?

The European union

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/21/us-ukraine-crisis-eu-agreement-idUSBREA2K0JY20140321

Summary:

The Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk signed core chapters of the Associated Agreement at an EU summit in Brussels on March 21 2014. The deal commits Ukraine and the EU to have closer Political and Economic relations while some parts have yet to be signed and will be signed after the presidential elections in May. This deal was rejected by the former Prime Minister of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovich, in November which triggered the mass protests and riots in the streets. 

I find this fascinating because I heard about the protests and roits that have been occuring in the Ukraine but I had no idea what caused them. Ukraine seems to be in a very delicate situation right now regarding what decisions it should take. The former Prime Minister decided to reject this offer from the EU to form stronger relations with Moscow but was overthrown for this decision and was led to him fleeing the country. The potential good that can come from this agreement between the EU and Ukraine is well worth it I believe, however there are possible repercussions with relations with Russia as Russia has already imposed stricter customs on trade with Ukraine. Another trial that Ukraine has to overcome to gain the benefits of this signing is to meet the obligations that come from with EU political assoication; inculding the changes to the rule of law and justice, adopting business practices, and environment standards that will definitely push the country

Cultural diffusion

Thinking about cultural diffusion and using specific examples, explain how transnational corporations either intentionally or unintentionally spread consumerism through your chosen concept.

Consumerism is essentially the economical and social ideology that encourages the consumer, essentially everyone, to purchase goods or services in regular and large amounts. Its a process where people go to work and spend the money they earn in a continuous cycle of gaining a salary, spending it and then working for more money to be able to buy more goods or services. 
   
Coca-Cola is a major world wide brand that is easily one of the most recognizable brands of soda can beverages in the world. There are only two countries left in the world that do not sell coca cola to this date, North Korea and Cuba. Burma was the third country that didn't sell coca cola but since 2011 it has officially started to sell any products from Coca-Cola  It first started off as a small business in 1886 in Atlanta, Georgia USA. Since then Coca-Cola has become a huge transnational corporation and deals in over 200 countries around the world. 

Coca-Cola has been thought of in the past as the symbol of capitalism and of the west in many foreign countries. The company has intentionally spread consumerism through cultural diffusion however I highly doubt, that when the company originally set out to sell their products world wide, that they would ever reach this scale. Coca-Cola has stated that they sell 1.8 billion servings of Coca-Cola alone, excluding any of their other products. One of the main reasons why they have reached this level of consumption of their product is through focusing on its custemers. The Company is very active in promoting its products as the best sodas to drink, in understanding the consumer and targeting their wants, and leads the way for trending and popular trends. To be turthful I have fallen for this strategy as I drink at least one can of coke a day. This causes the wide spread of consumerism as people keep buying their products and then it promotes the consumption of other goods or services that follow the current popular trends in society of either that country or the world. Coca-Cola intentional do this so more and more people will buy their products and will continue buying their products. 

The Pros and Cons of globalization

The advantages of globalization:

• Surplus in resources and materials from different coutries can be sold around the world improving the countries economy.
• Consumers have a larger and more varied stock of products to buy for cooking or building or anything.
• New and innovative technologies can be sold to people who need them such as the ablity to purify water or increase the efficiency of crop harvests.
• Companies want to invest in making factories overseas for competitive prices, creating jobs in the choosen country.
• Better interactions and relations between countries that would aid each other in a state of emergency such need in aid or during war.

The disadvantages of globalization:

• In the countries that are still developing, companies can sometimes abuse the workers when they open factories there because they do not have a set nationalized safety standard for workers and for work space.
• Transnational corporations can set up a mining faclity or other activities, such as farming, that strip away the natural resources a location and leave them poorer than before. 
• An economic depression in one of the major countries can have a major effect in others, interdependence bewteen nations.  
• Small local companies are put at risk when competing against large companies that sell their products at much lower prices due to them out sourcing.
• Companies can monopolize a form of product if they can make, transport and sell at the lowest because they are able to make it in different countries for low pay and transport it all around the world.

Explain the characteristics and spatial distribution of human-induced hazards using at least two specific examples. [10 marks]

Human induced hazards are unique because they are the result of mainly human activities and an unforeseen variable that causes destruction or harm on the surrounding environment. Different kinds of of human induced hazards have varying lengths of duration, degree of magnitude, level of predictability, regularity, frequency and speed of onset. For example a nuclear meltdown will have a different degree of magnitude and speed of onset than a deep sea oil spill. 

