Topic 3: EQ3 Flashcards

Question

How has the spatial pattern of global wealth changed?

Answer 1

-Average incomes have rise in all continents since 1950, but only very slowly in the poorest parts of Africa. -The greatest gains made by European and North American nations over the same time period has resulted in a widening of the average income gap between people living in the world’s wealthiest and poorest countries. -Absolute poverty has fallen worldwide, but this statement hides the problem some countries still face. -Many countries have advanced from low-income to middle income status since the 1970s, resulting in a ‘three-speed’ world of developed, emerging and developing economies.

Answer 2

Yes. In China and Indonesia, the majority of people are better of than the previous generations when their income is measured in real terms. Yet they are economically worse off than before in relation to the richest members of their society. The Gini coefficient is a useful analytical tool that can help us to explore these patterns and trends of economic inequality further.

Answer 3

Major environmental issues are linked with globalisation, including climate change and biodiversity loss. Large-scale global flows of cheap food are good news for European and North American consumer nations. However, the transformation of 40% of the Earth’s terrestrial surface into productive agricultural land has led to habitat loss and biodiversity decline on a continental scale. The negative impacts of large agribusiness operations penetrate deeply into many of the worlds poorer regions such as east Africa and Southern Asia. Intensive cash-cropping, cattle-ranching and aquaculture bring damaging environmental effects ranging from groundwater depletion to the removal of mangrove forests.

Answer 4

The average income per capita has leapt over the absolute poverty threshold. Asia’s 2010 figure of roughly US$7000 per capita is equivalent to about US$20 per day, well in excess of the absolute poverty threshold.

Answer 5

Incomes in some African nations have remained closer to the poverty line than in Asia. It is, however, important to distinguish between different regions in Africa. Large income gains have been made in Tunisia, Algeria and other parts of the Maghreb region. North Africa in general is far more ‘switched on’ to globalisation. Elsewhere, some of Africa’s coastal hubs, for example Lagos and Cape Town, are growth engines for a handful of important emerging economies. Economists predict a bright future for these places, provided political upheavals do not derail the economic development process. They expect strong African middle-class growth to rival Asia over coming decades.

Answer 6

Poverty remains entrenched in some Sub-Saharan countries, including Burundi and Central African Republic. In several places, a toxic cocktail of geographical isolation (e,g landlocked), poverty and political extremism has resulted in falling life expectancy due to conflict. Human rights abuses are widespread and progress towards gender equality has been set back decades by the spread of extremist political organ including the Lord’s resistance army in Uganda and militant Islamists in Mali.

Answer 7

In 2004, eight Eastern European nations joined the EU. An unprecedented volume and rate of post-accession in-migration followed for the UK and Ireland. The arrival of 1 million Eastern Europeans is a large reason to why the population grew from 59.4million to 64.5million between 2004 and 2015.

Answer 8

Yes, for instance, new polish migrants have joined a long-established diaspora community in Balham, London. Many non-polish Balham residents have welcomed their arrival and their contribution to the local economy and society. Small shopkeepers have visibly courted Polish custom. However, some local people worry that young migrants have increased the crude birth rate beyond the capacity of the area’s primary schools.

Answer 9

UK residents began relocating to the Mediterranean coastline (France, Italy, Spain) in 1993, when freedom of movement in the EU was first allowed. British enclaves can be identified through local ‘enthoscape’ features such as bars and cafes. However, poor behaviour of some younger ‘Brits’ has sometime strained cultural relations with indigenous communities.

Answer 10

The flow of economic migrants after a country has joined the EU.

Answer 11

The dispersion or spread of a group of people form their original homeland.

Answer 12

The number of live births per 1000 people per year.

Answer 13

The leaders of some of the UK’s biggest TNCs have argues that migration restrictions threaten their own competitiveness and, more broadly, the UK’s role as a global hub. Deregulation of the city of London in 1986 removed large amounts of ‘red tape’ for businesses. London’s financial and legal firms began to regularly rotate staff between their different international offices in Asia, Europe and the Americas. Other companies have recruited large numbers of skilled programmers. It isn’t just UK headquartered TNCs that are alarmed by restrictions on migration.

