#this is the global impact though; most of this impact will be in developing countries that have no legislation on lead

[quaranmine]

firewatch y random cool obscure science facts that i didnt know anything about

honestly that's exactly what i expected LOL

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau put forward a new regulation to limit bank overdraft fees. The CFPB pointed out that the average overdraft fee is $35 even though majority of overdrafts are under $26 and paid back with-in 3 days. The new regulation will push overdraft fees down to as little as $3 and not more than $14, saving the American public collectively 3.5 billion dollars a year.

The Environmental Protection Agency put forward a regulation to fine oil and gas companies for emitting methane. Methane is the second most abundant greenhouse gas, after CO2 and is responsible for 30% of the rise of global temperatures. This represents the first time the federal government has taxed a greenhouse gas. The EPA believes this rule will help reduce methane emissions by 80%

The Energy Department has awarded $104 million in grants to support clean energy projects at federal buildings, including solar panels at the Pentagon. The federal government is the biggest consumer of energy in the nation. The project is part Biden's goal of reducing the federal government's greenhouse gas emissions by 65% by 2030. The Energy Department estimates it'll save taxpayers $29 million in the first year alone and will have the same impact on emissions as taking over 23,000 gas powered cars off the road.

The Education Department has cancelled 5 billion more dollars of student loan debt. This will effect 74,000 more borrowers, this brings the total number of people who've had their student loan debt forgiven under Biden through different programs to 3.7 Million

U.S. Agency for International Development has launched a program to combat lead exposure in developing countries like South Africa and India. Lead kills 1.6 million people every year, more than malaria and AIDS put together.

Congressional Democrats have reached a deal with their Republican counter parts to revive the expanded the Child Tax Credit. The bill will benefit 16 million children in its first year and is expected to lift 400,000 children out of poverty in its first year. The proposed deal also has a housing provision that could see 200,000 new affordable rental units

[quotesfrommyreading]

African countries are being forced to spend billions of dollars a year coping with the effects of the climate crisis, which is diverting potential investment from schools and hospitals and threatens to drive countries into ever deeper poverty.

Dealing with extreme weather is costing close to 6% of GDP in Ethiopia alone, equating to a spend of more than $1 repairing climate damage for every $20 of national income, according to research by the thinktank Power Shift Africa.

The warning comes just before the major new scientific report from the global authority on climate science, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This report, the second part of the IPCC’s comprehensive summary of global climate science, will set out the consequences of climate breakdown across the world, looking at the floods, droughts, heatwaves and storms that are affecting food systems, water supplies and infrastructure. As global temperatures have risen in recent decades, and as the impact of extreme weather has become more apparent around the world, efforts to make infrastructure and communities more resilient have largely stalled.

Africa will be one of the worst-hit regions, despite having done least to cause the climate crisis. According to the Power Shift Africa study, titled Adapt or Die: An analysis of African climate adaptation strategies, African countries will spend an average of 4% of GDP on adapting to climate breakdown.

These countries include some of the world’s poorest people, whose responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions is many times less than those of people in developed countries, or in large emerging economies such as China. Sierra Leone will have to spend $90m a year on adapting to the climate crisis, though its citizens are responsible for about 0.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year each, while US citizens generate about 80 times more.

Mohamed Adow, director of Power Shift Africa, said: “This report shows the deep injustice of the climate emergency. Some of the poorest countries in the world are having to use scarce resources to adapt to a crisis not of their making. Despite only having tiny carbon footprints compared with those of the rich world, these African countries are suffering from droughts, storms and floods which are putting already stretched public finances under strain and limiting their ability to tackle other problems.”

He called for more funding from developed countries, which promised at the Cop26 UN climate summit to double the money available to help poor countries adapt to the climate crisis. Rich countries promised in 2009 to provide $100bn a year to help poor countries cut their greenhouse gas emissions and cope with the effects of climate breakdown. But so far they have fallen short of that target, and most of the funds that have been provided have gone to projects to cut emissions, such as windfarms and solar panels, rather than efforts to help countries adapt.

The study examined national adaptation plans submitted to the UN by seven African countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan and Togo. South Sudan, which is the world’s second poorest country, was hit by floods last year that displaced 850,000 people, and led to outbreaks of water-borne diseases. The country is to spend $376m a year on adaptation, about 3.1% of its GDP.

Chukwumerije Okereke, director of the centre for climate change and development at the Alex Ekwueme Federal University in Nigeria, said rich countries must respond to the findings, and to the IPCC report.

“It is both irresponsible and immoral for those that are the chief cause of climate change to look on while Africa, which has contributed next to nothing to climate change, continues to bear a disproportionate share of the impact,” he said. “The time for warm words is long gone. We need urgent, scaled-up, long-term support from the world-leading climate polluters.”

  —  African countries spending billions to cope with climate crisis

[maaarine]

India overtakes China to become world’s most populous country (Hannah Ellis-Petersen, The Guardian, April 24 2023)

“It is also the first time since 1950, when the UN first began keeping global population records, that China has been knocked off the top spot.

China’s population decline follows decades of strict laws to bring the country’s booming birthrate under control, including the introduction of a one-child policy in the 1980s.

This included fines for having extra children, forced abortions and sterilisations.

While initially highly effective in controlling the population, these policies became a victim of their own success, and the country is now grappling with an ageing population in steep decline, which could have severe economic implications.

Part of the problem is that because of a traditional preference for boys, the one-child policy led to a massive gender imbalance.

Men now outnumber women by about 32 million. “How can the country now shore up birth rates, with millions of missing women?” asks Mei Fong, the author of One Child, a book about the impact of the policy.

Recent policies introduced in China trying to incentivise women to have more children have done little to stimulate population growth.

Women still have only 1.2 children and the population is expected to fall by almost 10% in the next two decades.

According to projections, the size of the Chinese population could drop below 1 billion before the end of the century.

In India, the population has grown by more than a billion since 1950. Though growth has now slowed, the number of people in the country is still expected to continue to rise for the next few decades, hitting its peak of 1.7 billion by 2064. (…)

India’s demography is far from uniform across the country.

One third of predicted population growth over the next decade will come from just two states, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, in the north of the country, which are some of India’s poorest and most agricultural states.

Uttar Pradesh alone already has a population of about 235 million, bigger than Nigeria or Brazil.

Meanwhile states in India’s south, which is more prosperous and has far higher rates of literacy, population rates have already stabilised and have begun to fall.

In the next decade, states in the southern states such as Kerala and Tamil Nadu are likely to start grappling with an ageing population, and by 2025, one in five people in Kerala will be over 60.

The divide in population growth between India’s north and south could also have political implications.

After 2026, India’s electoral lines are due to be revised and redrawn based on census data, in particular relating to the number of people in constituencies.

Many politicians in southern states have expressed concern that their successes in bringing down population numbers, through education programmes, family planning and high literacy, could result in a reduction in their political representation in parliament, and a further political domination of the northern states that continue to have a population boom.

Currently the average age in India is just 29, and the country will continue to have a largely youthful population for the next two decades.

A similar “demographic dividend” proved highly useful in China, leading to an economic boom, particularly in manufacturing.

While India has one of the world’s fastest-growing economies in the world, and recently overtook the UK as the fifth-largest, experts have stressed that the country needs more investment in education and employment to seize the opportunity presented by a young population over the next few decades.

India continues to struggle with high youth unemployment and less than 50% of working-age Indians are in the workforce.

The figure for women is even lower, with just 20% of women participating in the formal labour market, a figure that is decreasing as India develops.”

[rjzimmerman]

Climate Migration Will Be the Global Challenge of a Generation. (Sierra Club)

Extreme weather events in South America are driving more families to abandon their homes and undertake a risky, sometimes dangerous journey toward the US border. Changing precipitation patterns mean that once arable land is increasingly barren due to drought, while other areas, like southern Brazil are increasingly prone to cataclysmic flooding.

“Climate change acts as a multiplier for other factors,” said Michael Nash, a filmmaker and researcher who spent two years traveling the world talking to climate migrants as part of a film on the subject. “As regions around the world increasingly suffer from its effects, economies and infrastructure are also damaged as well. People fleeing these situations are often referred to as economic migrants, but the truth is much more complicated.”

“There is no process currently to deal with someone who is coming to the US due to crop failure or natural disaster,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council. “This is an ongoing challenge [for all nations] in the modern era, something we critically need to develop.”

The number of refugees who have been forcibly displaced globally has dramatically increased in the last decade, nearly doubling in size, and migration overall is increasing as well. The principal drivers are economic or related to conflict, but climate change increasingly plays a role, according to data from the United Nations International Office on Migration (IOM). 

Most of those who have been displaced migrate internally—to another region within their birth country—but the number of those choosing to cross borders in search of a better life is increasing as well. The IOM has cited estimates of as many as 1 billion climate migrants in the next 30 years. Other projections point to 1.2 billion by 2050, and 1.4 billion by 2060. Those migrants will largely flee equatorial zones, which will be the hardest hit by global warming, though they will not be the only regions affected.

Some regions, particularly in the Global South, are projected to experience significant changes in temperature, precipitation patterns, sea level rise, and other climate-related factors. Less than 1 percent of the world is currently considered borderline inhabitable. By 2070, that number is expected to rise to 19 percent.

Precipitation patterns are shifting, temperatures are rising, and some areas are experiencing changes in the frequency and severity of weather extremes. The impacts range from melting Andean glaciers to devastating floods, to collapsing forest ecosystems to region-wide droughts. Honduras and Guatemala are already seeing crop failures on previously fertile land. Mexico City and Bogotá both currently suffer severe water shortages that have led to rationing. Brazil in May suffered the worst floods in the country’s history; studies on precipitation patterns suggest floods in the future are twice as likely due to the burning of fossil fuels. Venezuela this year saw the last remaining glacier in the country downgraded in status to an ice patch. Guajira, an Indigenous region that stretches across the borders of Colombia and Venezuela, has experienced desertification due to long-term droughts that have left residents without potable water, and made growing crops impossible.

Climate change also affects basic infrastructure that produces and transports clean water, food, and electricity. Due to droughts in Colombia, which relies overwhelmingly on hydroelectric power, the country this year temporarily reduced the sale of electricity to Ecuador, exacerbating drought-induced power shortages there.

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Poaching Turtles for the Pet Trade

When I was a kid in the 80s, I remember hearing about tortoise shell glasses–also known as horn-rimmed glasses–that were made from the shells of real sea turtles and other chelonians. They were considered trendy when they first appeared in the 1920s, though by the time I came around horn-rimmed glasses were supposedly the mark of uncool nerds. Of course, actual tortoise shells were no longer used as the trade in sea turtle parts was banned in the 1970s by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), an agreement among almost all the countries in the world.

