Transnational polution events

The 4th paragraph in the syllabus points (as can be seen above) asks for a   major pollution event that starts in one country and then spread to another. A very good exampleof such a case would be the ongoing events between China and Hong Kong.
  The air quality in Hong Kong is one of the worst in the world, however a large percentage of the smog in Hong Kong comes from coal-fired power plants located in mainland China.

  Because of the pollution from China, Hong Kong residents bear the conaequences from the smog. It isnt uncommon to walk through Hong Kong and see people wearing masks as a sort of filtering device. During the days when China increases the output of its coal powered power plants and the wind blows South, the smog in Hong Kong is considerably as can be seen during the morning cnn broadcasts.


As a result of the air pollution, cardiovascular health issues have increase, and more money is spent on medical care. Even stock investors are beginning to be repelled by the pollution in Hong Kong.

The relationship between China and Hong Kong is a good example of a transnational pollution event.

Outsourcing and why I find it interesting

Of the topics from the greenfield geography site, the one that interests me the most is outsourcing. For me, outsourcing is an interesting topic because of all the reasons for and against outsourcing.

It is understandable that outsourcing is a form of cutting cost for firms. Outsourcing reduces the costs of firms as it decreases the cost of the factors of production. Having another firm handle certain company functions reduces the cost to the main company as the main company no longer has to divert resources into said functions.

The interesting part in this is the consequences of outsourcing. It is understandable that outsourcing allows companies and firms to expand their operations and profits as they now have less costs and are thus more able to do so, however outsourcing has many other consequences outside of the parent company. For example, despite the fact that outsourcing reduces cost for companies, the labour in the companies tend to lose their jobs to cheaper labour. This has occured in the US and in places like India and the Philippines.

Outsourcing has interestin effects on the society where outsourcing is taking place. In the Philippines, there are many call centers that cater to international calls.
 My question is : What are the factors that will dictate where a firm will outsource its functions?

Nationalization of Oil

Oil Nationalization...

What is Oil Nationalization?

Oil Nationalization is the process of confiscating privately owned oil production and property by the government. (Wikipedia) Essentially, the government takes over all the oil production in a country. 

Now, why would a country like to take over all the oil production in a country? For some countries, the nationalization of oil is a means of increasing government revenue. Saudi Arabia is a prime example of a country that has nationalized its oil for revenue. Saudi Aramco, one of the largest oil firms in the world, is government owned and helps finance the Saudi economy. 

Aside from a revenue-based motive, countries may nationalize their oil as a means of independence. Some countries may have implemented their oil nationalization because it allowed the country to become less dependent on foreign, transnational companies. A prime example is Venezuela. Venezuela confiscated the oil production land and facilities of Shell. Today, Venezuela is a part of OPEC and is one of the largest oil producers in the world. 

There are numerous benefits and detriments to nationalizing oil. Venezuela is a good example of country that has experienced benefits from oil nationalization. The population of Venezuela enjoy prices as low as 40 cents per gallon. 

Oil nationalization has its detriments. One, is that foreign relations can get damaged from nationalization. The US and Iran are a good example of damaged relations due to oil. When the government of Iran wanted to nationalize its oil, America and Great Britain implemented operation Ajax that ousted the Iranian government and replaced the Shah. This operation has been a base for many anti-western sentiment for the US and it all started with oil nationalization. Because many of the oil companies in Iran, at that time, were from the US and the UK, the companies and the governments had a lot to lose from the nationalization. 

Summary of an NPR article

A brief summary on the NPR article

Russia Recognizes Independent Crimea; U.S. And EU 'Stand Firm' With Ukraine

URL: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/03/17/290788338/u-s-and-eu-ready-sanctions-crimea-asks-to-join-russia

 The population of Crimea is voting to become an independent nation, separate from Ukraine. Russia is supporting the independent Republic of Crimea and could potentially integrate Crimea into the Russian Federation. The United States and the European Union are implementing sanctions on Russians and Ukranians that allowed Russia to enter a military force in Crimea. 

A photo from the article.

These are the ballots given to the Crimeans asking a vote whether or not to remain a part of Ukraine.


This article shows a loss of sovereignty amongst the member nations of the EU because the individual nations have to follow the decision of the Union to place economic sanctions. The individual nations cannot choose to ignore the decision of the EU. Ergo, these nations have lost their sovereignty because they can no longer independently choose who to sanction.

In the case of the EU, it is possible that member nations may not wish to implement sanctions on Russia because of their reliance on Russian natural gas. Russia pumps a third of all the natural gas of Europe. Economic sanctions can potentially harm the energy of Europe. However, since the EU has decided to place sanctions on Russians responsible for the military operation in Crimea, the member nations have not choice but to comply despite the potential energy backlash in the future. It can clearly be seen that there has been a decrease in the sovereignty of the nations in the European Union. 

Pros and Cons of Globalization

Globalization: The decrease in the perceptual distance between countries due to improvements in technology, industry, transportation, etc.

