6.2 Enviromental Risks

Question 1

what is meant by negative externalities?

Answer 1

Costs that arise on account of economic activity, including uncompensated-for environmental damage.

Question 2

what are atmospheric and ocean transfers?

Answer 2

The planetary scale air and water movements that result from the uneven heating of the earth by the sun.

Question 3

The negative externalities of global flows of food, commodities, people and waste have affected Earth’s terrestrial and marine environments in multiple ways, can you explain how on a planetary scale?

Answer 3

Planetary-scale environmental risks are associated with globalisation and global economic development, most notably the challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss.

Question 4

The negative externalities of global flows of food, commodities, people and waste have affected Earth’s terrestrial and marine environments in multiple ways, can you explain how on a local scale?

Answer 4

At the local scale, the global shifts of industry and agricultural activities by cost-cutting TNCs have often brought damaging land, water and air pollution to weakly regulated places.

Question 5

no society is isolated from the escalating environmental risks, care you give somthing to back this up/exemplify it?

Answer 5

-Every country is exposed to the effects of a warming climate.

-The operation of global atmospheric and ocean transfers ensures there is a constant risk of large-scale point-source pollution in one poorly regulated place having harmful effects on other places.

-Even countries with strict environmental legislation may suffer occasionally from major pollution events as a result of human error or natural hazards.

Question 6

what are the consequence of transboundary pollution and when it is most likely to occur?

Answer 6

Transboundary pollution has damaging effects for more than one country. It is most likely to occur when:

1) polluting activities take place close to a country border.
2) atmospheric, ocean or hydrological processes carry pollution in a direction which crosses a state border.
3) An especially large-scale pollution event occurs.

Question 7

Give an example of a transboundary pollution?

Answer 7

Transboundary aquifer pollution in South America.

Spoiling of water quality in transboundary aquifers - of which there are 273 in the world - is another growing environmental concern.

The Guarani Aquifer underlies 1.2 million square kilometres of land shared by Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. This vital water store is under pressure from many globalized activities such as pulp production and cattle rearing for international markets. Pollution is any one country enters the hydrological stream and is transferred to nabouring states.

Question 8

Introduce an explanation of local environmental impacts of global flows?

Answer 8

All global flows and movements have some kind of environmental footprint, no matter how small. even a quick online search using a computer has a tiny carbon footprint (an estimated 7 grams of carbon dioxide - around half as much as boiling water for a cup of tea.

Question 9

what is the local environmental impact of FDI and commodity flows (a global Flow)

Answer 9

Mining operations in Brazil claimed several lives in 2015 when a dam failed at a mine in Samarco owned by BHP Billiton and Vale; the mud and waste slides killed 16 people.

Question 10

what is the local environmental impact of tourist flows (a global Flow)

Answer 10

Air flight costs have fallen over time, while affluence has risen for many, making travel to distant places more affordable. Expansion of the ‘pleasure periphery’ – remote regions of the world often possessing wilderness qualities– puts stress on previously undisturbed fragile and unique environments

Since 2011, for instance, the average number of daily visitors at Machu Picchu has far exceeded the daily limit of 2,500 agreed between Peru and UNESCO. The visitor flow to Mach Picchu has risen from 200,000 to 1.2 million people since 2000; extensive site damage from trampling has now put Machhu Piccu on UNESCO’s ‘endangered’ list.

Question 11

what is the local environmental impact of waste flows (a global Flow)

Answer 11

China is the top destination for RU waste flows; in 2023, 8 million tonnes of plastic, 34 million tonnes of waste paper and 5 million tons of steel scrap were sent there for recycling.

Ghana, Nigeria, India, Pakistan and China and major recipients of sometimes dangerous and illigal wastes that, under EU law, ought not to have been exported.

Question 12

on what scale is marine plastic pollution a problem?

Answer 12

Plastic pollution is a problem that has truly ‘gone global’. fragments of plastic washed into the sea by runoff from populated areas have been carried by planetary-scale ocean currents to the remotest corners of the world, including Arctic and Antarctic wildrness areas.

Question 13

what have been the recent patterns in marine plastic pollution?

Answer 13

The problem has accelerated: more plastic was produced globally in the first decade of the twenty-first century (the start of which marked the ‘birth’ of plastic). In 2014, 311 million tonnes of plastic were produced worldwide; this is predicted to rise to over 1,100 million tonnes by 2050.

Question 14

Reasons for the growth in plastic production include…..?

Answer 14

1) Platics’ growing use in everyday life; toothbrushes, credit cards, asthma pumps, polytunnels and irrigation pipes are all made of plastic.

2) The cheap commodities boom driven by low wages in developing and emerging economies has fulled ‘throw-away’ attitudes on a global scale.

3) The boom in bottled water has led to the use of over 2 million plastic bottles every five minutes in the USA. Globally, the figure is far higher.

Question 15

large areas of the earth’s oceans have become particularly polluted with plastic fragments, why is this?