There’s been illegal poaching of sea turtles since then for culinary, medicinal and ornamental use, but growing awareness has cut down on demand on the black market. Unfortunately, their terrestrial cousins are facing increased threats from poachers, not just as food or medicine–but as pets.

Exotic pets are any non-domesticated animals kept as pets, like birds, reptiles, fish, and wild mammals. Some of these species are easy to breed in captivity, such some freshwater fish kept in aquariums. But many are captured from wild populations; many parrot species, for example, are threatened with extinction simply by how many are trapped for the pet trade.

There are a lot of responsible exotic pet owners and breeders out there, to be sure. Unfortunately, the trade is badly marred by a proliferation of poachers, and people whose only thought is to have the coolest, rarest, or most impressive endangered species in their collection. Think of wealthy people with pet lions, tigers, and other big cats, or poachers capturing rare reptile species to sell to the highest bidder. In spite of all the education done by responsible exotic pet enthusiasts, the bad apples make all too big an impact on wildlife populations.

It’s estimated that the global exotic pet trade may be worth over 40 billion dollars; almost half of that may be illegal. Demand for these animals largely comes from North America and Europe, while the countries whose wildlife is most frequently poached are developing nations that have a lot of species biodiversity. Because wildlife may be shipped all over the world rather than under a single jurisdiction, it’s difficult to track or stop black market trade in wildlife, to include endangered species.

Turtles are no exception. Wildlife officials have seen an increase in poaching of tortoises and freshwater turtles in recent years due to the demand of the exotic pet trade. Because these animals often reproduce slowly, and only after they are several years old, breeding them can require more time and patience than unethical dealers may want to invest. And as turtles are famously slow, it’s all too easy for poachers to pick them up and carry them away.

Poaching turtles has some pretty negative consequences. Over half of the world’s 360 species of turtle and tortoise are being pushed toward extinction by the illegal exotic pet trade. It’s not just turtles in tropical areas that are being stolen, though. The United States is seeing thousands of turtles being illegally exported out of the country. From 1999 to 2017, exports of mud turtles (Kinosternon spp.) rose from 1,844 to 40,000, while musk turtles (Sternotherus spp.) saw an export increase from  8,254 to more than 281,000. And other species have seen similar increases both in the United States and beyond.

When all the turtles of a given species are removed from an area, it has a damaging effect on the ecosystem. Every species has interdependencies with others, and when poaching turtles leads to their extirpation–or even entire extinction–they take with them all the relationships they had with other animals, plants, microbes, and other organisms in their home ecosystems. That leads to less biodiversity, weaker ecosystem health, and potentially the extinction of species that were dependent on the now-missing turtles.

The rise of the internet and social media has been a double-edged sword for wildlife. On the one hand, it’s made getting information about the challenges wildlife face much easier to access, and facilitated a lot more necessary conversations about these animals and their habitats. After all, I likely would have a harder time getting the information in this article to you if I were limited to newspapers, magazines, or other physical media that only come out at certain intervals or only in limited regions.

However, there’s a plethora of videos and other media portraying exotic pets as cool and trendy, but neglecting to mention how much work they may need for proper care. Additionally, since most of the internet isn’t professionally edited, anyone can write anything they want. This means that inaccurate information can be quickly and easily passed around, much to the detriment of the animals receiving inadequate or harmful care. And turtles, which can live several decades, may be sentenced to a shortened lifespan consisting of poor health and suffering.

Thankfully enough responsible caretakers of these animals put forth information on proper care, and realistic looks at how much work it takes to give these animals the best life possible in captivity. We cannot duplicate a wild life for them, but we can at least give them the right food, enclosure, and enrichment. So the best thing good exotic pet owners can do is educate, educate, educate. If you have exotic pets, be open about the work you put in giving them good lives. And if someone makes a suggestion that could lead to even better care, be receptive to that new information rather than getting defensive. If you’re trying to help educate someone who may be new to caring for their exotic pets, try to keep things positive and supportive so that they don’t feel attacked (though there’s not much you can do if they decide to double down on their inadequate husbandry instead.)

It’s also incredibly easy for people to acquire all sorts of exotic pets. Major chain pet stores may have reptiles, amphibians, birds, and more, and employees may not always have accurate information on how best to care for them. Even independent pet stores vary in quality and understanding of exotic animal care. Many people go to large exotic pet trade shows, where hundreds of vendors proffer thousands of snakes, lizards, insects, spiders, birds, and more to anyone with cash to spend regardless of experience or intent. Craig’s List and similar websites offer opportunities for people to sell exotic wildlife to others in their area with little oversight. And for those who don’t want to have to leave the house, exotic animals can even be bought online and shipped right to your door.

While there are certainly shops and dealers who are mindful of the negative ecological impact of the trade in wild-caught turtles and other wildlife, others aren’t so scrupulous. If you are someone looking to acquire an exotic animal, it’s best to be very particular about sourcing; if a seller can’t tell you much about where an animal came from (for example whether it was captive-bred or wild-caught), find a different source. Avoid endangered or threatened species; even legal trade can encourage illegal black market demand for these species. If it seems too good to be true–a rare animal available for sale, or one selling for an incredibly good price–there’s probably something sketchy in its origin.

Consider giving a home to rescued or otherwise “secondhand” exotic pets, to include turtles. A lot of them end up rehomed or even abandoned because people buy these animals and then either don’t understand how much work they take, or simply get bored with them. And again, turtles’ long lifespans often work against them as few people keep a turtle for its entire decades-long life. Rescues do a lot of good work to help these discarded animals find better homes, and are also often very good sources of information on proper care.

You can also make a difference by simply not purchasing exotic pets in the first place, which reduces the demand for them. The normalization of wildlife as pets creates a setting in which these animals are more readily caught and traded because “Well, it’s okay because those other people are doing it!” There are already tons of domesticated pets–dogs, cats, rabbits, rats, mice, guinea pigs, and more–in need of homes. Sure, they may not be as trendy as sugar gliders, bearded dragons, or rare turtles. But as domesticated animals they have been specifically bred to be around humans and be our companions. They’re much more suitable as pets than the truly wild animals that are passed around in the exotic pet trade–and certainly more than those that were taken directly from the wild and which can no longer contribute their genes to wild populations.

Finally, instead of spending potentially hundreds of dollars on a wild-caught turtle or other animal, try giving that money to a nonprofit organization that works toward wildlife conservation instead. The Orianne Society, for example, focuses on reptile and amphibian conservation. And the Turtle Conservancy, as the name suggests, specifically exists to help promote the protection of endangered chelonians. If you have native turtle species in your area, see if there’s a local organization working on habitat restoration that could use your help with volunteering or a donation.

Did you enjoy this post? Consider taking one of my online foraging and natural history classes, checking out my other articles, or picking up a paperback or ebook I’ve written! You can even buy me a coffee here!

[darkmaga-returns]

Are the Global Elites Over Population Control?

by Brad Pearce | Oct 21, 2024

It is widely believed among libertarians, and really everyone of anti-globalist sentiment, that there is a high-level global depopulation conspiracy. This belief is perhaps best summed up with the pithy phrase, “You are the carbon they want to reduce.” Bill Clinton recently acknowledged that he believes immigration is necessary for economic growth because our country has below-replacement fertility levels. While the global elites have given us many reasons to believe that they want depopulation, this is largely the residue of a panic about population growth from the 1960’s through 1980’s where many believed famine was imminent and ignored the vast increases in calorie production that accompanied the advent of modern industrial farming. Now, public policies across the developed world all demonstrate that governments are proactively, and unsuccessfully, trying to to increase birth rates in ways that are amenable to the public. In short, when it comes to population growth, the Very Serious People got what they thought they wanted but had never considered the impact of plummeting birthrates.

The population growth panic was started in earnest by the infamous book “The Population Bomb” by Paul Ehrlich which was released in 1968, though popular concern about overpopulation dates back to Malthus. A dystopian overpopulated future became a common trope in science fiction and was just one of many panics that academics and globalists have pushed on the world while selling panic as responsible planning. For one amusing example, the film Soylent Green is set in 2022 and though they were close to accurately predicting the 2022 population (7 billion in the movie, compared to 8 billion in real life) in the film that population level lead to the government feeding the public through stealth cannibalism. In real life, in 2022 Americans were suffering from obesity while wasting enormous amounts of food daily, and global extreme poverty had continuously gone down (not counting a rebound due to destructive COVID policies.) Despite that, for decades demographers have predicted the global population would peak in the 21st century, perpetually growing populations remain in the popular imagination.

The UN and various globalist oligarch organizations perpetuated overpopulation panic and tried to decrease birth rates, saying a variety of zany things about the need for much lower populations and proposing drastic actions. The invention of hormonal birth control and the legalization of abortion were primarily framed as serving the purpose of liberating women and allowing them to progress in the work force, but it was never hidden that the government desired to get birth rates down. The most famous and coercive example of population control policies being implemented was China’s “One Child Policy,” which was criticized by many, but widely praised by big international organizations and think tanks. Few considered the obvious problems that would impact a society where the average married couple had only one child but four elderly parents to take care of without the assistance of other siblings.

[juryandkia]

The Filipino Uniform

A crop top and skinny jeans for girls and a Penshoppe shirt and shorts for boys, or something close enough. The Filipino Uniform. I’ve noticed that trend since I was a child, a trend in which all of us have fallen victim for. As my style developed throughout the years, I grew to despise that “uniform”. I express so much of myself through my fashion sense and style and most people in our poverty-striken country wouldn’t really acknowledge or appreciate it, which is understandable but was an unfortunate fact for a fashion girlie like me. What happened to our beautiful culture? I was always envious seeing our neighboring countries wear their traditional attire like Hanfus and Kimonos casually as their everyday attire just to fee la sense of connection to their culture and history.

The history of Filipino fashion is a rich tapestry of cultural influences, reflecting the nation's diverse history and heritage. Early Filipinos wore clothing made from natural materials like cotton, abaca, and piña, often adorned with embellishments such as beads and shells. Spanish colonial rule brought European styles to the Philippines, and traditional Filipino garments like the baro't saya and barong tagalog evolved to incorporate Spanish elements.In the late 19th century, American fashion trends influenced the Philippines, leading to the creation of the terno, which combined American and Filipino dress styles. After gaining independence in 1946, the terno remained popular for women, while the barong tagalog became a national symbol. In recent decades, Filipino fashion has become more eclectic, with Filipinos embracing Western fashion trends while also celebrating their traditional heritage. Unfortunately the rise of fast fashion has significantly changed the course of our fashion history. “Fast fashion” is a term used to describe the production of clothing at a rapid pace in order to meet the latest trends. Despite all of it’s negative consequences (pollution, waste, exploitation of workers, and even child labor!), it has become a global phenomenon especially in places with high levels of poverty where people don’t have much disposable income but still want to be able to wear stylish and trendy clothes. Because fast fashion is affordable and easily accessible, it’s an industry that will remain extremely popular in the foreseeable future. Even though fast fashion causes more harm to our planet than good, we can’t blame people of a lower socioeconomic status for buying cheap clothes. To counter this, we must try to prioritize and remain sustainable by buying secondhand, not shopping excessively, and if we could, shop from ethical sources. Luckily, we have one of many solutions in trying to combat the wasteful nature of fast fashion by buying from ukay-ukay stores!