Answer 14

Indian, Chinese and Brazilian TNCs wanted a European base may be less likely to choose London if it becomes harder to transfer staff to the UK.

Answer 15

They believe too much in-migration has been allowed to take place. Some voted for UKIP in the 2015 general election. This political party wants to see even stricter controls on migration, including an end to the UK’s full participation in the EU and the freedom of movement this has allowed. Approximately 30% of London’s 8 million residents were born in another country. Om many London buses and trains you can now hear a variety of language being spoke. Some Londoners judge the scale and rate of cultural change as simply being too great.

Answer 16

In some EU states, nationalist parties, such as France’s Front National, command significant support. Nationalist parties often oppose immigration; some reject the multiculturalism and openly embrace fascism. In the 1990s, the UK’s British National Party voiced its opposition to the continuing presence of post-colonial migrants and their families. Although race relations in the UK have improved over time, racially-aggravated assaults do, sadly, occasionally occur, the murder or Stephen Lawrence in Eltham in 1993 is one such example.

Answer 17

Staff of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were killed by gunmen of the Algerian descent. The murderers said that their Islamic faith had been mocked. Extreme events such as these are still rare but demonstrate tensions in multicultural Europe. Around 25% of voters supported France’s Front National Party in the 2014 European Parliamentary elections.

Answer 18

This is a political movement focused on national independence or the abandonment of policies that are viewed by some people as a threat to national sovereignty or national culture.

Answer 19

These are people who moved to European Countries from former colonies during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The UK received economic migrants from the Caribbean, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Uganda.

Answer 20

Governments may try to prevent or control the global flows of people, goods and information, with varying success. -Laws can be strengthened to limit the number of economic migrants. However, illegal immigration can be hard to tackle. -Around 40 world governments limit their citizens freedom to access online information. Violent or sexual imagery is censored in many countries. However, a ‘dark web’ also exists, which is harder to control. -Trade protectionism is still common, despite the efforts of the Bretton Woods institutions. However, illegal smuggling of both illegal and legal commodities can be very hard to control. In 2014, global sales of illegal drugs are estimated to have exceeded US$300 billion.

Answer 21

In 2015, large numbers of desperate refugees from Syria and poor African nations like Somalia arrived in Europe. Some has crossed the Mediterranean in overcrowded, leaking boats with great loss of life. Many more arrived at the borders of Hungary and Serbia, having walked there. European countries are obliged to take in genuine refugees, irrespective of economic migrations rules. Since 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has guaranteed refugees the right to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution.

Answer 22

For nearly 70 years the People’s Republic of China has been ruled by the Communist Party. China’s rulers are intolerant of any criticism mounted against them by their own citizens. In 1988, Chinese students demonstrated against communism in Tiananmen Square: hundreds of people are thought to have died in the army crackdown the followed. Many Chinese people still do not know what happened on that day, due to the strict censorship of the press and internet. Google withdrew its services from China in 2010 when the Chinese government insisted that search engine results should be censored to hide information about Tiananmen Square.

Answer 23

Despite Facebook, Twitter and YouTube remaining unavailable there due to the ‘great firewall of China’, more than 400 million Chinese citizens interact with one another using local social media sites, such as Youku Tudou. In contrast, North Koreans have no access to the internet as a result of the state controls. Restrictions on the use therefore operate at two geographical scales: the national (China) and personal (North Korea).

Answer 24

Since 2010, a 5-tier point system has been in place in the UK designed to help control immigration by checking that economic migrants posses skills of resources that the UK economy needs. For example, tier 1 migrants must be prepared to invest more than £2 million in the UK or possess ‘exceptional talent’. These rules do not apply to EU migrants, who are allowed free movement. The incoming UK government of 2010 pledged to cut net migration to 100,000 people a year, however this hasn’t been met.

Answer 25

Fewer British Citizens have left the UK to live overseas since the 2008 global financial crisis. Also, the pound-euro exchange rate has weakened, meaning that the cost of living in the Eurozone has risen for UK citizens. -The government has no control over EU migrants wanting to work in the UK. -Refugees are allowed to remain in the UK under human rights law.