Answer 15

because of the operation of surface gyres. These gyres are circular currents in the oceans; they move clockwise in the northern hemisphere and anti-clockwise in the southern hemisphere.

Question 16

what is the consequence of the areas of earth’s ocean that have become particularly polluted with plastic fragments due to the surface gyres?

Answer 16

In the North Pacific Ocean, there is now a floating plastic ‘garbage patch’ that is twice the size of Texas.

It is composed of various disposable plastic products such as shampoo caps and fragments of blastic bags, in addition to much smaller particles called microbeads which have been needlessly added by TNCs to toothpaste and shower gels (Greenpeace got a lot of media coverage for campaigning to have microbeads banned globally, in 2018, After two years of campaigning and 350,000 of signing their petition, the government banned on microbeads in rinse-off cosmetics and toiletries..)

Question 17

TheGyre ststems also convey platic waste to isolated islands and coeal atolls far from any pollution souce, can you give an example?

Answer 17

Plastic pollution of the Hawaiian Island, such as Tern Island, has been widley reported by campaigning groups (and provided a stimulus for consumer-led drive to reduce throwaway plastic bag use in the UK).

Question 18

what are in impacts of increase plastic pollution on marine life?

Answer 18

In recent years, scientists have becone increangly concered with the impacts of plastic pollution on marine species and food webs.

Worldwide, 260 spcies of bird and mammal are knows to ingest or become entangled in plastic waste.

Discrded red lids from watter bottles are a particular problem – in size and colour they mimic the apperance of the krill shrimp that Albatross eat.

Autopseis have showsn an abundance of red-coloured debris in the gut of dead albatross.

Question 19

Talk about carbon footprints for global flows of food, goods and people?

Answer 19

Economic acitivity today takes place on an unpecidented scale. The sheer number of people living their lives as consumers or producers of commodities has baught a step-change in levles of enciromental stress.

Todays global network of production and comsupmtion – replying as they do on the perpetual motion of container ships, aeroplanes and mega-trucks filled with mass produced cosnumer goods – have clearly accelerated greenhouse gas emissions.

Question 20

The carbon footprint concept is a usefull way to start thinking about how the activities of individuals or socity may potentionally affect others. However, the validit and realibality off carbon footprint measures are worth reflecting on critically, how would you do this for Persoanl carbon footprints?

Answer 20

An individual footprint can be calculated over the cource of the year by estimating the embbeded carbon in 1) manafactured good purchase. 2) air flights. 3) home heating 4)annual capita of food consumption and 5) commuting.

But many other factors and activities could be included, can we agree on what they are when people have such variong lifesyles globally?

Question 21

The carbon footprint concept is a usefull way to start thinking about how the activities of individuals or socity may potentionally affect others. However, the validit and realibality off carbon footprint measures are worth reflecting on critically, how would you do this for corporate carbon footprints?

Answer 21

A business can attempt to estimate the carbon footprint of all its buisness premises but should it include employees journey to work, or is that the reponsablity of th worker?

In 2010, UK supermarket TESCO abandoned an attempt to introduce carbon footprint labeling on ready made meals and ther goods beacuse the number of ingreedeients and factos to be considered made the task to complex.

Question 22

The carbon footprint concept is a usefull way to start thinking about how the activities of individuals or socity may potentionally affect others. However, the validit and realibality off carbon footprint measures are worth reflecting on critically, how would you do this for national carbon footprints?

Answer 22

Many of the worlds least developed countries, such as DRC, continue to maoe a negilble contribution to anthropogenic GHG emissions.

Developed countires hve high but falling emissions according to data their govermnets produce. However, these figures only reflect ‘dometic emmisions’ and exlude 1) the operation of their own TNCs overeases operations as 2) any of the emmissions of the countries they import from.

As a result the UK goverment, for example, has claimed responsibility for 1.5 per cent of total global emmsions annually

Critics say that this is a disingenously low estimate beacuse UK citizen are major consumers of carbn emitting goods and servises produced else where in the world.

Question 23

what has been the changing pattern in carbon footprints for wealth nations?

Answer 23

Dispite still being high emitters when compared to thr world porrest countires, many of the worlds dveloped countires are now reducing their carbon footprint size in part owing to a more towards renewable energy.

For this an other reasons, it is increangly common to see the worlds developed countiries situdated at position 4 on the enciromental Kuznets curve.

Question 24

through the study of global interactions, we have leartn to logically question hypotheisis, how would you question the changing pattern in carbon footprint for wealthier nations?

Answer 24

-Falling doemstic carbon emissions is some developed countires mask the fact that thse states now import much of their food and comsumer goods from other countires sicne deindustrialization.

Develped countries are reducing their doemstic carbo footprint but are also in reality, increasing their carbon consumption by importing ever-greater volumes of energy intseive food and goods from other countires.

Question 25

talk about global shift and its realtion to the enviroment?

Answer 25

TNCs seek low-cost sites for their manafacturing and refining operations wherever possible. Cheap labour is often a key locational consideration, underlying global shifts.