“Ukay fashion” refers to the practice of wearing pre-owned or thrifted clothing, and it has gained significant popularity in the Philippines, where you can find numerous ukay-ukay shops scattered across neighborhoods. These shops offer a wide range of secondhand clothing, footwear, and accessories at highly affordable prices. The widespread appeal of ukay-ukay in the Philippines can be attributed to several factors. Firstly, it is seen as a sustainable approach to clothing shopping. Purchasing second hand items reduces waste and contributes to environmental conservation. Additionally, ukay-ukay provides an avenue for discovering distinctive and stylish clothing options at a fraction of the cost of brand-new garments. In recent years, the trend of ukay fashion has also found favor in other parts of the world. This surge in popularity can be attributed to various factors, including the rising prices of new clothing, a growing awareness of the fashion industry’s environmental impact, and the increasing trendiness of vintage and retro fashion styles. All of these sound very promising, however, shopping ukay-ukay can have it’s negative consequences too. To name a few: the wear and tear of second-hand clothing, hygiene concerns, the time and effort to find a piece you like, and of course, the inconsistent selection of sizes and styles.

But what steps can we start to take to improve our style? First is to make sure that our clothing fits well and compliments our figure. Clothes that are too tight can restrict our movements and even make us look bigger than we actually are, this is important to remember for people with different body types. Because of this, intentionally oversized clothing is tricky to master. It can either go right or completely wrong, making us look like we’re drowning in fabric or give the illusion that we’re short and shapeless. Second is grooming. Style is more than the clothing that we wear that’s why we need to take everything else into consideration. Our personal hygiene is as important as everything else. Smelling good, having healthy skin, nails, and hair, making sure that the clothes we wear are ironed and washed, and all the other little details can help in the big picture. Third is to explore and experiment. Don’t get stuck on the Filipino Uniform, it’s easy to fall into trends and fads that will look out of style sooner than later. There are tons of blogs, artists, social media apps, aesthetics to get into and get inspired by, you just have to find the one that speaks to you most. Through this, you’ll be able to learn how to color coordinate, mix and match, accessorize, and more. And last but definitely not the least, be confident. Nothing can help an outfit shine more than a bright and confident personality that outshines it. Be yourself and be proud of who you are and what you have to show for it.

Filipino and Fashion - Issuu. (2023, June 28). Issuu; issuu. https://issuu.com/wheninuae/docs/wheninuae_june_2023_issue/s/27199343#:~:text=Local%20designers%20and%20brands%20are,modern%20designs%2C%20and%20global%20trends

Perez, D. (2019, March 16). How Fast Fashion Invaded the Philippines Retail Market. Eco Warrior Princess. https://ecowarriorprincess.net/2019/03/how-fast-fashion-invaded-philippines-retail-market/

Sunnexdesk. (2019, July 20). Fashion appetite vs the environment. SunStar Publishing Inc.; SunStar Publishing Inc. https://www.sunstar.com.ph/davao/weekend/fashion-appetite-vs-the-environment#:~:text=When%20in%20Western%20countries%2C%20consumers,shop%20in%20ukay%2Dukay%20stalls

Williams, E. (2022). Appalling or Advantageous? Exploring the Impacts of Fast Fashion From Environmental, Social, and Economic Perspectives. Journal for Global Business and Community, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.56020/001c.36873

[collapsedsquid]

The UN negotiations over a climate Loss and Damage Fund are a major effort at global organization to face the climate disasters to come. Beyond long-range mitgation efforts and adaptations to unavoidable new risks, the world needs an institutionalized mechanism to provide assistance to those most directly impacted by climate disasters particularly in poor countries. In 2022 the disaster in question was the catastrophic flooding in Pakistan which left a third of the country underwater and cost an impoverished and debt-ridden country $30 billion in damages. It was touted as one of the great breakthroughs at the UN climate talks in Egypt in 2022 (COP27) that at the last minute, and to general surprise the US delegation agreed to start talks over a fund to compensate victims of climate catastrophes. The decision was vital in political terms, because though it did not include an admission of historic responsibility or liability it implied a concession to the cause of climate justice, by the United States, for so long the chief polluter. But now, only weeks ahead of the COP28 meeting in Dubai, the loss and damage talks have collapsed acrimoniously. There was no agreement between the rich countries that will have to come up with most of the funding and the claimant countries, the Small Island Developing States and the larger grouping of the G77 and China. The Americans were very much there. After Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris agreement, the Biden administration immediately restored America’s adherence to the UN climate talks. The diplomats negotiating on behalf of the Biden administration are good internationalist committed to the climate cause. But they represent an administration committed to asserting American leadership and behind the White House stands a Congress that defines narrow terms of engagement. It cleaves to the Byrd-Hagel Senate Resolution that rejected common and differentiated responsibility already in 1997. America will agree to no climate treaty that does not place obligations on all parties, not just the rich states. It will under no circumstances accept liability or any idea of compensation, the basis for the climate justice movement. It might conceivably find a few billion with which to top up a World Bank fund - there are a few billion for the World Bank tucked into the Ukraine-Israel aid package - but is not going to provide tens of billions to a stand alone UN fund with a governing board whose majority is likely to be skeptical if not hostile towards America. And if money is to be handed out, there will be conditions, qualifying rules and strings attached. Like them or not, these are largely non-negotiable positions on the American side. They are unacceptable to the vast majority of the rest of the world. Given America’s entrenched power, all its negotiators need to do is to spell out their terms. This provokes indignation, a breakdown in trust, deadlock and thus the perpetuation of a disorganized status quo.

[mariacallous]

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is now forecasting a moderate-to-strong El Niño season to continue through February 2024. The forecast itself mostly piques the interests of meteorologists, oceanographers, fishers, and the global network of food commodity traders and crop insurers whose fortunes live and die in the technical arcana of the weather report.

But this forecast has vast implications: Even a typical El Niño can reduce harvests for important crops, increase the disease burden, hammer developing and middle-income countries’ economic prospects, increase armed conflict risk in the tropics, and fuel maritime conflict and territorial ambitions in the East and South China Seas.

Some of these challenges—such as civil wars and maritime conflict in the South China Sea—would manifest as immediate, hurricane-like clear and present dangers. But many would not. Like climate change, perhaps the greater danger lays in the accumulation of thousands of small cracks in the global food, public health, and other systems that are the bedrock of life.

Most of these hazards will hit hardest in countries that are ill-equipped for the economic and political fallout. They add urgency to easing developing and middle-income countries’ debt burdens and building more resilience into the global food system. For the United States, they highlight the need to adopt a more comprehensive strategy for defining national security threats and government responses to them.

The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a cyclic pattern of warming and cooling in the waters of the east-central Pacific Ocean. ENSO oscillates between cool (La Niña) and warm (El Niño) phases at intervals averaging five to seven years. Climate change is giving ENSO a “push,” making the swings back and forth deeper and potentially longer lasting. The currently forming El Niño follows a rare “triple dip” La Niña that ended in June lasted nearly three years—the longest in over 50 years.

But what happens in the east-central Pacific doesn’t stay there. As Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist Josh Willis has said, “When the Pacific speaks, the whole world listens.” ENSO is the single most important driver of year-to-year variation in global climate. ENSO’s teleconnections—links between weather phenomena separated by vast distances—shape weather across the southern United States, Africa, Latin America, and closer to “home” in Southeast Asia and Oceania. They cause or strengthen droughts as well as extreme rainfall events and affect temperature and humidity levels over much of the world.

Both El Niños and La Niñas cause weather-related hazards. The crushing three-year drought that’s been devastating the Horn of Africa since October 2020? It’s partly a result of that triple-dip La Niña. South America’s severe drought, gripping many of the world’s most significant grain exporters? ENSO’s effect is there, too. Ditto for drought in the U.S. south and southwest. The transition to an El Niño will likely bring some relief to these areas, though that “relief” has come to the Horn in the form of torrential rains and flooding that burst the banks of the Juba and Shabelle rivers and forced 300,000 Ethiopians and Somalis from their homes. This whipsawing between extremes is the “push” climate change is providing.

But more broadly, the effects aren’t symmetrical. Shifting from La Niña to El Niño conditions doesn’t just redistribute good and bad weather around the globe. El Niños come with much more downside risks to global food supplies, public health, economic recovery in the global south, as well as to peace and stability – in the Global South where its impacts are most acute, but also in East Asia.

Let’s start with food. Though global food prices are down a bit from record highs following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, they are still among the highest prices seen in the last 60 years. And these prices don’t yet fully reflect the effect of Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative and attacks on Ukrainian export infrastructure, both of which further weaponize Russia’s role in food markets and have led prices to begin creeping back up at a time when more than 250 million people are experiencing acute food insecurity.

Some qualified good news: In the past, El Niños haven’t caused global food prices to spike, with price effects being relatively modest. A multinational team of scientists found both El Niños and La Niñas suppress global yields for maize, rice, and wheat, with the effects of El Niño particularly strong for maize. On average, El Niños slightly reduce global food supply, though the effects are typically modest and can be offset by planting more acreage to offset lower productivity.

But at the country or regional level, as in western and southern Africa, the effects can be quite strong, sending local prices higher and increasing rural unemployment. El Niño effects for food production aren’t confined to land, either. The warming of the West-Central Pacific suppresses catches for important fisheries like the Peruvian anchoveta—the world’s most productive fishery—and in heavily fished areas like the East and South China Seas.

The effects of weather-related crop failures on food markets operate on two levels. First, they constrict actual supply in a market where demand is both constantly growing and price-inelastic: The prevailing price doesn’t change biological necessities. Second, they shape current expectations about future production and thus hedging behavior. Expecting a bad harvest, buyers with the means and the foresight—like China—may begin stockpiling grains in anticipation of failed harvests or potential market disruptions.

In the past, these activities have only had modest effects on prices. Yet this time may be different. These hedging strategies are now being implemented in the context of rising economic nationalism in which governments—especially authoritarian ones—are resorting to export bans to address concerns about domestic food shortages and explicitly weaponizing food trade; that is, they are occurring in markets that are more risky than in the recent past. This could be bad news for a global food security picture already hammered by the Ukraine war and the lingering effects of coronavirus-related supply chain disruptions.

