Environmental Change

Examine the role of one civil society in fostering improved environmental management. 

Greenpeace is a civil society that's stated goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its diversity"and has its primary focus on issues like global warming and deforestation. It has offices in over forty countries with it's main headquarters based in Amsterdam. They have been known to use extreme protest measures such as in 2007 when six Greenpeace members were arrested for breaking into the Kingsnorth power station, climbing the 200 metre smokestack, painting the nameGordon on the chimney, and causing an estimated £30,000 damage. However, they have been a contribution to the improvement of environmental management. 

They were one of the first groups to develop positive development scenario to reduce the severity of climate change (1993).  According to the "Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change" publication, if it meets one of these factors, then we can consider the situation a mitigation: 

• It incorporates specific climate change targets, which may include absolute or relative GHG limits, GHG concentration levels (e.g. CO2 or CO2-equivalent (CO2-eq) stabilization scenarios), or maximum allowable changes in temperature or sea level.
• It includes explicit or implicit policies and/or measures of which the primary goal is to reduce CO2 or a broader range of GHG emissions (e.g. a carbon tax, carbon cap or a policy encouraging the use of renewable energy).

In its wikipedia article, Greenpeace was said to have played a significant role in raising public awareness of global warming in the 1990s through the use of posters etc. 

(This is an example of a global warming awareness poster from Greenpeace Turkey in 2008; drawn by Kaan Oszoy)

Offshoring

Offshoring: Moving elements of your companies operations overseas while keeping them within the company.

The Global Services Location Index offers business leaders and policy makers a good representation of where the world ranks in its attraction for offshoring to influence their choices and polices respectively. They weigh down the various aspects that could affect your choices such as IT services and support, contact centres and back-office support.

I found the table above interesting because it proves the idea that you shouldn't base your decisions on one factor such as cheap labor (a.k.a. financial attractiveness in the table) alone. Tunisia and Sri Lanka are among the top 5 in financial attractiveness however because of their relatively poor people skills and availability, they are bumped down to 23rd and 21st place overall in the total score.

QUESTION!

If you were to weigh certain categories for offshore attractiveness more than others, which one would it be and why?

U.S. Mega Corporations : If They Were Countries

U.S. Mega Corporations : If They Were Countries

http://www.businessinsider.com/25-corporations-bigger-tan-countries-2011-6?op=1

This article opens the eyes of readers to the extent of power certain American trans-national corporations have financially; how their revenue is higher than several countries' gross-domestic product. There are several corporations such as VISA (Revenue: $8.07 Billion) and Ebay (Revenue: $9.16 Billion) can be the 133rd and 129th biggest country in the world respectively with their earnings. The most surprising discovery for me personally is seeing companies like General Electric (Revenue: $151.63 billion) and Walmart (Revenue: $421.89 billion) have higher incomes than the GDP of developed countries like New Zealand (GDP: $140.43 billion) and Norway (GDP: $414 billion) respectively.

This truly opened my eyes to how powerful the United States was. You never really know the extent of a country's power until you look at it side-by-side with a another. In this article, I saw that certain developing countries aren't even close to reaching their GDP due to the fact that just from the revenue of companies alone, they can be a bigger country. I know that there are certain factors that come into play to justify why they are more powerful than all of the countries mentioned and these include the actual size of the country, poor economic policies and corrupt governments. This article is interesting for me nonetheless because it gives me a good comparative image of economics between countries.

Multi-Governmental Organizations

The Chamber of Thrift Banks Gears Up for Expansion due to ASEAN Integration 

The Chamber of Thrift Banks (CTB), the umbrella organization of the country's 71 thrift banks, gears up for the upcoming Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Integration by preparing its members for bigger opportunities to expand into new markets, its president said in a news release. 

CTB will familiarize SMEs (small and medium enterprises) on the integration, what industries will be opened in 2015 and 2016 and make them competitive in the open, integrated economy 

The ASEAN Integration comes at an opportune time for local thrift banks, CTB said, as confidence in the industry remained high in the past year, with deposit liabilities growing by 19.3 percent year-on-year to reach P623.431 billion as of December 2013. 

