Environmental Change

Homogenization of landscapes
Explain the evolution of uniform urban landscapes; the effects of common commercial activity, structures, styles of construction and infrastructure.

Now a days many cityscapes look the same. Today the typical urban city is composed of large billboards, tall modern buildings, similar food chains, large roads and highways, and lots of lights. The urban cities are typically international hubs that have a diverse population. This is because many people come to these urban cities in search of job opportunities with higher income that offers a better lifestyle. In the past, not all the urban cities looked the same. There was no uniformity to the creation of a city. They had their own unique looks that are created by different architectural preferences. However because of globalization, cityscapes have become very homogenized due to modernization. 

Hong Kong city, Hong Kong

New York city, New York, USA

Today there are so many international companies that are well-known throughout the world. Because these companies are so popular, people expect to find them everywhere. An example of this kind of company is the food chain of McDonalds. In all urban cities, people expect to find a McDonalds. This is an example of a company that has engraved its name into the mandatory requirements of an urban city. Another reason for the homogenization of urban landscapes is the desire of modernization. Urban cities all desire to look modern because of the idea that the more modern they look, the more technologically advanced they seem. This architectural preference is known and seen throughout the globe. Numerous times, old architectural treasures are taken down in order to build new modernized buildings which is meant to show "development". These cities are also meant to be the center or capital of a region, which is why they are known to have numerous highways and roads that connect them to all the neighboring cities and towns. 

McDonalds in Madrid, Spain

The uniformity of urban landscapes is caused by the architectural preference of infrastructure, the necessity of commercial goods and food chains, and demand of certain aspects on infrastructure. The homogenization of the cityscapes has taken away the unique looks of the cities. In my opinion, I feel like all the cities try to mimic this idea of a "perfect urban city" that is meant to be the developed, modernized city. In the Philippines in the cities of Makati and Quezon, they take down all the traditional Filipino looking buildings and create modernized buildings that mimic those of Tokyo and Singapore. However, some urban cities value their individual architecture enough to preserve it. In the urban cities like Madrid and Barcelona in Spain,  they preserve the unique architectural features but still put in the common commercial demands of the people. They do this by adding a McDonalds, but putting it in a building that doesn't fit into the ideal look of a McDonalds restaurant. 

Photos: 
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Hong_Kong_cityscape_highlights-_International_Finance_Centre,_Central_District._Hong_Kong,_China,_East_Asia-3.jpg
http://madrilenian.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/5610750202_4_mcdonalds-corner-street.jpg

Outsourcing In India: Call Centers

Articles: 

BT opens Indian Call Centers

The Philippines: The world's hotline

Bangalore is best Indian city, says global survey

Comment:

In a survey that was conducted, and according to the ‘Global Services Location Index” it is the most attractive place for global services. The most popular for these services is Bangalore. According to an article by the BBC, the global survey showed that Bangalore is the “best Indian city to live in”. 

One of the most popular services that India has to offer are its call centers. In 2003, 2,000+ UK employees lost their jobs because the giant BT telecom opened call centers in India and hired over 2,000 workers in Delhi and Bangalore. However, the Philippines has emerged as the country with the most call center workers in the world. The Philippines has an estimated value of 350,000 call center employees while India has 320,000. They say that the reason why people prefer the Filipino workers is because of their ability to put on an American accent that is easy to understand. Many of these workers put on an American accent and create a fake American name to be able to converse with the foreign clients. 

Even through the Philippines has more telecom employees, the majority of the call center companies that come to the Philippines are offshoot companies that already exist in India. According to the BBC article, “Last year India's overall business process outsourcing (BPO) revenue was $70bn, compared to the Philippines' $9bn”. 

Question:

In the article it mentioned that India “outsourced their outsourcing”. What does it mean? 

European Union: Subjecting Russian and Ukrainian officials may lead to new conflicts

Crimea vote could "create new conflicts"

• Boarders and such are becoming a problem again in Europe because of Crimea and Russia
• The 28 Foreign Ministers in the EU have chosen Russian and Ukrainian officials that will be subjected to travel bans and a freezing of assets because of the conflict. 
• Officials worry that the tense situation may lead to war. 