Speaking of the coronavirus: A strong El Niño could increase the infectious disease burden. Analyzing the strong El Niño of 2014 to 2015, researchers found increases in cases of plague in Colorado and New Mexico, cholera in Tanzania, and dengue fever in Brazil and Southeast Asia. In the U.S. southwest and Tanzania, the culprit was wetter-than-normal conditions that increased the abundance of plague-carrying fleas and overwhelmed drainage and sanitation systems, causing drinking water to become contaminated with cholera. In Brazil and Southeast Asia, higher temperatures and droughts had a more complicated impact: Bereft of standing water in the natural environment, mosquitos penetrated further and in larger numbers into urban areas with open water sources, then matured more rapidly—and developed more voracious appetites, thus infecting more people.

At the macro scale, the economic losses from El Niños can be significant. Failed crops are foregone income that drive up demand for imports. Burst riverbanks and dams must be repaired and often come with considerable damage to infrastructure such as roads and electricity grids, which are critical for the normal functioning of the economy.

But that’s just a fraction of the story. A recent article in Science by Christopher Callahan and Justin Mankin attributes massive economic losses to the persistent negative effects of El Niños on growth, estimating total global losses of $5.7 trillion from the 1997 to 1998 El Niño.

That’s an enormous number. But it’s not as if the world lost nearly a sixth of total economic output in 1998 (world GDP was roughly $31.5 trillion at the time). Many of those effects emerged in the years after the event due to the compounding effects of forgone growth investment—the same reason money saved now is worth more than money saved later—and the high costs of building back after associated natural disasters such as floods and mudslides. And because we never “see” foregone growth due to lack of investment or diversion of resources from building new schools to repairing roads, we don’t typically think of these losses when counting up the economic consequences of natural disasters. It’s an example of how many of the costs of climate-related events are almost imperceptible in the moment but add up to real (and large) numbers.

The estimates reported in the Science article are orders of magnitude above previous ones of El Niño–associated economic losses. While some economists have questioned the astounding size of these estimates, even losses in parts of Africa and countries where the historic relationship between El Niños and GDP growth is strongest—such as Peru, Ghana, and Indonesia—could still wind up being in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

El Niño’s effects for economic growth and food supplies help us understand one of its other consequences: elevated risk of civil conflict. Over a decade ago, Solomon Hsiang, Kyle Meng, and Mark Cane found that civil conflicts—armed conflicts between rebels and governments—were more than twice as likely to break out during El Niños relative to La Niñas in world regions whose local climate is affected by ENSO teleconnections, with conflict outbreaks clustering between July and November. In doing so, their study was the first to link climate at the global scale with armed conflict, a topic that is now the subject of exhaustive study and discussion.

When studying climate impacts on conflict, researchers almost never find a smoking gun. To date, no rebel leader has cited El Niño as their rallying cause. Rather, what researchers find is that climatic factors “load the dice,” making conflict marginally likelier to occur. Again, the impact is hard to detect in any given conflict but emerges from analyzing hundreds if not thousands of conflict events over time.

El Niño’s adverse consequences for fisheries also increase the risk of militarized conflict on the seas. Of particular concern are its effects in the East and South China Seas, where the impact on fish populations is strong, fishing pressure is high, and the regions’ major fishing nations—China, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, and Taiwan among them—have tense security relationships in the best of times. While it’s extremely unlikely a Taiwan invasion would begin over a fisheries dispute, these types of militarized conflicts are one of the few scenarios in international affairs where the coast guards and navies of rival countries may come into conflict over the actions of third parties—such as fishing vessels crossing disputed maritime boundaries—that they do not command or control.

Facing these potential outcomes, what can be done? Countries with strong ENSO teleconnections—which are mostly developing and middle-income—need resources and budgetary space to address problems such as rising food import bills, disaster preparedness and relief, and adequate provisioning for their security forces.

For this reason, creditor countries—especially China and those in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development—need to address the large debt overhangs many of these countries accumulated during the coronavirus pandemic. Ghana’s $3 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund is a signal that creditor countries, including China, can work together to address these challenges.

Consistent with the increasing role armed forces are playing in disaster response and relief, countries such as the United States may be called upon to provide more emergency services that leverage their considerable airlift capacity and ability to move medical supplies and emergency food aid in difficult circumstances.

Stepping back from immediate responses, a bigger picture take-home point emerges for the U.S. government. The evidence of strong, adverse health, economic, and security consequences has made clear that the conventional approaches to defining national security interests and threats are lacking. Climate impacts—El Niños among them—are security impacts, but identifying and responding to them shouldn’t be the exclusive domain of national security and intelligence agencies like the Department of Defense and National Security Council. The Biden administration has done more to mainstream climate security than any of its predecessors—but there is far more work to be done.

[struggle-but-its-all-ocean-floor]

Out of curiosity, I know that some kpop companies (hybe, jyp, maybe etc.) are trying to start these international groups trained in the kpop mold but from all countries and all singing in English. Do you foresee there being an appetite for this? Is this still kpop to you? (full disclosure I was the anon that accidentally got hooked on dream academy and, though they don't show it, I'm really fascinated by the behind the scenes of it all bc it's really heart-warming how they've all seemed to develop such strong bonds despite many language barriers and many national backgrounds)

Somewhat relatedly, I'm interested to see how the genre is impacted long-term by the increased international focus, including doing more English tracks and an increasing preference for English-speaking trainees, potentially resulting in less focus on the korean market. The siloing of kpop to the korean market was of course bad in one way bc fewer people were exposed to it and got to experience the genre, but I wonder what the genre, to the extent that it can be readily defined, might stand to lose by focusing outward. Maybe nothing of course, and it's just another example of linguistic imperialism. It'll be interesting to see. I don't expect you to predict the future! I just wanted to put down some thoughts

I remember you! Welcome back!

I don't know if what I feel is right, but I don't really want to see people who aren't of Asian descent in kpop? Actually, my problem is more with white people from more privileged countries. Kpop's recent popularity in the West means Western countries, especially the US and in Europe, are being exposed to a different culture, and Asian communities in those countries are seeing themselves represented. Having songs with Korean lyrics such as LGO and the Savage Love remix reach number 1 on the Hot 100 is so cool. We're all so used to English we forget that it's just a language and that other languages are valid. I used to feel insecure about my English, despite it being great, because it isn't perfect and I don't sound like a native. BTS showed me how "random" it all is. In Kpop, Korean is the dominant language even if us outsiders don't speak it, and it's such a cool language. I became interested in Korean and less interested in English through Kpop. Most idols don't speak English that well and it's all cool, thus I was able to take pride in how fluent I am and stop regretting the fact that I'm not an English native speaker. I literally used to dream that I was born in the US or Canada, just because I would be a native English-speaker (nevermind the fact that English in an official language in other countries...). I still love English, but I don't worship the language anymore. Seeing a group form a small, ignored country become so famous that people even started learning more about it and its language felt like representation even to me who is from a "popular" European country - Portugal has grown a lot recently, but when I was younger no one talked about us, and a lot of people to this day think we're a Spanish colony or something. I used to feel so invisible and insignificant, especially being from a small town...

I don't know, I don't really want to see a bunch of privileged white Americans in kpop. They already have a whole industry for them. Maybe kpop will be like hip hop? It's still dominated by black artists but so global. Of course, there is the issue of culture appropriation... I don't know much about this topic, but my issue is: aren't most songs already in English? We need "kpop" groups singing in English too? Part of the beauty of kpop is breaking what you called the linguist imperialism. There's a difference between Asian artists singing in English to expand their reach, because that allows for representation, shows that Americans and Europeans aren't the only ones who can become famous, and inevitably exposes the artists' fans to their own culture and language too, and international groups singing in English. What do we even mean by international? If the groups are truly diverse that could be great in terms of representation, introducing audiences to different cultures and languages, etc. Are these groups mostly going to be made up of people from privileged countries? These companies will likely privilege native English speakers or fluent English speakers (more common in Western countries, I think?), and also white or of East Asian descent...

I'm thinking aloud but I don't really know the kinds of groups that are being put together, since I don't watch survival shows. I don't know if I'm being small-minded and trying to gatekeep kpop. I wonder what Koreans and Asian communities in general think about this?

But this is an interesting topic you've raised! I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of discourse about it. For now these groups are just starting out, right? We don't know how successful they'll be. We already have XG who sort of fit this concept, but they're all Japanese so it's different. I wonder how confusing it will be for Western audiences who are just being introduced to kpop and now have kpop without Asians (or with non-Asians). And Asian countries where kpop is mainstream, would they care for these groups? They might be indifferent to them? It might not make a difference the language they're singing in or how they were trained?

Thanks for the ask! I'm too ignorant to answer you. These are more questions than opinions! I'd love to hear your thoughts, as someone with an actual understanding of how these groups are being created!

[0613magazine]

201112 WSJ Magazine

Why BTS Runs the World

The South Korean pop group has reached the top of the U.S. charts, united millions of fans around the world into a self-styled ARMY, shattered online viewing records and been part of a major IPO. Now BTS is preparing to release a new album.

It’s been a really long time since we had a face-to-face interview like this.” Rapper j-hope, 26, a member of the South Korean group BTS, jumps into conversation while waiting for his bandmates to settle in. The coronavirus pandemic put a hard stop to the group’s world tour, which would have taken them across 17 cities on three continents this year. But it hasn’t made them any less busy as they look ahead to the release of a new album.

In early September, all seven members of BTS—short for their Korean name Bangtan Sonyeondan, which they alter in English to “Beyond the Scene”—were camped out in Seoul’s artsy Yeonnam neighborhood, just weeks after their latest catchy hit, “Dynamite,” topped global charts and became the most downloaded song of 2020 in the United States. Decked in monochrome outfits, rappers RM, SUGA and j-hope and vocalists Jung Kook, Jin, V and Jimin—as they are known by their stage names—shuttled between interviews and the WSJ. photoshoot inside a house-turned–chic cafe. Clearing security to meet them involved surprisingly little hassle: a name check, temperature screening and Covid-19 health form followed by a short walk to the entrance where security personnel quickly glanced at name tags.

In July, BTS broke the Guinness World Record for staging the biggest virtually attended livestream music performance, which attracted fans from over 100 countries. They miss the real thing, though. “That feeling [of being onstage] is really the best thrill I probably get in life. Even if I leave one day, I think I’ll be back for this,” says Jin, 27, of being onstage in front of BTS’s devoted fans, officially dubbed ARMY. The name stands for “Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth,” though the demographics of the band’s fan base now extend well beyond that age group.