Answer 26

This is the overall balance between immigration and emigration.

Answer 27

This describes a growing tendency for state governments to take measures ensuring that domestic industries and consumers have priority access to the national resources found within their borders. For example: -Hugo Chávez seized control of ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips operations in Venezuela. -In 2009, Canada-based First Quantum was forced to hand over 65% of ownership of a US$550 million copper mining project in the Democratic Republic of Congo to the country’s government. -Until recently, resource nationalism in China took the form of restrictions on rare earth exports. Japan, the USA and the EU all expressed concerns to the WTO. As a result, China finally relaxed restrictions in 2014.

Answer 28

Whether global forced should be allowed to exploit their resources. Opposition can be strong when an important landscape is threatened by the resource extraction process. One example of this includes the Ogoni people’s on-going struggle with oil companies in Nigeria and opposition to fracking by Canada’s First Nations people.

Answer 29

Canada is home to six groups of indigenous people, known as the First Nations. Their occupation of the land long pre-dates the arrival of Europeans. Some First Nations people of the Mackenzie and Yukon River basins oppose the attempts of global oil companies to ‘switch on’ their region. The Dene residents of the Sahtu Region have already experienced negative impacts of globalisation and petroleum development near the settlement of Norman Wells. Over 200 million barrels of conventional oil has been extracted there since 1920.

Answer 30

-The death of trout and other fish in oil-polluted lakes (a lifestyle based around subsistence fishing, hunting and trapping is fundamental to the Dene’s cultural identity). -The effects of alcohol and drugs (brought by oil workers) on the behaviour of young Dene people.

Answer 31

Oil TNCs, including Shell, ExxonMobil, Imperial Oil and ConocoPhillips Canada are now exploring the surrounding Canol shale and assessing its potential for shale oil. Shale ‘fracking’ in other places has been linked with water pollution.

Answer 32

Growing food, water, energy and climate insecurity. As a result of global trade and rising prosperity in emerging economies, almost 1 billion people in Africa, Latin America and Asia have attainted ‘new global middle class’ status in the last 30 years. 2 billion more are on the cusp of it. This inevitably puts increased pressure on natural resources, and there are concerns that the Earth cannot cope with the growth of consumer societies.

Answer 33

21 times larger. In other words, the same area of land that supports ten US citizens with high impact lifestyles supports 200 low-impact lifestyles. Increasingly, this ‘US lifestyle’ is an aspiration for people in developing and emerging economies. The combined power of TNCs, media corporations and new technology drivers global consumerism. As a result, globalisation has become linked with a series of interconnected and this far irresolvable ‘21st century challenges’.

Answer 34

By 2050, food demand is likely to double worldwide. Middle-class diets and characterised by their consumption of meat and dairy and have larger ecological footprint.

Answer 35

Food production also depletes water supplies. Animal husbandry and crop production can be water-intensive activities. Many increasingly people global commodities, such as chocolate, coffee and wine have a high water footprint. Additionally, as societies develop economically and urbanise, everyday household water use increases significantly.

Answer 36

A 50% increase in global energy use is predicted by 2035. Unless significant innovation in renewable or nuclear energy is achieved, increased use of fossil fuels is inevitable, including ‘dirty fuels’ like oil shale. Their extraction scars local landscapes and threatens the transition to a clean energy economy.

Answer 37

The global diffusion and adoption of manufactured items, from energy-hungry televisions and fridges to throwaway plastic pens and bottles, has increased average carbon footprint size of the earth’s population. In 2013, global concentration of carbon dioxide reached 400 parts per million. As a consequence, a harmful global temperature rise of more than 2°C now appears to be inevitable.

Answer 38

This is a material source of wealth, such as timber, fresh water, or a mineral deposit, that occurs in a natural state and has economic value. Natural resources may be renewable (sustainably managed forest, wind power and solar energy) or non-renewable (fossil fuels).

Answer 39

This is a society in which the buy and selling of goods and services is the most important social and economic activity.

