SOCIAL STUDIES

Key points for your essay (qn a)

Developments in transportation & communications (t&c):
- globalisation could not have occurred without improvement in t & c technology.
- Perform two different but complementary roles in encouraging globalisation
- people, goods can move about freely.
- information can be transmitted from place to place in form of ideas, instructions and images.

Transportation:
- Improvement has "shrunk" the world = in terms of time taken to get from one place to another.
Eg: Containerization.

• Reduced time and cost of moving goods over long distances
• Greatly simplified transfer of goods
• Easily transferred from ships to trucks

- Increase mobility of goods and people
- Efficient & integrated transportation infrastructure:- airports, railways, highways
-> to facilitate movement
- efficient transport made it possible for goods to be moved around the world easily.
- people can travel easily.
Eg: Businessman from HK can attend morning meeting at SG and be back in HK by evening.

Communications:
- Improvements has made communications among people in different locations faster & convenient
- People across globe can communicate via tools:- phones, video conferencing, fax
- Satellite technology enables messages to be transmitted from one location & receive in another part of the world simultaneously.
-> Live telecast of World Cup at South Africa to Singapore.

- led to invention of internet
- enable consumers to access information about new products & places conveniently & efficiently
Eg: Reservation at hotel is possible thru internet.
- Can also buy ticket via internet without leaving home.
- Transformed way one communicates, conducts business and such.
- this led the TNCs to coordinate and control worldwide activities

=== Developments in T&Cs led to TNCs? or Is a factor to TNCs?

TNCs:
- Large global firms operate in no. of countries
- Have production or services outside country of origin
Eg: Toyota Motor

- Set up operations in different locations around world for variety of reason.

• sourcing for new market
• lowering cost production

- coordinate and control Headquarters, located in country of origin.
- source components from around the world before assembling final product in another country
Eg: Boeing, American TNC, sources aeroplane parts from around the world
- Doors from France
- Tail Fin from USA

(pg 49 of textbook)

#~#

Environmental Degradation:
-> Deforestation & Related problems.

- cut down to make way for development of industries, agriculture, housing.
- govt allow trees to be cut down at rapid rate as economic activities:- mining, forestry can generate revenue for country.
Eg: Brazil`s Beef
- Success as beef exporter.
- comes at price of huge devastation of Amazon forest.
- total area of forest lost in Amazon rose from 41.5 million hectares in 1990 to 58.7 million hectares in 2000.
- suspicion that Brazil`s deforestation rate is due to high international demand for Brazilian Beef.

Global Warming:
- worsened environmental problems
- goods can move freely due to airplanes and ships
-> they produce large quantity of greenhouse gases:- Carbon Dioxide & Nitrogen Oxides
- Factories & different modes of transportation around world emit large quantity of fumes to atmosphere every day.
- Presence of gases in atmosphere leads to increase in average global temperature
Eg:
In 1895: the global average temperature was 13.4 and in 2020, it will be 14.5