NY Times: Crimea vote could "create new conflicts"

Barbie In the Philippines

One of the most popular toys for girls in any country are dolls, and one of the most popular doll brands is non other than Barbie. Barbies are sold all over the world, they have many outfits and other accessories choices. However the image of barbie is primarily a white blonde with a tiny waist and long legs. In the Philippines, Barbie is very popular among young girls, and they have been for many years. However, because the image of barbie is looked upon as perfectly pretty, young girls grow up with that mindset. They take it as being white is more beautiful. In the Philippines, whitening creams and moisturizers are very common because everyone wants to be white. If you look at all the Filipino artistas that are looked at as an image of beauty, you’d notice that most of them are white and not very filipino looking. By brining in the brand of barbie to the Philippines, this is 

Pros and Cons of Globalization

PROS	CONS
Globalization is can help the economy by providing more job opportunities for the people. By providing more job opportunities it helps improve the economy and the livelihood of the people. This happens when people from LEDC's go to MEDC's to work. The economy gains from this because of the remittances.	Many times the workers in the MEDC's lose their jobs to the people from LEDC's. The presence of overseas workers reduces the amount of job opportunities for the people from the MEDC's. By having less job opportunities, it will hurt their economy.
Companies are able to work together, which increases productivity. This can benefit the companies because they can get more ideas from different perspectives.	If there are so many different opinions and ideas being presented then the company may have a problem in making decisions because of the presence of so many viewpoints.
People are able to connect with one another through the internet and other forms of communication. The sharing of ideas and knowledge can be made easier.	The accessibility to connection through the internet can be a negative because it opens the door to cyber bullying and online stalking. This could be dangerous to the emotional and maybe even the physical health of the people(suicides due to cyber bullying). It also makes it more difficult to protect information when it is put online.
Globalization has made countries more open to foreigners and tourists. This is good because it promotes diversity and the sharing of cultures. Because countries are becoming more open it also makes it easier to travel.	By letting foreigners and tourists in, the country is risking bringing in viruses and diseases from other regions to their country. Such diseases are H1N1, Swine Flu and HIV.

Group Blog #2

Distinguish between two chosen hazards in terms of their spatial extent, predictability, frequency, magnitude, duration, speed of onset and effects. [10 marks]

The two hazards we have chosen to 

	DROUGHTS	TYPHOON/HURRICANES
Duration	Lasts by season	Can last for days and even until years
Predictability	Palmer drought severity index (PDSI) can predict the areas with commonly prolonged droughts. PDSI measures the supply and demand of water of the area. The government and NGOs refer to PDSI in order to be prepared.	Typhoons and hurricanes can be predicted through the new technologies. Through satellites we are able to see the formation of typhoons.
Spatial Distribution	Droughts can technically happen anywhere in the world, however the most severe cases of droughts are found in Australia, Brazil, the Sahel, China and India.	The Caribbean, Central America and Southern US SE and E Asia e.g. Japan, China, Indonesia and the Philippines Northern Australia Bay of Bengal e.g. India and Sri Lanka East Africa and the Southern Arabian Peninsula e.g. Oman and Kenya.
Magnitude	The magnitude of the drought is the highest among the other disasters. The consequences of droughts are very severe that people must be aware and alarmed when drought occurs.	The intensity of a hurricane/typhoon can be measured on a saffir-simpson scale. This measures the speed of the wind and air pressure on a scale of 1-5.
Speed of onset	The speed of onset for droughts are gradual.	It is dependent on the temperature and the salination of the water.

Effects

Famine, bio-diversity loss, conflict about the distribution of water in the drought area, refugees, desertification, economic loss, dependency, health problems increase, and education of the children suffer.

It is caused severe damage to property and killed many people due to flooding from intense rainfall. When schools are destroyed or damaged it prevents the children from receiving an education. Also, some typhoons/hurricanes that cause intense damage such as typhoon Yolanda, force the country to loan money from other countries in order to rebuild and clean up the damage done.

