Geography & Globalization
By Josh Overton
Analysis
Globalization and Geography are the keys to prosperity because without it, we would never be able to spread our ideas to different parts of the world, across different geography's. It has spread ideas to different parts of the world and also brought prosperity to all nations as it has helped them develop and advance throughout the years. Some pros with globalization are that you can spread ideas across the world, in ways that you never could before without globalization. You can also communicate easier with people on the other side of the world thanks to advances in technological globalization. Even though there many pros to globalization, there are also cons that can be bad at times. For example, environmental globalization can spread disease across the world that can be extremely devastating to different cultures, and in cultural globalization can spread war that can destroy different cultures and can even sometimes involve the entire world.
Overall, Globalization is the spread of ideas and people to different geographies through culture, the environment, technology and the economy of our world.
Geography can impact where you live and how you live in that specific place. People can go to places for the weather or the location in general, but there are other reasons as to why people will live where they do. It could be for a job or maybe to get closer to family members. For example, someone may move down to Florida due to the warm weather that is present there almost 12 months of the year. Someone may also want to move to Massachusetts to be closer to family or to get a new job. Geography influences everything we do and everywhere we go, it is always with us.
Application
Population
Natural Resources
Transportation
Product Journey
1. Oil - In order to make plastic, oil is required. For Lego, the oil comes from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait which are both located in the Middle East, an area rich with oil. All the oil is buried under the desert sand and also off shore. Many nations who do not have access to oil within their own border receive their oil from places in the Middle East.
2. Plastic Processing - After the oil is drilled, it is then shipped to Singapore and South Korea to be processed into the plastic needed to create the Lego bricks. Many factories are in Southeast Asia due to lower labor costs than other parts of the world, making it easier to create the much needed plastic.
3. Manufacturing Center - After being processed, the plastic is shipped into Europe to the world headquarters of Lego and their head manufacturing plant in Billund, Denmark. Here the plastic is molded and turned into the bricks that everyone knows and loves. They are then put into their sets and are ready to be distributed across the world.
4. Distribution Center - After being molded and boxed, the sets are ready to be sent to stores across the world. They are then sent to a distribution center in Prague, Czech Republic and are then either flown, put on a train or sent out to sea until they reach the destination in whatever country they are headed to.
The 4 Catagories of Globalization
- Environmental - Environmental Globalization is how people use the environment to live there, thrive and spread ideas throughout the world. My product uses environmental globalization because all the components needed to make my product originally started out as resources in the environment. A problem that my product causes in the environment is the possibility of oil spills. Oil spills are extremely deadly to the environment and can kill or affect many different species throughout the ecosystems of the world. In the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, over 200 million gallons of oil were spilled into the Gulf of Mexico affecting over 82,00 birds and other animals. In order to solve these problems, oil rigs are being checked more regularly to make sure there is no faulty equipment that may cause a spill. If a spill does happen then dispersants, which are chemicals that can be used to dissipate the oil spill into smaller particles to be collected easier.
- Technological - Technological Globalization is the spreading of ideas across the world by using technology. My product uses technological globalization with all the molding machines, the plastic making machines and the new transportation methods. These are all feats in technological globalization that have advanced how ideas are spread across the world. The way that trains and planes are faster as advanced the ways that goods are moved and this is all thanks to technology. A problem that my product causes is the higher possibility of company Intel being leaked for the world to see or entire ideas being completely stolen. If ideas for new products are leaked out to the entire world, other creators can steal those ideas and ruin week of work to create the concept. To solve this, a company can choose to keep important documents offline and have hard copies. Another solution is to strengthen internet defense with more technological advances that can help to end the stealing of secure company information.
- Cultural - Cultural Globalization is the spreading of ideas through different groups of people or cultures. My product uses cultural globalization in the way that Lego can bring in exciting sets that represent certain cultures and can help people to learn more about different cultural groups. Also in the way that some Lego sets are based on specific movies can help to show cultures what some of the other cultures are doing. A problem that my product causes is the possibility of any kind of conflict breaking out due to cultural problems caused by a product possibly stereotyping another culture or showing a culture in a bad way. The conflict may not necessarily be war but in can be a conflict in the form of a protest or a total boycott of the company leading to down sales. To solve this problem, one company can choose to make their products friendlier to specific groups of people who could easily be stereotyped.
- Economical - Economical Globalization is how we spread ideas through the global economy. My product uses economical globalization due to how it is sold all across the world and also transported across the world. People are employed in all parts of the process all the way to the product designers, the shipping workers and the oil rig operators. A problem my product creates with the economy is economic greed, consumers always wanting more and more, when the producers continue exhausting their resources until there is nothing left. In many peak sales seasons, consumers always want the latest and greatest technology and demand will be at its highest. When people continue to buy, the resources needed to create the product decrease faster than normal creating a large problem for the future. To solve this, limits could be placed on how many of a product can be bought at a time, so then everybody can be fair to each other and keep the economy going.
Deeper Soloution to the Oil Spill Problem
To go deeper into finding a solution to oil spills, governments could start by slowly decreasing offshore drilling. This problem relates to environmental globalization. This would bring a decrease to the possibility of oil spills on the water. There are also spills that occur when an oil tanker strikes either an iceberg, a rock formation or other object and causes it to leak oil into the ocean. One of the worst cases would be the 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. The Exxon Valdez was a massive oil tanker bound for Long Beach, California. When it was moving through Prince Williams Sound, Alaska, the tanker ran aground and spilled millions of gallons of oil into Prince Williams Sound that took over 3 years to clean up. To solve this problem, oil tankers should not cross into areas where there is a possibility of running aground and possibly causing spills. Tankers should instead stick to the open ocean where there is no possibility of striking land.
How Globalization Relates to Me?
- Globalization relates to me because it is a part of everything we do. For example with the food we eat. Unless it is a fruit or a vegetable, the are different ingredients needed to produce that food. All those ingredients all come from different countries in order to be combined to create the food that we eat. Globalization is not just in what we eat and drink, it is also in our phones, our homes and everything else we use. In school we learn about concepts such as Algebra or Physics. These concepts started as ideas in other parts of the world, and as time went on and the world advanced, these ideas spread to different parts of the world and have now made it here after a long journey.
- Some problems that can occur is with all this new technology, we are spending more time on our televisions and phones rather than spending time being social with other or family. People can also be distracted from family through economical globalization as well. Through the greed of money, money can control ones mind rather than letting yourself control you. These are just a few of the negative affects of globalization in my everyday life.