In part thanks to the ardor of the ARMY—which one count estimates as high as 48 million, based on online commentary by unique authors—the band is often called “the Beatles of the 21st century.” The group has exploded the familiar boy band recipe, taking the concept of fandom into new territory and developing the South Korean genre known as K-pop into a global force. A voluntary census conducted by fans between July and September gathered over 400,000 responses from surveys translated into 46 languages, according to University of Nevada, Las Vegas, graduate student Nicole Santero, who led the effort with two others under the Twitter handle @ResearchBTS. The data, which is still being analyzed, is pointing toward the demographic and geographic diversity of BTS fans.

BTS has topped Billboard’s song chart, released one of America’s bestselling albums of 2020 and performed at the Grammys with Lil Nas X. They sold out London’s Wembley Stadium in 2019, won four MTV Video Music Awards this year and smashed the record for the most views on YouTube in a 24-hour period (over 100 million)—all while singing almost entirely in Korean. They have also collaborated with musical stars such as Ed Sheeran, Sia, Nicki Minaj, Halsey, Charli XCX and Charlie Puth.

Their impact has extended beyond music. In June, the band donated $1 million to Black Lives Matter, a sum that was matched by fans across the world in just over a day. The group also used its clout to launch Connect, BTS, a public art project showcasing works this spring by the likes of Antony Gormley and Tomás Saraceno in New York, Berlin, London, Buenos Aires and Seoul. In October, the band’s management company, Big Hit Entertainment Co. , went public on the South Korean stock exchange. The company raised about $840 million through its initial public offering with a valuation of about $4 billion, which leapt to $7.6 billion by the end of trading on the first day, October 15, before sliding over the next few days to $5.9 billion. (By way of comparison, in early June, Warner Music’s IPO resulted in a $15 billion valuation, which has since dropped slightly to a $14.36 billion market cap.) Big Hit’s stock debut put the equity holdings of Bang Si-hyuk—the 48-year-old founder and co-CEO of Big Hit and the mastermind behind BTS who owns nearly 35 percent of the business—at a value of around $2.8 billion. BTS is Big Hit’s largest asset, and Bang has given each band member 68,385 of his personal shares, worth over $15 million to each on the day of the IPO. BTS’s global success has powered Big Hit, which is only 15 years old, to revenues high enough to bump one of South Korea’s traditionally entrenched “Big Three” entertainment companies from the top rankings.

“These guys have achieved gradual growth by putting their voices into music,” Bang said by email. “BTS’s music that sings of the emotions and experiences of youth first resonated among their peers. Then it resonated among the contemporary global citizens. And that sentiment transcended borders and reached to the peripheries of the world. That’s how the group got to receive so much love and support. This enables BTS to be connected to their fans wherever they are, and is what makes the seven boys special.”

The latest single, “Dynamite,” is their first group song recorded entirely in English, and their first track to truly break on American Top 40 radio. The track is their first song to get to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was quickly followed by their second U.S. chart-topper, a remix of Jason Derulo and Jawsh 685’s TikTok hit “Savage Love (Laxed—Siren Beat).” Their fifth album, BE (Deluxe Edition), is out this month, and the members of BTS say they’re trying to keep their focus on their music. “We’re preparing our next album now, [and I] think it’d be great if all our songs make it into Billboard’s Hot 100,” says Jimin, 25. “Another performance at the Grammys would be great.” A few seats away, Suga, 27, teases, “Just say you’d like to receive the award.”

Who are BTS? And how did they get so famous? The questions have persisted even as the world has become mesmerized by BTS’s irresistible hooks, Technicolor production and high-flying choreography.

Boy bands have long been one of pop music’s most consistent and reliable constructs. Though we now look back at the Beatles fully aware of their world-changing musical and cultural innovations, when they appeared in the early ’60s, more attention was paid to their haircuts than to their songwriting. The Fab Four also established the blueprint of distilling members to one characteristic—The Quiet One or The Cute One—and having fans identify with a favorite.

These patterns reappeared a few years later with a couple of family groups with ear-candy hooks and elaborate dance moves: the Jackson 5 and the Osmonds. The structure became formalized in the ’80s—enhanced with a sprinkling of light hip-hop—with New Edition (a teen spin on R&B groups with multiple vocalists like the Temptations) and New Kids on the Block, who sold more than 70 million albums worldwide. Puerto Rico–based band Menudo reinforced the genre’s formulaic reputation by replacing members when they reached the age of 16.

Meanwhile, pop music in South Korea was also establishing a lane for groups of singing and dancing teenagers. As far back as 1962, a single released by a Korean girl group called the Kim Sisters even cracked the Top 10 of the U.S. Billboard charts. But contemporary K-pop is generally seen as starting with the ’90s trio Seo Taiji and Boys, who synthesized Korean music and style with gleaming highlights taken from Western pop and were propelled to stardom on a TV talent show. One of the Seo Taiji and Boys members, Yang Hyun-suk, then founded YG Entertainment in 1996; it is now one of Korea’s “Big Three” entertainment companies, and has spawned its own bands, including girl group Blackpink.

In the U.S., boy bands went nuclear at the turn of the century with the notorious manager Lou Pearlman’s Florida pop factory, which assembled both the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC, and dominated the charts for years. Pearlman tried to repeat history with O-Town and LFO, while other groups like 98 Degrees followed a similar model. At the same time, in the Asian music industry, groups such as the Taiwanese band F4 and the Japanese group Arashi were logging huge hits, with g.o.d. setting the pace in South Korea.

Inevitably, there was a backlash, and then inevitably—because there’s always a new generation of teenagers coming of age—about a decade later, the pendulum swung back. One Direction, constructed by British music producer Simon Cowell in 2010, mixed in some rock and EDM elements to the usual pop confection and became the biggest U.K. phenomenon since the Beatles. (Atypically, they spun off successful solo careers for all five members after the group began its extended hiatus in 2016.)

In South Korea, though, K-pop continued to become more popular and more formalized, as it became part of an international phenomenon called Hallyu, or “the Korean Wave.” BoA and Wonder Girls were among the acts who attempted to crack the Western market but stalled, while Psy’s 2012 hit “Gangnam Style” was the first YouTube video to reach a billion views. But it still came as a surprise to many when seven Korean guys married the simmering global appeal of K-pop and the resilience of the boy band—amplified by social media—and started storming the charts.

BTS debuted on June 13, 2013, but their first release, “No More Dream’’ (a rap-heavy song that begins with “Hey, what’s your dream?”), hardly made a dent in the K-pop scene, which was dominated by established acts and rising groups such as EXO and Apink at the time. From the start, Big Hit’s Bang was looking to create a hip-hop group that could produce their own songs with messages that would resonate with their audience. In a 2011 lecture at his alma mater, Seoul National University, Bang predicted the coming of “wholesome idols” who could “sing and dance, act for sure and even play instruments and compose.” By then, he was well underway crafting K-pop’s next-generation of superstars.

His first pick was RM (given name Kim Nam-jun, now 26), in 2010. At the time, RM was performing in South Korea’s underground hip-hop scene under the stage name Runch Randa. The next to join, that same year, was Suga (Min Yun-ki), who was performing and producing under the name Gloss, after he placed second in a rap audition organized by Big Hit. J-Hope (Jeong Ho-seok) was part of a dance crew called Neuron before signing on as a Big Hit trainee, as performers in an apprenticeship period with Korean entertainment companies are often called.

Jung Kook (Jeon Jeong-guk), now 23, joined as a trainee after participating in a local televised singing audition program. He received offers from multiple agencies but chose Big Hit after seeing RM. Jin (Kim Seok-jin) was a college student on his way to school when an official at Big Hit approached him to audition. V (Kim Tae-hyung), 24, was discovered at a closed-door audition held at a dance academy. Jimin (Park Ji-min) was the last to join. He was a dance student at the Busan High School of Arts when he auditioned for Big Hit at the suggestion of his teacher. The members have each carved out strong identities for themselves within the group—j-hope is considered the star dancer; RM is seen as the main spokesperson, especially in the U.S., as he speaks English; Jung Kook is the “golden maknae” (meaning the youngest in Korean)—but they have all contributed their songwriting and composing skills to hits such as “Boy With Luv,” “On,” “DNA,” “Run” and “Idol.” j-hope describes his approach as research-heavy. “I first study the topic and think about what story I need to tell and what kind of content it should encompass,” he says. “Sometimes the type of stories I’m dealing with are light, but sometimes they aren’t, so it’s important that I’m knowledgeable about what I’m working on.”

SUGA says he comes across ideas for his songs from the books he reads. “I tend to think a lot about the meaning behind words,” he says. “We deal a lot with emotions so I spend a lot of time thinking about how words can be construed differently.”

RM, who has credits on many of BTS’s biggest songs, will dwell on a line from a movie or a passing scene, sometimes for years, before starting to work it into his lyrics. “[Writing songs] takes a long time for me,” says RM. “So it hurts, body and soul, when I have to throw one away.”

In recent years, pop music—generally associated with bubblegum, upbeat dance songs—has been getting more serious and introspective. From the Weeknd to Selena Gomez, teen idols have increasingly been writing and singing about mental and emotional health, anxiety and loss. (A 2018 study at the University of California Irvine examined hundreds of thousands of English-language pop songs and confirmed that sadness was on the rise.) Though a casual glance at their intricate choreography may not make it obvious, BTS is celebrated by their fans for touching on psychological and social issues in their songs.

“I don’t like talking about my dark side,” says Jin. “I’m in the camp that believes idols should always show their bright and positive side.” Still, a conversation with Bang inspired Jin’s 2018 solo ballad “Epiphany,” which focuses on self-acceptance. V, who contributed to the neo-soul “Stigma”—which includes lines like “The pain is never soothed”—recently received a phone call from producer Bang on a song he was writing. “Could you tone down this a little?” Bang asked.

“How come he never says things like that to me?” SUGA jumps in.

RM responds. “Because that’s (your) personality.”

j-hope chimes in, laughing, “I’m a bit envious of [SUGA’s] expressions.”

“I’m the type that speaks out first, and then thinks about it,” SUGA explains.

Pdogg, Big Hit’s chief producer, who has provided musical direction for BTS’s albums from the start, says it’s the band members who decide on the message (like their album title Love Yourself) they want to send through their music. “The most important thing for BTS as a team is the message that members want to convey,” he says. Musically, the band’s initial heavy lean into hip-hop has become fused with genres like Brit rock, EDM and future house over the years.

The music “still has a footing in hip-hop sound, but when it comes to genre, we’re in the process of expanding the parameters to create a hybrid sound,” said Pdogg in late September, a few days after he had completed production for BTS’s upcoming album. “We’re in the process of perfecting BTS’s unique hue.”

