Globalisation, 3.9 localism and awareness in consumer society Flashcards
How is globalisation led to consumer society?
Due to global supply chains as of access delivery and cost people now consume more than they actually need
Impact of consumer society
Global meat production quadrupled
world now has over 1 billion cars
plastic production has risen since 1960
Ecological footprint
Measure of land area and water resources that population needs in order to produce what it consumes using current technology
Water footprint
A measure of amount of water use in a production and transport to market of food and commodities, which is embedded in a product
Carbon footprint
The amount of carbon dioxide produced by an individual or activity
Global average ecological footprint
2.7 hectares per person
What is sustainability
three types
Meet the needs of prison without compromising, the ability of future generations to meet their own needs
Economic, social, environmental
How to Assess effectiveness of a sustainability scheme
Equity does a benefit everyone
Futurity how long will it last?
Public participation, bottom up or top down
Environmental friendly
What is localism?
Local production and consumption of good local controller, government and local identity or culture
E.g. the Eden Project 600 mil provide annually 90% of produce bought from local suppliers in Cornwall or Devon
Problems of localism
Consumer produces environment
Consumer
It’s more expensive
Not enough competition can mean products do not improve
Producers
Less than mine from consumers on international producers which slows economic development in those countries
cannot benefit from economies of scale
It’s not very scalable is everything is kept local
Environment
Not every country can grow every type of crop or food, for example to tomatoes, grown in the UK by heated greenhouses. This has a larger carbon footprint, then importing Spanish tomatoes.
Benefits of localism
Consumer produces environment
Consumer small produces adopted organic farming crops have less pesticides could have health benefits
Produces UK farmers move up in value chain by manufacturing locally, Canon money investors into local economy multiplier effect
Environment of food, Rio, 1992 slogan global act, local imported foods are not cheap in terms of global impact so fuel emissions 
Toltnes, Devon transition town
About and reasons
Bottom up charity community lead and local
Strength and economy
reduced environmental impact
build resilience, for example, global crash of 2008, impacted them, and therefore they felt they need a flourishing local economy to be able to be resilient to larger global events
Schemes in Totnes
Refill Totnes
Food in community every week volunteers, collect and sort fresh food
Bristol pound economic, social, environmental benefits
Money keeps circulating locally benefits, local independent businesses multiply effect £10 spent on local businesses actually worth £23 whereas £10 at Tesco only worth £13 local impact
Strong local currency creates stronger bonds between local consumers and businesses in increased social capital corporation
Local trade reduce dependence on international trade and transport
Bristol pound cost environmental social economic
Consumers miss out on price, benefits and economies of scale from large, Aldi or Tesco
Localism schemes, very inclusive, locally excludes outsiders
Global trade allows communities to produce in resource efficient locations. For example, flowers can grow in Kenya without as much input and resources as it takes to grow in Europe.
What is fair trade?
Reduce global inequalities in trade by guaranteeing minimum price and additional fair trade premium to invest into businesses and community projects
E.g. divine chocolates
Fair trade problems
Poor farmers can affect fees for joining certification annual inspection up to €538 and initial audit of €1466
Encourage market of display, which then decreases commodities price, then fair trade farmers locked into greater fair trade dependency, which might benefit them, but then further improvisation farmers outside fair trade
Not possible for all farmers, join a scheme of high prices for potential and limited crop, yield and inflation
Ethical consumption and problems in present day
Ethical purchase is a financial exchange, whether consumer deliberately chooses a byproduct because of its ethical nature
However, can need to greenwashing or skewed information and advertisement
Ethical consumption, fast fashion case, study factory in Bangladesh
Rana Plaza collapse, 2013
8 story commercial building collapsed death more than 1100
deadliest garment factory accident in history
when the cracks were so workers were forced to go back inside as orders were due the next day
What is agenda 21
Earth submit you in conference on environment development. Rio 1992, hoping to achieve their goals by 2021 has since been admitted to 2031
One goal was for each countries to recycle, at least half of town waste by 2020
How much of UK waste is recycled
45% 2017
What is a circular economy
Product will be designed in a way, which allows them to be easily disassembled, reused or repurposed very easily
Example of a recycling NGO
Keeping tidy supporters, help picking up litter in streets, waterways and beaches
Impact of waste in foreign countries
Atacama Desert
large amounts of waste, especially fast fashion left in the desert
Previously some of these clothes, could then be slightly mended and resold in the recycling economy,
but presently equality of clothes have deteriorated due to rise of fast fashion, which means that these clothes, that are wasted cannot be repurposed and instead left as waste in the wild, and are not by degradable due to high concentrations of polyester
