Human Geography Places and Regions in Global Conte PDF

Preview

Summary

Download Human Geography Places and Regions in Global Conte PDF

Description

78 HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

Places and Regions in Global Context

2.2 Visualizing Geography Commodity Chains Global commodity chains link the progression of a commodity from design through procurement of raw materials and production to import or export to the point of sale, distribution for sale, marketing, and advertising.

Almost every mass-marketed manufactured product involves a complex commodity chain. Here we look at the manufacture of cell phones.

2.1 Suppliers and Manufacturers Advances in telecommunications, management techniques, transportation, finance, and other services to industry have made possible the segmentation of corporate production lines and services. Manufacturing companies now design a product in one country, have it produced by contractors in various countries continents apart, sell the product with its brand name by telephone or Internet almost anywhere in the world, and have other contractors deliver it. These services—design, sales, financing, and delivery—can be undertaken without the various actors ever meeting face to face. Advances in technology and management permit the reproduction and standardization of services and products on a global basis.

Primary supplier

Copyright © 2016. Pearson Education Limited. All rights reserved.

Subcontracted manufacturing No data

2.2 Electronic Waste Much of the world’s electronic waste, including cell phones, finds its way back to China. Tons of discarded cell phones and other electronic waste also make their way into China via Hong Kong and Vietnam. Informal e-waste treatment methods such as open burning and acid stripping of electronic components leads to severe health and environmental hazards. More than 70% of mobile devices today can be reused but only 14-17% are recycled annually. Proper recycling of 1 million cell phones can recover: Known sources of electronic waste

20 lbs of palladium 50 lbs of gold

Known and suspected destinations No data

CHAPTER 2

The Changing Global Context

2.3 The iPhone Commodity Chain COMMODITIES Design Raw materials Production Marketing/Advertising

AUSTRALIA Rare-earth minerals used in electronic components BRAZIL Rare-earth minerals used in electronic components CHINA Yttrium, lanthanum, neodymium, and many other rare-earth minerals used in electronic components, color screen, glass polishing, and vibration unit Currently, more than 90% of rare earth minerals are mined in China. Cleaner, more efficient processes are being developed in the U.S. and other countries. Main chassis Final assembly China’s Foxconn is the world’s largest electronics contract manufacturer. It’s estimated that Foxconn makes 40% of consumer electronics in the world. Foxconn makes electronics for many leading brands such as Apple, HewlettPackard, Dell, Nintendo, Motorola, Amazon, Nokia, Sony, and Samsung. DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (DRC) Tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold used in electronic components The DRC is the fifth largest supplier of tin ore, and according to a U.S. Geological Survey, about 10 percent of tungsten--the mineral used to make cell phones vibrate--is imported to the United States. Armed rebel groups connected with violent crimes profit from trade of these minerals.

Copyright © 2016. Pearson Education Limited. All rights reserved.

FRANCE AND ITALY Gyroscope (allows vertical or horizontal display)

1.6 billion smartphones of all brands are projected to be sold by 2016. The largest areas of growth will be China and India. The average user in the U.S. upgrades their cell phone every 21.7 months, which amounts to 130 million devices being discarded each year in the U.S. alone. Users in other countries keep their devices much longer on average: Germany: 45.7 months Brazil: 80.8 months India: 93.6 months 1. Describe the three types of commodity chains and think of an example commodity produced by each process.

GERMANY Accelerometer (detects direction and acceleration) JAPAN iSight camera Retina display Fingerprint sensor Flash memory NETHERLANDS M7 motion coprocessor (interprets data from accelerometer, gyroscope, and compass) SINGAPORE Plastic chassis for iPhone 5c SOUTH KOREA Microprocessors TAIWAN RF modules (radio frequency modules used to transmit/receive radio signals) UNITED STATES Yttrium, lanthanum, neodymium, and many other rare-earth minerals used in electronic components, color screen, glass polishing, and vibration unit Product design The majority of cell phones are designed in the U.S. while nearly all manufacturing takes place overseas, mainly in China and other Asian countries. Gorilla glass display Audio components Transmit modules RF switches (radio frequency device used for signal routing) Touchscreen controller FaceTime camera chip Chiat/Day advertising agency