For their new album, BTS members had made separate bids to feature melodies they had written as the album’s lead song. Jimin describes that process as “painstaking and tearful.” Jung Kook points out that the members weren’t just competing against each other, but against other composers who also submitted attempts to Bang. Jin alone sent him three different melodies. SUGA made it to the finals. RM, though, chose to sit this one out. “The competition was too fierce,” he says.

The seven members of BTS spent their childhoods in different parts of South Korea. Jung Kook and Jimin were born in Busan, a southern port city. Jung Kook grew up in a creative household, with an older brother who’s a talented illustrator and parents who like to sing. As a child, Jimin learned kendo (a Japanese martial art using bamboo swords) and thought of becoming a policeman but changed his mind after starting to dance in middle school. His father used to say he should become a prosecutor.

V wanted to be a singer since his childhood, possibly influenced by his father, who had dreamed of becoming a star himself. (“Tae-hyung’s father is super-talented,” Jin says, referring to V by his real name.) Jin grew up in an entrepreneurial household. “My family is all in business, so they’re all good speakers,” he says, and V jumps in to note, “You’ve got your mom’s way with words.”

j-hope was born in Gwangju and raised by his father, a literature teacher, and a “strong-willed” mother who once ran an internet cafe. “I used to wonder how I could dance,” he says, referring to how no one in his family danced or sang. (“His dad’s quite strict,” Jin adds.) SUGA was born in Daegu to a family that he describes as “far from having anything to do with the arts and entertainment,” though his mother picked up drawing in her 60s. As a kid, he thought of becoming a fireman, and at one point his father tried to persuade him to study journalism. He composed his first song when he was 13. He’s since lost the recording but says, “I remember it—I’ll use it one day.”

RM, who once considered studying journalism in college, wrote his first song in 2007. He describes it as a disaster but he held onto it anyway. “I can’t even tell if the lyrics are Korean,” he says.

Social media has overturned the rules of the music industry and elevated the power of the fan, with BTS’s ARMY leading the way. For years, the group has had the most social engagement of any act in the world. Many avid fans take it as their personal responsibility to stream new BTS songs and videos through as many devices as possible as many times as possible, helping to juice the band’s chart positions. The sense of intimacy provided by constant social media contact also leads to an intensity and identification with the BTS members that simply wouldn’t have been imaginable for previous bands. (ARMY is a tightly knit collective. Many fans declare “I’m ARMY,” or “I’m an ARMY,” when describing their devotion to the band.)

“BTS knows how to engage fans between their big video drops with a steady stream of content,” said Lyor Cohen, global head of YouTube Music, by email. When the band released their single “Dynamite” in September, they had also uploaded over a dozen additional clips related to the song, Cohen says, including individual videos of each member singing the song, a reaction video, footage from their choreography rehearsals and a “B-side” clip of their music video showing the band from different camera angles.

The efforts pay off. When “Dynamite” premiered on YouTube, it instantly drew three million viewers, according to Cohen. (At press time in early October, it had nearly 500 million views.) “They are truly a global act with a legion of loyal fans from around the world.” Over 90 percent of BTS clip views this year have come from outside South Korea, including the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Japan and India.

The group has several ongoing video series on YouTube, including Bangtan Bomb (short behind-the-scenes clips), with over 600 episodes and counting, and Episode (longer videos of BTS at photo or music-video shoots). There’s also Run BTS!, a near-weekly entertainment program showing the seven stars involved in games or other activities, which is released on South Korean livestreaming service V Live and on Weverse, Big Hit’s own online platform, which offers exclusive content as well as premium paid memberships. This is in addition to the usual music videos, vlogs, interview clips and reality TV shows in which the band appears.

Randy Suh, a K-pop critic in Canada, says BTS’s success has highlighted the importance and strength of new media in the music industry. From their early days, BTS used to put out three or four clips on YouTube every week and release mixtapes on blogs, she says. “That gave them an approachable image as singers, and it came at a time when people started preferring [social media] influencers who felt closer than some pop singer far away.”

The content empire that BTS produces is so vast that even fans can’t keep up. When “Dynamite” launched, Michelle Tack, 47, a cosmetics stores manager from Chicopee, Massachusetts, requested a day off work to stream the music video on YouTube. “I streamed all day,” Tack says. She made sure to watch other clips on the platform in between her streaming so that her views would count toward the grand total of views. (YouTube says it has systems in place to eliminate videos viewed by computer programs, which can skew the measure of a video’s overall popularity.)

“It feels like I’m part of this family that wants BTS to succeed, and we want to do everything we can do to help them,” says Tack. She says BTS has made her life “more fulfilled” and brought her closer to her two daughters, 12 and 14. The younger one introduced her to the band two years ago.

If feels like I’m part of this family that wants BTS to succeed, and we want to do everything we can do to help them.— Michelle Tack, BTS fan

Fifteen-year-old Abbey Hammond, who lives in Falmouth, Massachusetts, recalls her reaction when she first watched a BTS video in seventh grade. “Their vocals were amazing; they were rapping, dancing, plus they do a lot of acting in the videos—I just thought they were all-around talented, and then looking at the lyrics, they were really meaningful,” says Hammond. The language barrier was never an obstacle. “I don’t think you have to understand what they’re saying to understand what emotions they’re putting out there,” she says. “A lot of it comes from their performance. Words aren’t the only thing you need in order to get them.”

“The best K-pop utilizes storytelling in really innovative ways,” says Colette Balmain, 58, a senior lecturer in film and media and communications at London’s Kingston University, who organized a BTS academic conference in January 2020, at which 200 papers were submitted. She also examines “Bangtan Universe,” an ever-evolving narrative around BTS that is told through multiple mediums, including music videos, online blog posts and social media postings where Big Hit discloses clues or story pieces. The storyline of Bangtan Universe, in which the seven members adopt fictional personas, isn’t revealed in chronological order. Some avid fans take part by writing and changing the stories based on different clues dropped by Big Hit.

“We had albums that have themes in the West, but a story across albums is unusual,” says Balmain. “What Big Hit is doing with BTS is innovating not just the Korean entertainment business, but also the U.S. entertainment business.”

Lee Ji-young, a philosophy professor at Sejong University in Seoul, a self-proclaimed ARMY and author of BTS, Art Revolution, says BTS’s success in the American music industry holds historical significance. “This shouldn’t be seen as just a victory for South Korean singers, but a paradigm shift in America’s racial and linguistic hegemony.”

Lee says BTS’s innovations are also reflected in how ARMY is redefining pop group fan bases. “This is an extremely active community,” she says, pointing to a Twitter account operated by BTS fans to organize charity fundraising projects (@oneinanarmy), free tutoring services within the ARMY community and an academic journal, The Rhizomatic Revolution Review, for which she is an advisory board member. It publishes peer-reviewed papers on “the art, fandom, economic effects and sociocultural forces generated by BTS and ARMY.”

The band, which signed a new seven-year contract with Big Hit in 2018, has other hoops to jump through looking ahead, including starting mandatory military duties for roughly two years by age 28. That means enlisting next year for Jin, 27, the band’s eldest member. Calls for exempting the members from service (a legal option for high-performing athletes and award-winning classical musicians) have been on the rise, though no precedent exists for K-pop stars. So far Big Hit has been silent on the issue.

The stars of BTS say there are still more things yet to achieve. “In the past, we had clear goals and a thirst. We had to do well—we were desperate,” says Jung Kook. “I still have a similar mindset. It’s the achievements we’ve made every step of the way that are prompting me to want to challenge myself more.”

“Before, we were all just fixated on looking for the camera when the red light came on,” says Jimin. “Now we feel more relaxed.”

Source: WSJ

[unitedstatesofworld]

Unveiling the Legacy of Niki Richard Dalgliesh Cavill: A Rising Star

Niki Richard Dalgliesh Cavill is a figure who stands apart in many ways. While his brother, actor Henry Cavill, is a household name, Niki remains a more mysterious presence, carving a path that is uniquely his own. His life has unfolded in such a way that it invites curiosity but avoids the spotlight. Niki’s contributions, though not as widely known, are impactful in their own right. As a distinguished member of the British Army, serving as a Lieutenant Colonel, Niki Richard Dalgliesh Cavill’s commitment to his country speaks volumes about his character. His career, grounded in duty and service, contrasts with the world of fame and glamour, yet there's an undeniable depth to his story. For those who dig deeper, Niki Richard Dalgliesh Cavill offers a story of dedication, humility, and purpose, making him an enigmatic yet admirable figure.

Early Life: Shaping a Future Soldier

Born on July 5, 1983, in Jersey, Channel Islands, Niki Richard Dalgliesh Cavill was raised in a family deeply rooted in military tradition. The Cavill household, with strong military values passed down from his parents, instilled in him the principles of duty, resilience, and honor. These values, paired with the influence of his three brothers, helped Niki carve a path that would eventually lead him to the Royal Marines.

From a young age, Niki was taught the importance of discipline, hard work, and perseverance, characteristics that have defined his career. His older brother, actor Henry Cavill, became a well-known figure in Hollywood, but Niki’s focus was always on a different kind of legacy—one forged through service to his country.

The Path to the Royal Marines: A Commitment to Duty

In 1999, at the age of 16, Niki Richard Dalgliesh Cavill made the life-altering decision to join the Royal Marines, solidifying his commitment to serve his country. The Royal Marines are renowned for their rigorous training, designed to test physical and mental endurance. Niki’s training was no exception, pushing him to his limits and beyond. It was during this time that Niki developed the leadership skills and psychological resilience that would define his career.

The initial years of his service were filled with challenges, but Niki quickly proved himself as a natural leader, capable of making difficult decisions under pressure. His ability to lead by example and motivate others in high-stress situations set the stage for his rapid rise through the ranks.

Rising Through the Ranks: A Career Built on Leadership and Valor

Niki’s rise through the military ranks was a testament to his leadership and tactical acumen. He earned his first significant promotion to Major in 2011, shortly after demonstrating exceptional bravery and leadership during a deployment to Afghanistan. His outstanding service earned him the Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), one of the United Kingdom’s highest honors, for his efforts to safeguard his team and contribute to operations in hostile territories.

A Leader in Combat: Service in Afghanistan

Niki’s most notable contribution came during his deployment to Afghanistan, where he played a pivotal role in combat operations against insurgents. His strategies and tactical decisions led to the capture of a high-ranking Taliban leader, significantly impacting the security landscape of the region. His actions were not only brave but strategically sound, showcasing his ability to manage complex operations and keep his team safe amidst a volatile environment.