Pros
Globalization has been able to spread the wealth from richer, more economically developed countries to less economically developed countries. Since labour is cheaper in less economically developed countries (LEDC), more economically developed countries (MEDC) hire the labour of LEDCs to decrease the costs of production. Doing this, transfers wealth from the MEDCs to the LEDCs as the labour of the LEDC is paid by the wealth of the MEDCs. There are numerous examples to this process. China is one example of a country that benefited from globalization. Between 1990 to 2005, poverty rates decreased from 60% to 16%; a decrease of 475 million people. India is another example of a country that has benefited from globalization. India has decreased its poverty rate by 50% over the past 2 decades.

Aside from decreasing poverty, the decrease in the perceptual distance between different countries has allowed transnational companies to sell their goods and services at a cheaper price (hopefully!) considering the cost of labour is cheaper.

A global benefit of globalization is the potential increase in efficiency. As countries can have absolute advantage and comparative advantage compared to other countries. Since certain countries can produce certain goods and services using less resources, there is greater efficiency, concordantly a decrease in the amount of scarce resources being used.

Cons
Globalization has its cons. There are numerous cases where instead of both MEDCs and LEDCs benefit from globalization, the MEDCs mostly benefit from the trade and the LEDCs gain or in fact lose out due to globalization. Many countries in Africa are examples of such cases. Ghana is one example. Ghana produces one third of all the chocolate produced in the United States. Because of the massive demand for chocolate, Ghana grows chocolate to be manufactured in other countries but Ghana remains in the primary sector of goods and services and thus is more unstable due to the volatility of agricultural products.

What is consumerism? Well, consumerism is the act of consuming and wanting to consumer more. Consumerism is a growing fad in today's society. People consume and want to consumer more everyday. Consumption makes the world go round. Transnational corporations rely on consumption as a source of income. Typically, transnational corporations utilize cultural diffusion as a way of pushing forward the consumption of their product. Cultural diffusion, or the voluntary change of culture, is one of the main methods of transnational corporations. For example, Apple has advertised its products to the extent that it is one of the most easily recognizable items in the world. An Apple product is the "in" thing to have as cultural diffusion has altered our perception of what is normal. Now, people consume Apple products like Iphones as each new model comes out because consumerism has been ingrained into the minds of people. There is an incessant need to have the newest model because that is the current culture. The reason why the current culture requires the newest model iphone is because cultural diffusion has set in.

Over time, we as humans, have become better at predicting occurrences. We have learned to predict the path and intensity of a typhoon to a very accurate extent. Aside from storms, humans have also learned to predict volcanic eruptions much more accurately. Over the course of time, humans have accumulated knowledge to predict upcoming volcanic eruptions with more certainty than before. The eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991 is an example of the expansion and evolution of human prediction skills.

In the spring of 1991, Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines began to rumble and quake until there were some explosions from the mountain. From the explosions, there were three craters, and from each of these craters, steam was rising out of the mountain. Worried about a possible eruption, the Philippine government placed a seismometer on the mountain. About 400 earthquakes were recorded by the seismometer and this brought anxiety to the Philippine government and the US as there were 2 air force bases within the vicinity of the mountain. At that time, three possible predictions were made. The best case scenario was a harmless incident; the mountain was merely letting out steam. The second best case scenario was shifts in the tectonic plate. Although there would be some damage to structures in the immediate area near the mountain, the damage would be minimal and limited to that area. The worst case scenario was that magma was rising from the volcano as this could lead to an eruption.


To make proper and accurate predictions regarding the state of the volcano, US and Philippine volcanologists studied and observed the volcano intensely. Three seismic meters were placed in areas on the volcano to measure the ground activity. Correlation spectrometers were placed near volcanic vents to measure the amount of S02  that leaves the volcano. Numerous reconnaissance flights were made to determine the shape of the volcano, the craters, and the surrounding landscape to determine how it was going to erupt. The memory of Mount St. Helens was freshly ingrained in the minds of the volcanologists who did not expect the lateral eruption of the mountain thus resulting in more deaths than expected. Trees buried by past pyroclastic flows were carbon dated to estimate the frequency of eruptions. The trees indicated that Mt. Pinatubo erupted two to three times over the past thousand years. Usually, the less often a volcano erupts, the more violent the eruption when the volcano erupts.

It was only until the S02 levels increased exponentially after declining slightly and the formation of a dome structure where the magma was escaping when the evacuation protocol was enacted. 48 hours after Clark air base was evacuated, the mountain unleashed ash 100,000 feet into the air. The gas and particles emitted by the volcano were large enough to contain lightning within its own weather system. People from Manila could feel ash landing on their palms; and yet, deaths were minimized because there was advanced warning due to enhanced predicting methods. As technology became more sophisticated; enough to pick up more minute indicators of eruptions such as small earthquakes in the ground or the amount of gas escaping the mountain; coupled with greater experience from past lessons such as Mount St. Helens has allowed more accurate and precise predictions to be made.