References: http://www.cnet.com/news/digging-for-rare-earths-the-mines-where-iphones-are-born/ Forbes.com Apple.com FinancesOnline.com http://www.statisticbrain.com/iphone-5-sales-statistics/ Public Radio e-cycle.com International EPA Website: http://www.step-initiative.org/news.php?id=0000000163 http://www.e-stewards.org/the-e-waste-crisis/ Huffington Post New York Times Alliance of American Manufacturing United Nations University

http://goo.gl/AQYx0

2. Take a closer look at a commodity you use every day—your favorite coffee, your tablet or laptop, your lipstick or tennis shoes--and trace the chain of production from company home, design, raw materials, production

80 HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

Places and Regions in Global Context

clearing land for settlement, mining, and agriculture provides livelihoods and homes for some but also transforms human populations, wildlife, and vegetation. The inevitable byproducts—garbage, air and water pollution, hazardous wastes, and so forth—place enormous demands on the capacity of physical systems to absorb and accommodate them. Climate change as a result of human activity—in particular, our burning of fossil fuels, agriculture, and deforestation that cause emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other “greenhouse” gases—also has profound implications for environmental quality. Without concerted action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the global average surface temperature is likely to rise by a further 1.8–4.0°C this century. Since preindustrial times, even the lower end of this range would experience a temperature increase above 2°C, the threshold beyond which irreversible and possibly catastrophic changes become far more likely. Projected global warming this century is likely to trigger serious consequences for humanity and other life forms. These consequences may include a rise in sea levels of between 18 and 59 centimeters (which will endanger coastal areas and small islands) and a greater frequency and severity of extreme weather events. In addition to the specter of global warming, we are facing serious global environmental degradation through deforestation, desertification, acid rain, loss of genetic diversity, smog, soil erosion, groundwater depletion, and the pollution of rivers, lakes, and oceans. The fate of Lake Baikal, in Russia (Figure 2.15), provides a distressing example. It is a place of incredible beauty—“the Pearl of Siberia”—that has long been

emblematic of the pristine wilderness of the region. The lake holds 20 percent of the world’s freshwater and is home to 2,500 species, many of them found nowhere else, such as the world’s only exclusively freshwater seal. The lake has warmed 1.21°C (2.18°F) since 1946 due to climate change, almost three times faster than global air temperatures. The lake’s purity and unique ecosystem have also been compromised by environmental mismanagement. When thousands of the lake’s freshwater seals began dying in 1997, the lake’s fragile ecology came under international scrutiny, and in 1998 the lake was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, the UN cultural agency. In 2007, the Russian government declared the Baikal region a Special Economic Zone, to encourage tourism. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether Russia can solve its environmental problems at a time when its economy is still in transition. Environmental issues such as these point to the importance of sustainability. Sustainability is about the interdependence of the economy, the environment, and social well-being. This is often couched in terms of the “three Es” of sustainable development, referring to the environment, the economy, and equity in society (Figure 2.16). The oft-quoted definition of sustainable development from the Brundtland Report, which examined the issues on the international scale, is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”2 2 World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future (Brundtland Report), Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1987, p. 40.

Copyright © 2016. Pearson Education Limited. All rights reserved.

▼ Figure 2.15 Lake Baikal, Russia Lake Baikal is the world’s deepest lake, at 1,615 meters (5,300 feet—over a mile), and contains about 20 percent of all the freshwater on Earth—more than North America’s five Great Lakes combined.

CHAPTER 2 EQUITY TY Social oc JJustice, ce, Economic cono c Opportunity po Income ncome Equality qua y

Co nfl

Pro p ert y

reen. Profitable. Pro ab e. Fair ar Green.