His leadership in Afghanistan did not go unnoticed. In 2011, he was awarded the MBE for his outstanding contributions, which included leading successful operations, providing protection to his comrades, and displaying remarkable courage under fire. Niki’s story in Afghanistan serves as a reminder of the sacrifices made by soldiers in conflict zones and their critical role in ensuring national and global security.

The Leadership Journey: From Major to Brigadier

Niki’s military career continued to flourish as he took on more responsibilities and higher-ranking positions. In 2014, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and given command of the 30 Commando Information Exploitation Group. Under his leadership, this elite group achieved success in various international missions, including counterterrorism operations and humanitarian efforts in unstable regions.

By 2019, Niki had risen to the rank of Colonel, further cementing his reputation as a strategic mastermind within the Royal Marines. His transition to Brigadier in 2021 marked a milestone in his career, as he began overseeing larger groups of Marines and engaging in more complex planning and decision-making processes.

Military Honors: A Legacy of Service and Dedication

Niki Richard Dalgliesh Cavill’s military career is decorated with numerous awards and honors, recognizing his exceptional leadership and dedication to service. The MBE, awarded for his bravery in Afghanistan, is only one of the many accolades he has received throughout his career. These honors reflect his tireless commitment to his role in the military and his unwavering support for his team and comrades.

In addition to the MBE, Niki has been recognized with several other military decorations, which underscore his outstanding service and the positive impact he has had within the Royal Marines. His commitment to duty and exemplary performance in challenging circumstances have inspired many within the armed forces.

A Balanced Personal Life: Family and Beyond

Despite his high-profile career, Niki has maintained a grounded and balanced personal life. He married Charlotte-Rhodes Brooks in 2002, and their relationship has been marked by mutual respect, love, and shared values. Together, they have built a family, and Niki’s role as a husband and father is just as important to him as his military career.

Niki enjoys a variety of personal hobbies, including cooking and outdoor activities, which help him unwind and maintain a healthy work-life balance. His commitment to his family and his career demonstrates a holistic approach to life, where professional achievements and personal well-being are equally valued.

Supporting the Royal Marines: A Family Legacy

Niki’s family, particularly his brother Henry Cavill, has been a strong source of support throughout his career. Henry, a well-known actor, has frequently expressed admiration for Niki’s dedication to the Royal Marines. In 2014, Henry became actively involved in supporting the Royal Marines Charity, raising funds and awareness for veterans and their families. His commitment to honoring Niki’s service and the sacrifices of other military personnel is a testament to the deep bond between the two brothers.

Henry’s efforts to support the military go beyond charity work. He has used his public platform to speak about the importance of recognizing the sacrifices made by service members and ensuring they receive the support they deserve. Through his involvement in charity events such as the Gibraltar Rock Run, Henry has contributed to raising awareness about the challenges faced by veterans and their families.

Public Perception vs. Reality: Niki’s Quiet but Powerful Impact

While Niki Richard Dalgliesh Cavill may not enjoy the global fame of his brother Henry, his contributions to the Royal Marines and his country are no less significant. Niki’s life and career have been dedicated to service, sacrifice, and leadership, values that are often overshadowed by the glamour of public figures. However, for those who understand the true cost of military service, Niki’s impact is profound.

His story is one of quiet heroism, a reminder that there are many unsung heroes who contribute greatly to society without seeking recognition. Niki’s commitment to the Royal Marines, his leadership in Afghanistan, and his dedication to his family and comrades are an example to all who aspire to make a meaningful difference in their own lives.

Conclusion: The Enduring Legacy of Niki Richard Dalgliesh Cavill

Niki Richard Dalgliesh Cavill’s  journey from a young man raised in a military family to a respected leader in the Royal Marines is a story of dedication, resilience, and sacrifice. His military career, marked by exceptional leadership in Afghanistan and his steady rise through the ranks, serves as an inspiration to soldiers and civilians alike.

In a world where the spotlight often shines on the famous and the glamorous, Niki’s story is a powerful reminder of the value of quiet, steadfast service. His legacy will continue to inspire those who strive to make a difference, whether in the military, at home, or in their communities.

[11071994]

Contemporary Construction Steel Price: Trends, Factors, and Industry Insights

The construction industry is heavily dependent on steel, one of its most essential materials. The price of steel can influence the overall cost of projects, from small residential builds to large infrastructure projects. Today’s construction steel price is a reflection of a global web of economic factors, from supply chain issues to inflationary pressures. In this article, we will explore the current trends in the construction steel price, examine the main factors driving these changes, and discuss what they mean for the construction industry.

Trends in Construction Steel Price

Steel prices in recent years have shown unprecedented volatility, mainly due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by a slow recovery with supply chain disruptions, and an increase in demand as economies reopened. As of 2024, construction steel prices remain elevated compared to pre-pandemic levels, though there have been fluctuations throughout the year.

In many regions, including North America, Europe, and Asia, the construction steel price has risen sharply due to increased infrastructure spending. Governments worldwide are initiating large-scale projects, such as bridge and road repairs, affordable housing developments, and renewable energy facilities, all of which require massive amounts of steel. In India, for example, government infrastructure initiatives have pushed steel demand to new highs, while in the United States, initiatives around urban development and high-speed rail have increased steel usage.

Current prices for construction steel range from $700 to $850 per metric ton globally, although regional variances occur. The price in countries like the U.S. or those within the European Union can be slightly higher due to added tariffs, environmental restrictions, and logistical expenses. In Asia, prices are generally a bit lower, though Chinese production policies impact regional costs and have an indirect effect on global rates. Moreover, as the demand for green construction grows, there’s an increasing need for sustainably produced steel, which adds to production costs, and thus, to the overall price of construction steel.

Key Factors Influencing Construction Steel Price

1. Supply Chain and Raw Material Costs

The production of construction steel is heavily reliant on raw materials like iron ore, coking coal, and recycled steel. The price of these materials has a direct impact on the cost of steel, and recent trends in raw material prices have been marked by volatility. Iron ore and coking coal prices have increased due to limited supplies and logistical challenges, pushing steel prices higher.

Supply chain issues have also played a significant role in influencing the construction steel price. From 2020 to early 2023, the pandemic caused substantial delays in global logistics networks, leading to increased shipping and handling costs. Although many supply chain disruptions have been addressed, rising fuel costs and occasional shortages still create logistical challenges, adding additional costs to steel distribution and impacting its price.

2. Economic and Geopolitical Factors

Economic policies, international trade agreements, and geopolitical tensions are also key determinants of construction steel prices. For instance, trade wars or tariffs imposed on steel imports can drive up prices by limiting supply in affected markets. In 2018, the U.S. imposed tariffs on steel imports, which led to a considerable increase in domestic steel prices. This trend is seen worldwide, where trade policies have a direct effect on regional prices for construction steel.

Geopolitical events, such as the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, also influence steel prices. Both Russia and Ukraine are significant players in the steel and iron ore markets, and the conflict has disrupted production and exports, creating supply shortages in Europe and other regions. This disruption has forced many companies to seek alternative suppliers at higher costs, driving up the global steel price.

Another factor worth noting is inflation. In many regions, inflation has resulted in increased costs for energy, labor, and transportation, all of which impact steel production costs. As producers face higher input costs, these are often passed down the supply chain to consumers, which includes the construction sector. Thus, inflationary pressures contribute to the higher cost of construction steel.

The Impact of Construction Steel Price on the Industry

The elevated cost of construction steel has significant implications for the construction industry. For construction companies, increased steel prices mean higher project costs, which can cut into profit margins or lead to budget overruns. For large-scale public infrastructure projects, rising steel prices can result in delays, as governments and contractors negotiate budget adjustments. For smaller construction projects, higher material costs may cause some developers to delay or even cancel plans until prices stabilize.

Real estate developers are also feeling the impact of higher construction steel prices. Rising material costs can lead to higher property prices, which are then passed on to buyers. This increase in housing and commercial property prices can dampen market demand, as affordability becomes a challenge. Additionally, rising steel prices may discourage some developers from initiating new projects, potentially slowing down economic growth in regions where construction is a key economic driver.

Sustainability goals and environmental regulations further complicate the situation. As the construction industry shifts towards greener practices, demand for “green steel” is rising. Produced through lower-carbon methods, green steel is more expensive, and as it becomes more widely adopted, it could raise the average construction steel price further. This shift to sustainable practices is generally positive, though it creates challenges for developers aiming to meet budgetary constraints.

Conclusion: Navigating the Contemporary Steel Market

In today’s market, construction steel price trends are shaped by a complex array of factors, including supply chain dynamics, raw material costs, global trade policies, and sustainability initiatives. For companies in the construction sector, understanding these influences is crucial for adapting to fluctuating prices and planning effectively. While some factors may be temporary, such as certain geopolitical tensions or short-term inflationary pressures, others, like environmental regulations and the shift to green steel, are likely to have a long-term impact.

If you are looking for best quality steel online, please visit our website : www.steeloncall.com or you can contact us through our toll-free number: 18008332929

[rotibankindias-blog]

ROTI BANK

The Impact of Roti Bank on the Global Economy

In a world that is increasingly interconnected, the issues of food security, waste, and sustainability have come to the forefront of global conversations. While many initiatives are tackling these problems on a large scale, some grassroots movements, though small, are making an outsized impact. One such initiative is Roti Bank, a food redistribution network that began in India but has the potential to influence global economic thinking. Though it may seem like a local solution to hunger, Roti Bank's principles of food redistribution, sustainability, and community engagement offer valuable lessons for the global economy.

1. Reducing Food Waste: A Global Economic Imperative

Globally, approximately one-third of all food produced is wasted, amounting to about 1.3 billion tons of food each year. This staggering amount of food waste is not only an environmental issue but also an economic one. The value of this wasted food is estimated to be worth about $1 trillion annually. The food production, processing, and transportation industries lose significant amounts of capital when food is wasted.

Roti Bank tackles this issue head-on by collecting surplus food from donors and redistributing it to those who need it most. Through this model, Roti Bank helps minimize food wastage at the local level, turning what would have been discarded into valuable resources for those struggling with hunger. By creating a streamlined food distribution network, Roti Bank reduces inefficiencies in the food system, which can, in turn, help lower overall economic losses due to waste.

2. Sustainability and the Circular Economy

Roti Bank promotes the idea of a circular economy, where resources (in this case, food) are reused, recycled, and redistributed rather than being discarded. In the traditional linear economy, food production, consumption, and disposal follow a "take, make, dispose" pattern. The circular model, however, advocates for reusing what we already have, reducing demand for new resources, and ensuring that the food we produce is used in its entirety.

This sustainability model has profound implications for the global economy, especially as countries work to meet United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production. By promoting food redistribution, Roti Bank aligns with the principles of sustainable development, helping to reduce the environmental and economic costs of food waste. If such initiatives were scaled globally, they could contribute to achieving more efficient, resource-conscious economies.