PERSONAL NOTES

• Thrift Bank: Savings and loans association 
• By ASEAN integration, they mean integrating the policies of this organization with that of its newer members, The Philippines. It also means opening up its markets and industries to Filipino corporations

The Cultural Diffusion of Basketball

Nike/Adidas + Basketball

Basketball has always been an American sport. Although as time progressed, its popularity spread amongst the European and Asian countries to the point wherein they have made it a part of their own local culture. In the Philippines, for example, it would be difficult not to find a basketball court somewhere; a popular sight in the streets of the country is seeing the locals play along the road on crudely constructed basketball hoops such as this one: 

With the popularity of basketball rising, so did the demand for basketball shoes. Nike and Adidas both advertise their products in a way that implies that their goods help you play on your full potential. In their advertisements, they would always use the best players to endorse their products so that the customers will think that their shoes play a role in how good they are. We can see this from how Kobe Bryant endorses Nike and how Derrick Rose, the best player in the NBA right now with no argument whatsoever, endorses Adidas. They also advertise the technology behind their shoes so that it further reinforces the idea that you MUST get these shoes to become the best basketball player you can be. 

Because of their advertising, Nike and Adidas are both intentionally spreading consumerism to the basketball market that are interested in becoming better at playing. The younger generations have also helped in spreading consumerism of these multinational corporations because they use these basketball shoes for the sake of just fashion therefore creating a different niche of customers. 

GLOBALIZATION: Pros vs. Cons

Globalization

"The growing interdependence of countries through the increasing variety and volume of cross-boarder transactions in goods and services and international capital flows and through the rapid and widespread diffusion of technology." 

Pros

• Globalization allows countries to focus more on producing their main source of income and less on products that are not their forté when it comes to production. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, The People's Republic of China is the top exporter of rice in 2012 with 204.3 million metric tons per year. Since they get a large amount of income from rice, this country can focus less on the production of steel for example because they can afford beef from another exporting country like Brazil, the top beef exporter with 1,940,000 metric tons of Carcass-Weight Equivalent annually.
• Globalization creates more jobs due to the amount of workers needed for an international market. An increase in production is required therefore allowing opportunity for additions in the workforce
• Countries can learn how to become more efficient with handling issues pertaining to trade, finances, economics and communications through the policies that other countries may impose their land. The Philippines, known as being the texting capital of the world, could help teach countries who aren't as well-equipped how to use telecommunications as an effective tool of communication. Switzerland, known for its trusted bankers, could shed some knowledge to other countries on how to maximize financial security of bank accounts.

Cons

• Companies face much greater competition. This can put smaller companies, at a disadvantage as they do not have resources to compete at global scale. Trans-national corporations, the architects of globalization, can put local stores out of business mainly because these corporations are so well-known for their quality goods that they do not even bother with experimenting with lesser known brands. This can be seen in companies such as Nikes with their shoes and McDonald's with their fast food. 
• Developed countries like the USA can deter the development of developing countries such as the Philippines. In 2005, the Philippines is the 9th largest sugar producer in the world and 2nd largest sugar producer among the ASEAN countries second to Thailand according to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Statistics Division. Although the country produces a large amount of sugar, a certain percentage goes to the US without any sort of profit due to the 1965 U.S.Sugar Act.

Earthquakes Vs. Hurricanes

	Typhoon	Earthquake
Predictability	Depend on determining the position and strength of high- and low-pressure areas, and predicting how those areas will change during the life of a tropical system. The deep layer mean flow, or average wind	Changes in seismic pressure and shear waves passing through rock
Frequency	The strongest earthquakes (8.0 magnitude) happen once a year while the weakest ones (2.1 magnitude) happen 1.3 million times a year.	About 79 typhoons form globally
Duration	An 8.0 magnitude earthquake can be felt for 30-40 minutes from hundreds of miles away	Typhoon Yolanda, one of the strongest typhoons to make landfall, lasted for 9 days.

Spatial Distribution 

According to this map Hurricanes can be found on and near the equator. There are hurricane zones in the Pacific Ocean. There are also hurricane zones around the Caribbean, Central America, and the eastern coast of America.

Earthquakes usually occur on fault lines. These earthquakes happen where the tectonic plates meet and converge into each other.

Both earthquakes and hurricanes affect shore lines. Both are common in South East Asia. Both occur due to pressure changes. Earthquakes are cause by changes in pressure between plates. Hurricanes are caused by changes in air pressure.

Earthquakes	Hurricanes
Significant terrain alterations	Haphazard destruction of human settlements
Unstable land collapses	Almost everything destroyed by wind and water
Can damage electric lines causing fire	Social order deterioration regarding Katrina
	Enables people to be forewarned more easily