Domestic Trade and Factors Influencing Trade
Talk about domestic trade:
Commerce that happens inside a country’s borders.
Consumers can buy the products they need, creating wealth and jobs. More than 10% of the workforce is employed in this sector.
Domestic trade in Spain was dominated by small family shops and businesses located in urban neighborhoods and city centers. Many large shopping centers, funded by foreign investment, have opened and compete with traditional shops to attract customers. In Spain, the food industry is the largest sector of domestic trade.
Explain 3 factors that influence trade:
An efficient infrastructure and a transport network that gets goods to consumers in the shortest time possible and in the best possible condition.
Positive financial results generate consumer confidence and stimulate the economy.
Prices, taxes, advertising and discounts also influence sales, especially with products that satisfy a customer’s wants instead of needs.
How is trade characterized today?
Large quantities of goods are in constant movement between different regions.
There is a worldwide network of trading partners. Domestic trade inside a country can be very active, but it is also important to create trade links with other countries.
Along with transportation, it provides jobs for many people.
It is dominated by an ever smaller number of large companies. Big companies that export and import goods are usually large international producers with links to financial institutions.
Talk about international environmental policy and current European policy
The balance of trade. This is the difference in value between the goods that the country exports and the goods it imports.
If the value of exports is higher than that of its imports, the balance is positive. If it is the other way round, the balance is negative.
The balance of payments. This is all of the country’s monetary transactions. It includes goods (products and materials), services (tourism, transport, etc.) and capital (investments, etc.).
The current impact of development in Spain
Cities radically transform the landscape. They create an artificial ecosystem that cannot sustain itself because natural resources and energy must come from other areas. Therefore, cities need an efficient transportation network. Cities also create large amounts of waste and pollution.
DEFORESTATION OF THE COAST
Huge tourist urbanization also plays a major part. This includes the construction of thousands of holiday homes and hotels, as well as marinas and golf courses.
DESERTIFICATION
The existence of arid zones, which lack rain and have long seasonal droughts.
Poor soil with a tendency to erode.
The loss of woodland due to forest fires.
The overexploitation, pollution and salinisation of aquifers.
Explain how society’s relationship with nature has changed
Dependence on nature
Up until the 19th century, and even into the 20th century in some places, societies lived from agriculture and livestock farming. There was limited technology, and humans and animals did the heavy work. For this reason, production was not very abundant. Mineral resources, such as iron, copper, tin and silver, were scarce and difficult to extract.
As a consequence, communities had a very close relationship with the natural world.
Nature as an inexhaustible source of wealth
During the Industrial Revolution, the use of coal and oil made machines more powerful and efficient. Resources could then be obtained more easily and quickly.
The countries that used this kind of technology had access to many resources and, as a result, they developed economically. Easy access to natural resources and their transformation into numerous products meant that natural resources were considered inexhaustible, and there was no concern about their conservation.
Unsustainable growth
The Earth’s resources are not infinite. Experts warn that the current rate of exploitation of natural resources is not sustainable. Furthermore, to generate energy, produce food and make other products, resources need to be transformed. This process can have a major impact on nature, endangering life on the planet
Describe the types of pollution
Water pollution
Humans have an environmental impact on natural resources when their activities damage or deplete them. Water, air and vegetation are the resources most affected.
Polluted water contains a large amount of toxic waste. Water pollution is caused primarily by the dumping of untreated waste from urban areas (homes, shops, offices and municipal services), agriculture and livestock farming (chemical fertilizers, pesticides, etc.) and industry (plastics, detergents, heavy metals and oil)
Air pollution
The high level of fossil fuel consumption generates waste that causes air pollution.
The build-up of pollutants in the air has a negative impact on the environment. The most significant effects are acid rain, which harms vegetation; depletion of the ozone layer, which means that living things are less protected from ultraviolet rays; and the greenhouse effect, which causes changes to the Earth’s climate. In order to counteract air pollution, it is necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from factories, transport and heating.
Deforestation
Deforestation is the permanent destruction of forests. Environmental impacts include landslides and floods (the lack of vegetation causes soil to break apart), a loss of biodiversity (cutting down trees causes the disappearance of species) and an increase in the greenhouse effect (the lack of forests leads to an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide). Solutions to these problems include limiting farmland, reforestation and protecting forests from fire.
Talk about waste management and sustainable development
Sustainable development means meeting the basic needs of the present population without damaging the environment of the future.
Natural resources are limited and we have to use them in a We are currently producing more and more products and our society is becoming increasingly consumerist. way and avoid their overexploitation.