Ethical and Environmental Concerns Drive Localism and Awareness of Consumer Impacts (Edexcel A-Level Geography): Revision Notes

Ethical and Environmental Concerns Drive Localism and Awareness of Consumer Impacts

Globalisation is Associated With A Range of Environmentals Stresses

🔗 It inevitably puts pressure on natural resources

•                                           **Positive and Negative Effects of Globalization***
  

Links Between Globalisation and Rising Environmental Insecurity

Insecurity	Causes and Symptoms
Food	● By 2050, food demand is likely to double worldwide ● Rising middle class • diet characterised by consumption of meat & dairy which has a large ecological footprint
Water	● Food production also depletes water supplies ● Pastoral and agriculture is very water intensive ● Will increase with population growth
Energy	● 50% ↑ in global energy use is predicted by 2035 ● Increased use of fossil fuels is inevitable
Climate	● Manufactured items w/ large production networks ● Energy hungry items such as TVs ● Throwaway society (pens, clothing etc)

Localism

The response to globalisation with the aim of increasing local sustainability → Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs

• Economic Sustainability - 🔗 Individuals and communities should have access to a reliable income over time
• Social Sustainability 🔗 All individuals should enjoy a reasonable QOL
• Environmental Sustainability 🔗No lasting damage should be done to the environment Benefits and Costs of Localism

Benefits

Costs

● Saves energy use (especially in transport) ● Reduces size of eco-footprint ● Encourages eco-friendly farming ● Provides alternatives for local people ● Improves social and cultural cooperation ● Supports local suppliers and businesses ● Keeps money within the local area ● Self-sufficient

● Emissions from long-distance transport are often offset by more efficient production methods ● Local products may be of lower quality than available elsewhere ● Limited choice for local consumers ● Shortages of products at certain times due to local production cycles ● Local market may be unreliable so local business not sustained ● Prices of local products may be higher ● Reduces opportunities outside of the area

Fairtrade and Ethical Consumption

↳ May reduce inequalities and environmental degradation and improve working conditions

Evaluation of Ethical Consumption Schemes

	Actions	Evaluation
Fair Trade	● Certification shows products have been produced by small-scale farms or businesses ● Produces receive a minimum fair price by operating as cooperatives and selling directly to the processing point or retailer ● Worker's rights are protected and no slave or child labout is used ● A Fairtrade premium is invested in local communities through improvements in healthcare, education etc	● Lets shoppers know what they spend will find its way to the pockets of those in need But ● As the schemes grow it is harder to regulate ● Beginning to be forgotten about ● It is not possible for all the world farmers to join the scheme
Supply chain monitoring	● Larger companies are accepting the need for corporate social responsibility ● Due to the large supply chains, they recognise that they need to try and keep a handle on them	● Many large TNCs are making a big effort to reduce the amount of worker exploitation among other illegal actions in their factories But ● It is very hard for TNCs to control the actions of their suppliers
NGO monitoring	● Involves charities flying workers over to the corporate meetings and allowing them to express their opinions ○ 📝 Eg. tesco meeting • no ladies toilet ∴ Tesco threatened to change supplier if conditions did not improve	● Helps to raise awareness of many ethical issues ● The NGOs are not bias But ● NGOs have limited financial resources

What is Ethical Consumption

Consumers can try to choose products and services that meet high ethical and environmental standards at the point of production. Such as:

• Safe working conditions
• Zero/limited pollution
• Sustainable farming
• Sustainable use of resources
• Sustainable forestry
• Animal welfare Consumers even have the power to stop using products and services that are known to go against the standards mentioned above.

Recycling and Resource Consumption

Local authorities play a key role in reducing waste and ecological footprints through recycling

↳ But the need for recycling could potentially be eradicated in the future through use of substitute materials such as graphene

•                                                                       **The Green Circle***
  

Benefits

Costs

● ↓ Amount of waste going into landfill ● Provides raw materials for production and consumption, ∴ ↓ need for new materials ● Makes the earth's resources last longer ● ↓ industry energy use, as some recycled materials use less energy in processing than the original raw materials ● ↓ Greenhouse gas emissions due to lower energy use ● ↓ Deforestation ● Creates new industries & ∴ jobs • helps to replace those lost due to deindustrialisation

● Zero waste is not possible as some wastes cannot be easily/not at all recycled ● Some recycling technologies are more expensive than extracting and using original raw materials ● Developing countries cannot afford this ● Recycling principles need to be expanded 📝 • eg. grey water ● Urbanisation & ↑ incomes has ↑ amount of waste created ● Lifespan of electronic goods & recycling of their components needs to be improved ● Large variations in willingness and ability to recycle between countries ∴ difficult to achieve global agreement ● Recycling itself is very energy intensive