However, another atractive locationfactor can be weak enviromental controles. In high income nations, bodies such as the UK enviromental Agency are well funded to carry out their brife of closly monotoring industrial operations. In comparison far less ‘red tape’ exists in many developing countires and emebring economies.

Question 26

give you intro for case study ‘pulluting manafacturing industires’?

Answer 26

Although it happned more than 30 years ago, the pollution event that occured in the indian town of Bhopal remains highly relevant to the contempoary study of global interactions.

Question 27

give your two reasons as to why your ‘polluting manafacturing industires; case study is still relevant?

Answer 27

1) Justice has not yet been won for the people who were affected. IN 1984, the US company Union Carbide’s poorly maintained Indian pesticides plamt accedenlty relased a lethal plume of toxic gas, killing thousadnds. At least 3000 people died on the night of the gas leak, while hundereds of thousands more fled Bhopal – a forced migration.

2) The slow process made towards achiving compensation is due in part to the later acquisition of Union Carbide b Dow Chemical. Aquisitions are a routine way for a sucessfull TNC to build market share, power and influence. they also howver, provide the perfect pretex for legal evasion.

Question 28

how can you address your ‘polluting manufacturing industries’ case study from a contemporary lense?

Answer 28

In more recent years, the breakneck speed of manufacturing growth in China has given rise to a pollution problem on a much larger scale that has potentially affected hundreds of millions of people.

The ‘airpocalypse’ phenomenon reduces the C
hinese life expectancy but up to five years according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Question 29

what is the resistance to the problem in your ‘polluting manufacturing industries case study?

Answer 29

Increasingly, civil society organisations inside china are raising awareness of the issue by staging ‘not in my backyard’ protests using organized social media networking. (Chinese citizens are still active users of ‘shirnking world’ technologies despite a relative lack of external connectivity).

Question 30

what is another stakeholder industry who impacts the environment?

Answer 30

Global agribusinesses

Question 31

explain how global agribusinesses are another stakeholder industry who impact the environment?

Answer 31

Though not always generating the same kind of dramatic headlines as chemical spills or toxic gas, the ecological transformation of 40 per cent of earth’s terrestrial surface into productive agricultural land – much of it now in the hands of major global agribusinesses – is a profound environmental change.

Question 32

give and example of how global agribusinesses are another stakeholder industry that impacts the environment?

Answer 32

The larger agribusinesses, such as Del Monte, are TNCs whose extensive production networks are responsible for the truly diverse range of products available in the European and North American supper market aisle. However, the impact of this availability penetrates deeply into some of the poorest societies of the world. such as East Africa and southern Asia.

Question 33

Global agribusinesses engage in a variety of activities, including the intersive production of cash crops, cattle ranching and aquaculture, these have many damaging effects, what are the ones you need to know about?

Answer 33

Eutrophication
biodiversity loss
forest service loss
water scacity

Question 34

expand on eutrophication?

Answer 34

Around 20 ‘marine dead zones’ lie scattered around the world’s coastal marines. These are sites where intense inputs of fertilizers in agriculture run off over stimulate ecosystem productivity. This results in algal blooms and their subsequent collapse, leading to the de-oxygenation of water and species death.

Some of the worst affected areas are hub regions for global agribusinesses, such as the gulf of Mexico.

Question 35

expand on biodiversity loss?

Answer 35

With so much of the world’s land surface used for farming, many of Earth’s 1.4 million identified species have experienced habitat loss. Increasing numbers are on the IUCNs red list.

The largest agribusinesses have often promoted wheat, maize, rice or potato monoculture (both shaping and reflecting the homogenization of diet that is an aspect of cultural globalisation).

These four crops now account for 60% of plant-derived calories in human diets worldwide.

Question 36

expand on forest service loss?

Answer 36

Forests deliver vital ecosystem services for people and places. For instance, tropical rainforest provides interception cover that naturally limits storm runoff. Rising incidents of flooding in the Ganges delta can be linked to timber removal, with much of the wood-feeding hardwood demand.

Mangrove forests similarly offer protection to tropical costal margins – in this case, against storm surges. However insatiable world consumer demand for tiger prawns directly leads to mangrove clearance in places like Indonesia and Madagascar.

Question 37

expand on water scarcity?

Answer 37

The worst effects occur when intensive crop farming is introduced to areas where only limited water supplies are naturally available. Thirty farms growing flowers destined for European supermarkets have contributed ti the shrinkage of Kenya’s Lake Naivasha.

The term ‘Virtual water’ is used to describe the water that has been ‘embedded’ in the production of food or goods for global markets. Each EU citizen consumes around 4000 litres of virtual water per day, according to one estimate, on account of their lifestyle.

Question 38

what are the evaluations, synthesis and skills you need to employ when using knowledge from this sub unit?

Answer 38

how different global interactions affect the physical environment and processes.

How global flows and interactions affect the environment at varying scales.