Answer 40

This is a crude measurement of the area of land or water required to provide a person (or society) with the energy, food and resources needed to live, and to also absorb waste.

Answer 41

This is a measure of the amount of water used in the production and transport to market of food and commodities (also known as the amount of ‘virtual water’ which is ‘embedded’ in a product).

Answer 42

This is the amount of carbon dioxide produced by an individual or activity.

Answer 43

This allied with cheap labour and material costs in developing countries has helped TNCs to develop extensive global production networks. This strategy maximises profits, but maximises carbon footprints too. Fiji water is a notorious example: this brand, of bottled water is transported 20,000km from Fiji to UK supermarket.

Answer 44

Environment costs, e.g a ‘carbon tax’ should be introduced. In the absence of this, some environmentally minded citizens adopt an ethical consumption strategy by purchasing locally sourced food and commodities. They boycott supermarket products with high food miles.

Answer 45

Local pressure groups.

Answer 46

The Eden Project is a popular tourist site in Cornwall that houses plants from all over the world in two enormous biomes. For the 600,000 meals that are provided annually for visitors, 90% of the produce is brought from local suppliers in Cornwall and Devon.

Answer 47

Locally sourced produce is sometimes more expensive than globally-produced items. From an economic viewpoint, it is not ‘rational’ behaviour to purchase expensive items when cheaper ones are available. Pressure groups and NGOs such as Greenspace counter this argument by saying that cheap imports of food and goods are not really cheap. This is because rising greenhouse gas emissions will generate long-term costs to society. However, for many people who are on low incomes, this is not necessarily a compelling argument.

Answer 48

-Economic sustainability: individuals and communities should have access to a reliable income over time. -Social sustainability: all individuals should enjoy a reasonable quality of life. -Environmental sustainability: no lasting damage should be done to the environment; renewable resources must be managed in ways that guarantee continued use.

Answer 49

Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Answer 50

There must be a significant reduction in world economic output or new ‘technological fixes’, such as widespread carbon capture and storage. The former will not come voluntarily because a high economic growth rate is the goal of all free market economies. As a result, government or corporate ‘commitment’ to sustainable development should, in general, be analysed with a critical eye. For instance, banning the use of throwaway plastic bags arguably does little to provide real environmental security for the future: far bolder moves are needed.

Answer 51

This is the distance food travels from a farm to the consumer. The journey may be short and direct for some local produce, or may take longer, often with food crossing entire continents via a string of depots.

Answer 52

This is a settlement where individuals and businesses have adopted ‘bottom-up’ initiatives with the aim of making their community more sustainable and less reliant on global trade.

Answer 53

Todmordern, South Pennines. Much of the food on sale in the town is grown locally. The ‘incredible edible Todmordern’ campaign, which received National Lottery funding, aims to encourage consumers and growers to work together for the long-term good of the planet. It has created 40 public fruit and vegetable gardens and stages regular educational talks and events in the town.

Answer 54

-Local sourcing of everyday meat and vegetables can be very expensive, especially for people on low incomes. -Many small producers in the UK have adopted organic farming methods. Crops are grown using fewer pesticides, which could have health benefits.

Answer 55

-Less demand from Uk consumers for food from producer countries means less economic development for places such as Ivory Coast. -UK farmers have moved up the value chain by manufacturing locally sourced items, including Jams, fruit juices and wine.

Answer 56

-Tomatoes in the UK are grown in heated greenhouses and poly tunnels during winter, resulting in a larger carbon footprint than imported Spanish tomatoes. -The 1992 Rio Earth Summit introduced the slogan: Think global, act local’. Local sourcing sometimes helps people to reduce their carbon footprint size.

Answer 57

This is a financial exchange where the consumer has considered the social and environmental costs of production for food, goods or services purchased.

Answer 58

While consumers benefit economically from global shift’s cheap goods, many have ethical concerns about the social costs of worker exploitation. ‘Opting out’ of buying globally-sourced commodities is very hard to do in practice. However, ethical purchases are increasingly available thanks to the work of NGOs, charities and a growing number of businesses with a ‘social responsibility’ agenda.