3. Empowering Local Economies and Communities

At its core, Roti Bank is about community empowerment. By enabling local residents, businesses, and institutions to donate surplus food, it creates a network of individuals working together to solve social issues. This approach fosters a sense of shared responsibility and community spirit, which is critical for building resilient local economies.

The Roti Bank model also encourages small businesses—such as restaurants, caterers, and even households—to participate in the redistribution process. As small businesses and local actors come together to address hunger, they also create new opportunities for social entrepreneurship, which in turn can stimulate local economic activity. Small-scale donations and redistributions become part of a larger local economic ecosystem that values social impact alongside financial profit.

4. Building Social Safety Nets

One of the most significant impacts of Roti Bank on the economy is its role in creating social safety nets. By providing food to underserved communities, Roti Bank acts as a cushion for people who may be affected by economic downturns, job losses, or other systemic inequalities. In countries with high levels of inequality, social programs like Roti Bank can help stabilize the economy by addressing the immediate needs of marginalized groups, reducing social unrest, and ensuring that vulnerable populations can continue to contribute to the economy.

In times of crisis, such as natural disasters, economic recessions, or even pandemics, Roti Bank has proven itself to be a lifeline, ensuring that those most affected can continue to meet their basic needs. In doing so, it helps maintain social stability, which is essential for a thriving economy.

5. Promoting Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

As businesses and corporations around the world come under increasing pressure to adopt socially responsible practices, initiatives like Roti Bank offer a practical example of how companies can contribute to the greater good. By partnering with Roti Bank to donate surplus food, corporations can address hunger and food waste while also fulfilling their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) obligations.

In fact, large-scale corporate donations and partnerships with organizations like Roti Bank can create new economic incentives for businesses. For example, they may benefit from tax breaks or public goodwill, improving their brand image and customer loyalty. In the long run, the economic benefits of such partnerships extend beyond mere charity—corporations can integrate sustainability into their core business strategies, leading to greater long-term profitability.

6. Creating Economic Awareness and Behavioural Change

Roti Bank is more than just a solution to hunger—it is an educational tool that sparks conversations about food systems, waste, and social inequality. By participating in the Roti Bank network, individuals and businesses learn about the systemic issues related to food waste and hunger. This increased awareness can encourage responsible consumption patterns and inspire people to rethink their roles within the larger economic system.

As awareness grows, it leads to a shift in consumer behaviour—people begin to consider the true cost of food waste, not only in terms of money but also in terms of environmental and social impact. This change in consumer behaviour can shift demand toward more sustainable products, influencing markets and creating a ripple effect across industries.

7. Scalability and Global Potential

While Roti Bank began in India, the scalability of its model presents an opportunity to impact economies worldwide. In many countries, food insecurity is a significant challenge, and the waste-to-hunger solution Roti Bank provides can be replicated in cities across the globe. From urban metropolises to rural communities, Roti Bank’s model can be adapted to diverse economic environments, encouraging both local and global solutions to food waste and hunger.

Additionally, the digital infrastructure behind Roti Bank (such as apps for food donations and volunteer management) makes it a feasible model for integration into larger economic frameworks. The ability to track and manage donations effectively can scale to a global level, creating a network of individuals and businesses connected by a shared goal of sustainable food systems.

Conclusion

Roti Bank’s simple yet powerful model offers valuable insights into how economic systems can shift toward more sustainable, socially responsible practices. By reducing food waste, supporting local economies, and creating social safety nets, Roti Bank shows that even small, community-driven initiatives can have a significant impact on the global economy.

Its emphasis on circular economy principles, empowerment, and sustainability is a lesson for businesses, policymakers, and individuals alike: economic success in the 21st century is not only about financial profit but about creating value for people and the planet. The more initiatives like Roti Bank are integrated into global food systems, the closer we move to an economy that values equity, sustainability, and shared prosperity.

[coffeefranchisehub]

Is the Coffee Market Growing or Shrinking?

The global coffee industry plays a vital role in the daily lives of millions of people around the world. Coffee is one of the most consumed beverages, and it is a significant part of many cultures. It serves not just as a morning pick-me-up but also as a symbol of relaxation, social gatherings, and even productivity. But with the world constantly evolving, the question arises: is the coffee market growing or shrinking? To understand this, we need to look at different factors, such as consumer trends, market demand, and economic changes.

In this article, we will examine whether the coffee market is expanding or contracting by analyzing several important factors, including global consumption, shifts in consumer preferences, the rise of specialty coffee, sustainability issues, and economic conditions.

Global Coffee Consumption Trends

The coffee market has seen consistent growth over the past decade, and global consumption is one of the key indicators of this trend. According to research, coffee consumption has increased steadily across most regions. Both developed and emerging markets have shown strong demand, with some regions experiencing rapid growth.

Rising Demand in Emerging Markets

One of the primary reasons for the growth in the coffee market is the rising demand in emerging markets. Countries such as China, India, and several African nations, which traditionally were tea-drinking regions, are now experiencing a surge in coffee consumption. As urbanization increases and disposable incomes rise, more people in these regions are developing a taste for coffee. This shift has contributed significantly to the overall growth of the coffee market.

Stable Consumption in Traditional Markets

In traditional coffee-drinking regions such as North America and Europe, the demand for coffee remains stable. However, the way people consume coffee in these markets has evolved. More consumers are shifting towards higher-quality coffee and specialty brews rather than sticking with standard mass-market options. This shift in consumer preference has helped maintain demand, even though the growth rate is slower compared to emerging markets.

The Rise of Specialty Coffee

One of the most significant trends driving the growth of the coffee market is the rise of specialty coffee. Consumers are becoming more discerning, and there is a growing demand for high-quality, ethically sourced coffee beans. Specialty coffee refers to coffee that scores highly on a quality grading scale and is often associated with distinct flavors and origins.

Changing Consumer Preferences

Today’s coffee drinkers are not just looking for a caffeine boost. They want an experience, and that is where specialty coffee comes in. Specialty coffee shops, which offer unique blends and artisanal brewing methods, have been popping up all over the world. Consumers are willing to pay more for coffee that is of higher quality, ethically sourced, and prepared with care. This trend has led to the growth of smaller coffee roasters and independent coffee shops that focus on offering a premium experience.

Third-Wave Coffee Movement

The third-wave coffee movement, which emphasizes quality, sustainability, and the artistry of brewing coffee, has gained popularity in recent years. Consumers are now more knowledgeable about coffee, from the bean’s origin to the brewing process. This movement has created a demand for single-origin beans, alternative brewing methods like pour-over and cold brew, and an overall appreciation for the craftsmanship behind a great cup of coffee.

Impact of Sustainability and Ethical Concerns

Sustainability is becoming increasingly important in the coffee market. Both consumers and companies are paying closer attention to how coffee is grown, harvested, and produced. Issues such as fair trade, organic farming, and environmental impact are driving changes in the industry.

Demand for Ethically Sourced Coffee

Many coffee drinkers today prefer to support brands that offer ethically sourced coffee. This includes coffee that is produced under fair trade conditions, where farmers are paid fair wages and work in safe conditions. Additionally, the demand for organic coffee, which is grown without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, is on the rise. These preferences are driving growth in certain segments of the coffee market, particularly in developed countries where consumers are more conscious of the ethical implications of their purchases.

Environmental Challenges

However, the coffee industry is also facing challenges related to climate change and sustainability. Coffee is a crop that is highly sensitive to environmental changes, and rising temperatures, unpredictable rainfall, and diseases such as coffee leaf rust have affected coffee yields in several regions. These environmental challenges pose a threat to the future supply of coffee, which could lead to higher prices and potentially limit market growth if not addressed.

Economic Factors Influencing the Coffee Market

Economic factors, including fluctuations in global markets, pricing, and production costs, play a significant role in shaping the coffee market’s trajectory.

Coffee Prices and Production Costs

Coffee prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate due to various factors, including weather conditions, crop yields, and global demand. For example, a poor harvest in major coffee-producing countries like Brazil or Colombia can lead to supply shortages, driving up prices. On the other hand, overproduction can lead to a surplus, causing prices to drop. These price fluctuations can affect both consumers and coffee producers, with rising prices potentially leading to a reduction in demand.

Growth of Coffee Chains

Large coffee chains, such as Starbucks and Dunkin’, have contributed to the expansion of the global coffee market. These chains have not only expanded their presence in traditional markets like the United States and Europe but have also aggressively pursued growth in emerging markets. Their global expansion efforts have played a key role in increasing overall coffee consumption.

In addition to traditional coffee shops, convenience stores and fast-food chains have also started offering premium coffee options. This has made coffee more accessible to a wider range of consumers, further driving growth.

Challenges Facing the Coffee Market

While there are many positive indicators of growth in the coffee market, there are also several challenges that could potentially slow down this growth.

Supply Chain Disruptions

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed vulnerabilities in global supply chains, including those in the coffee industry. Disruptions in transportation, labor shortages, and trade restrictions have affected the coffee supply, leading to delays and increased costs. Although the market has shown resilience, supply chain disruptions remain a concern for the future, especially in the face of ongoing global challenges.

Health and Wellness Trends

Another factor that could impact the growth of the coffee market is the growing emphasis on health and wellness. While coffee has been shown to have certain health benefits, such as improving mental alertness and reducing the risk of some diseases, it is not without its drawbacks. Some consumers are reducing their caffeine intake due to concerns about its impact on anxiety, sleep patterns, and digestive issues. This shift toward health-conscious consumption could lead some people to switch to alternatives like tea, herbal beverages, or decaffeinated coffee.

Is the Coffee Market Growing or Shrinking?

Taking all of these factors into consideration, it is clear that the coffee market is still growing, but at a slower pace than in previous years. While emerging markets are driving significant growth, traditional markets are shifting towards higher-quality, more sustainable options rather than increasing consumption volume. The rise of specialty coffee, combined with growing consumer awareness around sustainability and ethical sourcing, has helped maintain strong demand in both new and established markets.

However, the coffee industry faces several challenges that could affect its future growth. Climate change, supply chain disruptions, and economic volatility all have the potential to impact coffee production and prices. Additionally, shifting consumer preferences towards healthier options could lead to a plateau in coffee consumption in certain regions.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the coffee market is still growing, but the nature of this growth is evolving. While emerging markets continue to see rising demand, traditional markets are focusing more on quality and sustainability. The rise of specialty coffee and the third-wave movement has created new opportunities for growth, but challenges such as environmental sustainability and supply chain disruptions could affect the industry’s future trajectory. Overall, the coffee market remains a dynamic and competitive industry with both opportunities and risks on the horizon.