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster is a prime example of a human induced hazard. There was poor planning and precautions taken in the event of a tsunami and this led to ultimate event of a level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale, while the only event prior that was a 7 was the Chernobyl Disaster. There was a period 2 days where high levels of radioactive material was released into the air and surrounding environment. Including many months of using sea water to cool down the exposed radioactive reactors. Even since the incident, there is still radioactive water being released into the ocean today. The evacuation zone for airborne radioactive material was of a radius of 20km from the power plant. But even areas 65km north of the plant where experiencing radiation levels 60 times higher than normal, posing no threat though. This event could have been avoided and even predicted if safety regulations were done correctly of the wall protecting the power plant from the ocean. From the earthquake, it only took an hour for a 14 meter tall tsunami to reach the power plant and breeze over the 5.7 meter tall wall built to stop it. Just under a month of explosions, attempts to cool down the reactors with sea water and ventilation's of radioactive steam to release pressures the event is categorised as level 7 nuclear event by authorities as crisis evacuation begins. Nuclear events such as this or the Three Mile Island accident aren't frequent and aren't easy to predict. Nuclear events as a whole are fairly rare but do cause a lot of damage and long lasting damage. 

Another example of human induced hazards is the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The accident was a result of methane gas being released from underground and causing a blowout of the oil rig which was then engulfed in flames. For 87 days oil was freely flowing into the ocean from the hole created by the oil rig after it was destroyed. It is considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in history. As a result 4.9 million barrels of oil was released into the Gulf of Mexico. The resulting effect of this amount of oil on the environment and wildlife has been devastating. Alone the spill threatened 39 species in the area of the Gulf of Mexico ranging from whale sharks to seagrass. Only two months after the accident, there were 143 spill-exposure causes to the oil in the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. A Louisiana physician describe the event to be the biggest public health crisis from a chemical poisoning in the history of this country. It only took 2 days before miles on miles of oil slick began to cover the coastal areas near by. Birds, fish and vegetation was drenched in oil. Even till this day oil i being washed onto shore. Clean up on the shore in 2013 removed 4.6 million pounds of oily material from the beaches and this was more than double the clean up in 2012. However there is still oil being found all the way in Florida where the oil has mixed into the sand. 

Like all human induced hazards these incidences can't be predicted to the exact day of occurrences but can be prevented with proper safety and precautions. Natural hazards can cause a human induced disaster similar to the Fukushima Nuclear disaster but if the correct procedures and safety was taken into account from the beginning then the human induced hazards could have been avoided all together. The magnitude of these hazards depend on the level of error but on most cases are fairly damaging to both the environment and the people who live there. It is the lasting damage that is unique to human induced hazards as these tend to be more damaging and last longer than any natural hazards such as earthquakes and typhoons. 

Why is it that the rich get richer and the poor stay poor?

Capitalism is the main form of economy in all the core nations and in almost all of the countries in the world. The idea of capitalism itself isn't inherently corrupted or completely wrong. In theory, almost all forms of different types of economy are perfect such as communism. However, as we know from history, ideas in theory are very different to ideas in practise. As capitalism is the economic system where the people have control over nearly everything instead of the government. The theoretical benefits of this is that since the companies are the ones providing the service rather than the government, there is a competitive market of companies working hard to provide the best services, for example transportation or electricity, for the least cost. As logicially, people want the best for the least cost. Therefore companies should have good quality services for a resonable cost. This is where the problems start.

Companies are too focused on making a profit as well as provinding their customers good quality services for the least cost to make. This is where the poor stay poor and the rich become richer. Governments privatize sectors such as electricty, infrustrature, or transportation and these companies want to make the most profit they can while it was the dutey of the government to provide the service. This can be good as the government will provide the service but maybe not at the same quality level as if it was in a healthy competing market between companies. 

When the companies do become too focus on the profit, they'll pick on the little guys. They will find the hardest working employees they can find and pay them the least amount of salary possible. The company will make a huge profit as they buy the material cheap and hire cheap labour then sell the merchandise for as much as they can. The rich become richer will the poor are only given enough to just survive. 

Examples of this are sweatshops in India and the privatization of geothermal power plants in the Philippines where the workers at the power plant raise a strike serval months later.