Human Interest

a good video to show how human activity negatively impacts the ecosystem. I will use this video in phase three

The labor system keeps workers in Poverty. This is the argument that is transitioned by stating the fact that many factory workers are and will always remian in poverty if they have no oppurtunity to move up in the food chain and become educated in order to get themselves out of poverty. They need different skills in order to aquire a better job to create a better life.  

Its a very sad situation reading this. Seeing people go through all this to just survive. Kids don't even get any education and follow their parents footsteps to work at a plant just to be able to pay for bills. 8 dollars a day, and you wonder why they try to run to united states. Its very unfortunate that a lot of people go through this and i hope it changes soon, because to see that this is going on makes me thankful for what i have around me. Foreign investors are not great as they set out to be take advantage of the poor and get rich out of it, i think its pretty ridiculous.

This information is taken from the World Bank's 2014 report "Prosperity for All." The report looks at "progress to date in reducing global poverty and discusses some of the challenges of reaching the interim target of reducing global poverty to 9 percent by 2020.... . It also reports on the goal of promoting shared prosperity, with a particular focus on describing various characteristics of the bottom 40 percent."

This graphic reveals the poorest populations and where they live and even though India and China are economic competitors on the global stage they still have the poorest communities. 

IN poor communities, the human place is changed by using less structurally sound architecture and disregarding cultural presence for functionality though holding true to cultural presence in individual lives.

I agree with this article from the Guardian that development should be measured in human rights gains more than economic advancements.  While globalization is taking place and allowing countries to trade and maximize profits, a large percent of people in the world are deprived basic human rights and are entirely forgotten about and not valued.

The sad reality of the new division of labor, we are moving backwards instead of forwards with labor policies and widening the gap between core and periphery countries. We need to stand up and advocate for fair trade. These countries rely on us for sources of unemployment, and we need to give them better wages, safer working conditions, and help them push pass this dependency, and grow into more economically and socially strong countries.

http://www.laborrights.org

The triangle shirtwaist factory in New York was a revolutionary turning point in labor regulations. Following this unfortunate event there had been many rules and laws that took effect in order to help the working people in factories and other harmful work places. The textile industry had been such an impact on globalization because this product had been so greatly treasured that countries all around the world were getting their fair share of producing a good that was in such high demand and through the use of globalization transport created an higher demand for textiles. Although, the boom of the textile industry came with the sacrifice of innocent civilians who worked endlessly just to feed their family. Regulations and legislation have to be put into effect to protect our people and our economy. 

One of the first industries to be impacted by what is today called globalization was the textile industry and the successive waves of globalization continue to alter the geography of the textile industry.  This video shows how historical problems in the U.S. textile industry are seen today in countries such as Bangladesh, as does this interactive feature.  The following paragraph is from a Geography News Network podcast / article that Julie Dixon and I co-authored for Maps101 about the Bangladeshi garment industry:     

Many developing countries with the majority of their laborers working in agriculture welcome outsourced labor from the West. This is seen as a way to nurture industrialization, even if it is on the terms of trans-national corporations. Countless workers seek employment in textile factories simply because low pay is still an entry into the cash economy and it is one of the few jobs rural migrants can find when they first enter the big city. In such locations, Western labor, construction, and environmental standards are not priorities because the population’s basic needs haven’t been met, so the responsibility falls to the global companies—but their aim is to cut costs as much as possible to remain competitive.  From its emergence in textiles back in the late 1970’s, Bangladesh in 2013 made $19 billion in the export-oriented, ready-made garment industry, employing 4 million workers, most of whom are women. 

Listen to more of this Geography News Network podcast or read it here. 

Tags: Bangladesh, poverty, development, economic, globalization, industry, labor.

Deforestation drivers

how do these people not know what the crop they are producing is or tastes like? that is amazing to me how you can be so oblivious to what you are doing. and how the place that produces cocoa does not actually have access to it.

What is the geography of chocolate like?  This video was produced in the Netherlands, the global center of the cocoa trade, but the world's leading producer of cocoa is Côte d'Ivoire.  There is a dark side to chocolate production; the dirty secret is that slavery is commonplace on cocoa plantations in West Africa.  Although the worst of the situation is glossed over in this video, it still hints at the vast economic inequalities that are part and parcel of the global chocolate trade and the plantation roots of the production.  What are some of your reactions to this video?  

Tags: chocolate, Ivory Coast, Africa, poverty, development, economic, globalization, industry, labor.

This information is taken from the World Bank's 2014 report "Prosperity for All." The report looks at "progress to date in reducing global poverty and discusses some of the challenges of reaching the interim target of reducing global poverty to 9 percent by 2020.... . It also reports on the goal of promoting shared prosperity, with a particular focus on describing various characteristics of the bottom 40 percent."

This graphic reveals the poorest populations and where they live and even though India and China are economic competitors on the global stage they still have the poorest communities. 

IN poor communities, the human place is changed by using less structurally sound architecture and disregarding cultural presence for functionality though holding true to cultural presence in individual lives.

I agree with this article from the Guardian that development should be measured in human rights gains more than economic advancements.  While globalization is taking place and allowing countries to trade and maximize profits, a large percent of people in the world are deprived basic human rights and are entirely forgotten about and not valued.

Besides that scrap metal pollutes water and rivers, this is a health risk for humans too. I also know someone who worked at Electric Boat at the Air Base in North Kingstown who's health was also affected due to metal scraps and particles in the air. Years later after working at EB he developed lung cancer. Metal erodes away as well, especially when left sitting in salt water. 

this is both amazing and horrifying in what these people do on a daily basis. i cannot imagine doing what these guys do everyday, and i never imagined how taking apart one of these ships would work.

What happens to massive cargo vessels after they are outdated?  There are tons of scrap metal, but they aren't

designed to be taken apart.  The ship-breakers of South Asia (Bangladesh, India and Pakistan are 3 of the 4 global leaders in recycling ships) risk much to mine this resource.  This is an economic function that is a part of a globalized economy, but one than was never intended.  There are major health risks to the workers and pollutants to the local community that are endemic in this industry that manages to survive on the scraps of the global economy.

Tags: Bangladesh,  South Asia, poverty, development, economic, globalization, industry, labor.