Group blog #1

Droughts

Group J - Amaia, Angela and Harry

Explain the characteristics and spatial distribution of droughts using at least two specific examples. [10 marks]

Droughts occur when there is a lack of or an absence of rainfall in the country. This lack of rainfall and increase in temperature is also able to dry up small lakes and streams that may be a source of drinking water for the people. Water is one of the(if not the most) important resources we have.

The main problems that droughts cause are famine, bio-diversity loss, conflict about the distribution of water in the drought area, refugees, desertification, economic loss, dependency, health problems increase, and education of the children suffer. Droughts can technically happen anywhere in the world, however the most severe cases of droughts are found in Australia, Brazil, the Sahel, China and India. There are also classifications, it can be classified as an economic water scarcity, which is when there is water however it cannot be obtained because of a lack in funds. And there is physical water scarcity wherein the water is simply non existent. 

Droughts are caused by Human causes or physical causes. Human causes include deforestation, overpopulation, industrial, agricultural demand, and economic development. More population and development have increased the demand of water resources while significantly reducing the water availability through deforestation. Physical cause is global trend of rising temperature, which result in requiring more amount of water in growing crops. Despite this trend, annual rainfall is decreasing.  

          

             For the spatial distribution of droughts, this hazard can technically happen anywhere in the world. However the most severe cases of droughts are found in Australia, Brazil, the Sahel, China and India. The causes of droughts can be both human induced or environmentally induced. For instance, droughts in 2011 along Tangtze Riger in China was one of the most serious problem of the country. The cities that are located along river suffered as 50% of the lands for crops were affected by droughts. In addition, more than 4.23 million people had difficulty in finding adequate drinking supplies.

First characteristic is magnitude. Magnitude is defined as the measurement of the strength of a hazard.

Figure 1. a tabulated data that show the major natural hazard and deaths they caused from 1980 to 2000

According Figure 1, the magnitude of the drought is the highest among the other disasters. The consequences of droughts are very severe that people must be aware and alarmed when drought occurs. Compared to other types of disasters (storms, floods, earthquakes, volcanoes) in the figure 1, drought caused the largest death. Drought can trigger economy decay, malnutrition, food shortages, and can potentially kill people. For example, in Africa, in the year of 2011, 10 to 11 million people suffered under drought and needed emergency food aid. In specific, 25 percent of Kenyans suffered from acute malnutrition, including more than 37 percent of those living in the Lake Turkana. In addition, 100,000 people have died due to the drought and half of them were children under 5. With high magnitude, droughts usually result in severe consequences that hamper human lives.

Second characteristic is that droughts are predictable hazards. Palmer drought severity index (PDSI) can predict the areas with commonly prolonged droughts. PDSI measures the supply and demand of water of the area. The government and NGOs refer to PDSI in order to be prepared.

Figure 2. A map of the United States with PDSI in 2007

According to figure 2, extreme drought occurred at the Western central, Southeastern regions of the country. The government of the U.S. can refer back to the map with PDSI in the past. Therefore, they can alleviate the severity of consequences of droughts in the areas. Using PDSI, droughts are the predictable hazards.

The last characteristic is frequency. It is defined as the return interval of hazards.

The Sahel region of Africa suffers from drought on a regular basis since the 1980's. They only experience two seasons which are wet and dry and if the rains "fail" they experience drought. The hazard has brought multiple problems to the region. The land not only suffers from the hazard but from other human induced problems such as overgrazing and over cultivation which dilutes the soil and leads to deseritfication. This brought about multiple socio-economic problems such as crop failure, soil erosion, famine and hunger. Crop failure happens because soil erosion, the soil lacks the nutrients it gets from water to grow the crops. This causes families and the region to lose income. The crop failure also brings a food shortage which leads to hunger and eventually the death of thousands.

Sources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/geography/water_rivers/drought_rev3.shtml
http://greenfieldgeography.wikispaces.com/Characteristics