Y ECONOMY

n t C o nfl ic t p me vel o

i ct

De

TA A L DEVELOPMENT V L P T SUSTAINABLE

V T ENVIRONMENT Environmental nv ronmen a Pro Protection ec on

Overall vera Economic conom c Growth rowth & Efficiency f c ency

R e so u rc e Co n fl ic t

▲ Figure 2.16 Sustainability There are three key aspects of sustainability in the long run—the physical environment, equity, and economic efficiency— and there are tensions between each of these.

APPLY YOUR KNOWLEDGE 1. How is climate change the result of human activity? Think about the example of Lake Baikal in your answer and how industry, governmental policy, and management affect the natural environment. 2. Give an example of an environmental concern that affects your home region and suggest how it relates to issues of economic development and social equity.

Copyright © 2016. Pearson Education Limited. All rights reserved.

Health Issues

The increased intensity of international trade and travel has also heightened the risk and speed of the spread of disease. A striking example of the health risks associated with increasing interdependency has been the spread of the MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) virus. First reported in 2012 in Saudi Arabia, MERS is a coronavirus, in the same family as the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus that caused an international epidemic in 2003 infecting around 8,000 people and killing more than 700 of them before it was stopped. By 2014, MERS cases had been reported in a dozen other countries. Today, health care professionals are concerned that a new strain of influenza virus is likely to result in an influenza pandemic. A pandemic is an epidemic that spreads rapidly around the world with high rates of illness and death. Entirely new flu strains develop several times each century. Because no one has a chance to develop immunity to a new flu strain, it can spread rapidly and widely—and especially so in today’s globalized and highly interconnected world. Similarly, there is serious concern about the possibility of epidemics in the human population resulting from zoonotic diseases (diseases originating with other species, e.g., anthrax, avian flu, ebola, West Nile virus).

S

I

The Changing Global Context

globalizing and highly interconnected world has brought ab all sorts of security issues. In traditional societies, the ri faced by individuals and groups were associated mostly w hazards generated by nature (disease, flood, famine, etc.), alo with socially determined hazards such as invasion and c quest and regressive forms of thought and culture. The ind trial societies of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, w more powerful technologies and weaponry, faced still m hazards, but they were mostly local and regional in nature. Contemporary society, Beck points out, is characterized another set of hazards, many of them uncontrollable and w a global reach. Examples include climate change as a resul human activity; the spread of weapons of mass destruction ( nuclear and biological warfare); the risk of accidents involv radiation or contamination by radioactivity from nuclear f or nuclear waste; the risk of epidemics in the human popu tion resulting from zoonotic diseases; the risk of epidemic d ease in food animals (such as the devastating outbreak of fo and-mouth disease, which affects cattle and sheep, in pa of northwestern Europe in 2001); and the risk of catastrop instability in global financial markets. Overall, Beck argues, we are moving toward a r society, in which the significance of wealth distributi is being eclipsed by the distribution of risk and in wh politics—both domestic and international—is increasin about avoiding hazards. As a result, knowledge—especia scientific knowledge—becomes increasingly important a source of power, while science itself becomes increasin politicized—as, for example, in the case of global warmi Increased awareness of the multiple risks faced by places regions has focused attention on the concept of resilien Resilience is the ability of people, organizations or syste to prepare for, respond, recover from and thrive in the f of hazards. The goal is to ensure the continuity and advan ment of economic prosperity, business success, environm tal quality, and human well-being, despite external thre In a globalized world, only the most resilient places a regions will remain economically competitive and attr tive for business growth, and capable of adapting to conti ally changing conditions. Resilience requires the capacity reorganize, and the ability to create and sustain the cap ity to learn and adapt to change. Both are attributes that more widespread in core regions than in semiperipheral peripheral regions.

APPLY YOUR KNOWLEDGE 1. What is a risk society and how is the role of knowledge a tool of power? 2. Use the Internet to find the degree of international disparity in rates of infant mortality—the number of deaths of infants under 1 year of age per 1,000 live births. (Hint: Good sources are the World Bank, http://data.worldbank.org/, and the United Nations Development Programme, http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/.) Suggest why some countries still have high rates of infant...