HUMAN GEO CASE STUDIES

• Background of Apple

  • HQ is based in Cupertino, Northen California
  • Largest global brand by value ($234 billion)
• Producion of Apple

  • Produced in China due to hardworking, non-unionised, low paid workers
  • Outsourcing of Taiwanese companies for manufacturing so it is cheaper
  • Shenzen is China’s most successful SEZ, which attracts FDI
• Apple and the Environment

  
  

  -Greenpeace held them accountable on 4 main counts

  1. Reliance on non renewable resources for electricity
  2. Use of toxic chemicals in manufacturing
  3. Factories in China discharging pollutants into water supplies
  4. Lack of recyclability
• Apples Responses to Greenpeace

  • 100% renewable energy used
  • Toxic chemicals removed BUT an issue with a lack of repairability
  • $1.5 billion green climate bond
  • Green my Apple campaign

  As a result, Apple moved from the from 11th to 2nd in their rankings
• Spatial Organisation in Apple

  • Main HQ in Cupertino, EU HQ in Cork, Ireland
  • Main manufacturing factories in China
  • Assembly is outsourced to FoxConn and Pegatron
• Impacts on China

  POSITIVES

  • Workers on average have a monthly salary of $300 p/m which is much higher than the minimum wage in Shenzen
  • 400,000 local workers employed
  • Supplier code of conduct and regular audits

  NEGATIVES

  • 200,000 workers regularly worked 60+ hour weeks in sweatshop conditions
  • 50 workers in Foxconn factories were poisoned
  • Also known child and student labour
  • 14 suicides due to labour conditions
• Impacts on Ireland

  POSITIVES

  • Cork’s largest employer with 4000 workers
  • 2500 extra jobs created for workers
  • Other high tech firms attracted
  • Contributed to infrastructural developments
  • International city

  NEGATIVES

  • Many high skilled workers aren’t local
  • Accused of corporate tax avoidance
• Ecuador is the biggest producer of bananas globally. Provides millions of jobs yet $\frac{1}{3}$ of the population is in abject poverty. The largest exporter is Naboa And the main trade partners are US, China, Netherlands.
• Bananas are the 4th most important food product and generates revenues of over $15 billion per year
• Issues of Banana Production

  • Bananas are susceptible to disease so lots of chemicals are released
  • The monocultural nature reduces biodiversity
  • Pollutants entering water can cause eutrophication
  • Poor working conditions and low wages
  • A ’race to the bottom’ and reducing costs led to trade disputes
• Bananas are grown in hot rainy lowland of tropical regions. Most bananas produced are consumed domestically
• ACP group of banana producers - Africa, Caribbean and Pacific
• 90% of the price paid by the end consumer never reaches the banana producer - retailers take the largest cut
• one child policy in China

  • pressures for abortions - fines and unemployment penalties
  • 4-2-1 problem - one child has to look after many aging relatives
• agriculture in the tropical monsoon climate

  • over half of the world population lives in the 21 Asian countries with monsoon seasons
  • rice is cultivated during the monsoon season - subsistence farming
  • wet rice varieties grow in the Ganges valley, while dry rice varieties grow in Indonesia
  • water protects the rice plants from extreme heat and cold
  • all waste products are used - fodder for animals, kindling or woven into baskets
  • rice paddies reused during dry season for lentils, beans or wheat
• agriculture in the polar tundra climate

  • tundra and ice caps cover 20% of the Earth's surface
  • human activity restricted to fishing, adventure tourism and mineral exploitation
  • tundra vegetation supports small populations of indigenous people sustainably
  • Inuits in Canada hunt caribou and fish in the summer
  • Sami people in northern Europe follow reindeer movements and hunt for food and materials

  
• red latosols - tropical rainforest

  • infertile - should not be used for agriculture
  • organic matter stored in vegetatio rather than soils
  • rainforest trees shed leaves to provide supply of litter which decomposes rapidly into the humus
• Chernozem soils in Eurasia and North America

  • deep black soil rich in organic matter
  • contains nutrients such as phosphorus and ammonia
  • over one metre deep - has a clay-like structure to retain water
  • found in continental climates (cold winter, hot summer)
• chernozem soils are found in flat plains up to 230 million hectares worldwide. high natural fertility and favourable topography attracts modern agriculture and a wide range of uses. Steppes in Russia has climate to plant in winter and spring and harvest during July-October. allows crop rotation

  
• Thomas Malthus

  • the power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the Earth to produce subsistence for man
  • supply of food will not keep up with population
  • natural checks such as famines and war will cause population decline - environmental resistance
  • limitation - Malthus did not account for technological advancements that improve food production
• Neomalthusians

  • finite resources will run out
  • population growth is exponential
  • population will reach a tipping point
• Julian Simon

  • the human mind is the "ulitimate resource"
  • humans will find new ways to sustain resources
  • limitation - believed that population growth had a limit
• Ester Boserup

  • population growth will act as a catalyst for agricultural and technological advancements - e.g. GMO's
  • humans will eventually overcome resource limitations by using resources more efficiently
  • limitations - technological advancements are not rapid enough to keep up with population growth
• mosquitoes kill 2 million people per year - 600000 deaths from malaria
• 3.4 billion people worldwide are at threat of malaria
• a child dies of malaria every 30 seconds. pregnant women, people with HIV and travellers are also very vulnerable to malaria
• symptoms of malaria include shaking, fever, nausea, muscle ache and headaches
• between 2000 and 2015, malaria rates were predicted to decrease worldwide, with countries such as Argentina and Morocco projected to have zero cases. there is a clear trend in decreases in most of Asia and South America. However cases were expected to rise in Venezuela
• physical causes of malaria

  • mosquitoes breed in stagnant water during rainy seasons when average rainfall is above 1000 mm
  • high temperatures between 16 and 32 degrees
  • higher prevalence in coastal regions where there is less seasonal variation
  • areas closer to forested areas are also more vulnerable
• socio-economic causes of malaria

  • disease of poverty
  • 58% of malaria cases are contracted by the poorest 20% of the world's population
  • lack of investment in vaccines
  • poor housing quality- unsanitary conditions
  • agricultural workers are more exposed and vulnerable
  • rural areas more at risk
  • low income - can't afford nets or repellants
  • little education
• 94% of malaria deaths occur in Africa where it accounts for 1/6 of child deaths
• malaria causes anaemia from the Plasmodium parasite. destroys blood cells resulting in yellow skin, liver failure and fluid in the lungs. convulsion, coma and death
• people living in areas where malaria is especially prevalent develop partial immunity
• high infant mortality in newborns if mother is infected with malaria
• malaria's impacts on economic wellbeing

  • slows economic growth and development
  • prolongs cycle of poverty
  • cost of treatment
  • loss of income due to absence from work
  • cost to government - healthcare facilities and drugs
  • public health equipment such as nets
• Uganda has the world's highest malaria incidence rate. Ugandan parliament is prioritising the elimination of malaria by educating people on how to use insecicide treated mosquito nets and providing natural mosquito repellants as well as draining stagnant water. also strengthening community efforts
• control of the vector - direct method that uses insecticides, physical barriers such as mosquito nets, and removal of stagnant waters to eradicate malaria
• drug treatments for malaria includes artemisinin which is based off combination therapies
• minimising breeding sites of mosquitoes by draining marshes and better disposal of waste helps to eradicate malaria
• gene editing of mosquitoes prevents them from breeding and eventually replaces malaria-carrying mosquitoes