Answer 59

The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh is a significant recent development that shows Western retailers beginning to take more responsibility for working conditions in their supply chains. It was introduced following the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh in 2013. It led to the deaths of 1100 textile workers. On the day of the collapse, workers were sent back into the buildings to compete international orders in time for delivery, even though major cracks had appeared overnight in the building. Wal-mart, Matalan and other major TNCs regularly outsourced clothing to Rana Plaza.

Answer 60

Many British TNCs have signed the Accord on Fire and Safety in Bangladesh, which is a legally binding agreement on worker safety. These companies now promise to ensure safety checks are carried out regularly in all Bangladeshi factories that supply them with clothes.

Answer 61

At the end of their useful life, manufactured goods are often sent as waste to landfill. An alternative is to recycle them. This reduces the rate at which new natural resources are used. However, the recycling process does itself require the use of energy and water.

Answer 62

This is because of the energy which is required for: -The treatment of waste -To transport waste to recycling sites (much of the UK’a plastic, paper and glass waste is exported to China, for the same reasons that explain global shift, such as cheaper labour costs).

Answer 63

Recycling can be viewed as the first step towards the more ambitious goal of a circular economy. This approach to sustainable development calls for far more careful management of materials. The goal is to maintain or increase natural resource stocks by requiring manufacturers or retailers to do more to recycle, reuse or repair products that they ideally might lease, rather than sell to consumers. This could ultimately result in a new global business model which will ‘design out’ waste all together. Products would be designed in a way that allows for them to be disassembled and reused or repurposed far more easily.

Answer 64

The use of new substitute materials. Graphene is one newly invented ‘super material’ that is light and strong and may, in time, replace the need for older materials such as steel.

Answer 65

China and India. While the populations of the world’s emerging economies have accelerated global consumption and waste production, they are also part of the solution. China especially is politically engaged with trying to tackle the sustainability challenges we all now face. Emerging economies are becoming leaders in resourcing efficient technology and renewable energy. China is the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels.

Answer 66

Local authorities in the UK run their own recycling schemes under Local Agenda 21 (established at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development). In 2011, the Welsh Assembly banned shops in Wales from giving away free plastic bags, with a 5p tax being charged on them. The 5p charge was considered to be enough to influence the behaviour of the shopper without harming trade for retailers. Consumers avoid paying for the bags by simply those that they already have. The years following saw Northern Ireland, Scotland and England all take up similar taxes.

Answer 67

This offers a guaranteed higher income to farmers and some manufacturers, even if the market prices change. Example include produce such as coffee, chocolate, bananas, wine and even clothing items such as Jeans. The Waitrose foundation has also embraced fairer trade principles by improving pay for farmers in its own supply chains.

Answer 68

-Fairtrade goods let shoppers know that what they spend will find it’s way into the pay pockets of poor workers, but not all shoppers will pay more for it. -However, as the number of schemes grows, it becomes harder to ensure that money has been correctly distributed. -It is not possible for all the world’s farmers to join a scheme offering a high fixed price for potentially unlimited crop yields.

Answer 69

-Large businesses increasingly accept the need for corporate social responsibility. -The largest TNCs have thousands of suppliers; this increases the risk of branded products being linked with worker exploitation. -Apple investigated its IPhone touchscreen supplier, whose workers were poisoned by a chemical cleaning agent.

Answer 70

-Charity War on Want helped South African fruit pickers; it flew a woman called Gertruida to a Tesco shareholder meeting in London. Gertruida explained there was no toilet for female workers at the farm she worked at. Tesco told the farm it would use a different fruit supplier unless the conditions improved.

Answer 71

-Firms such as Gap and Nike now prohibit worker exploitation in their own foreign factories, but it is hard to monitor the working conditions and pay for the workforce of every single supplier they buy from. -It is also especially hard to control what happens in the workplaces of their suppliers’ suppliers.

Answer 72

-NGOs have limited financial resources. This can limit the scale of what they can achieve, or result in slow progress. -Although NGOs such as Amnesty International work hard to raise awareness of ethical issues, many people remain unaware of, or unconcerned with, worker exploitation.