economic inequalities influence social and environmental issues? - FLASHCARDS NEEDED

8th richest urban city area

211th most poluted country

Physical:

High altidute basin = Inversion layer

Economic:

• Rapid industriliasation - 50,000 factories
• 3.5 million vehicles (many of which are 20+ years old)

Social:

• Overcrowded - 6.3 people per household
• More than 20 million people
• Poor quality housing - 3 million without sewage facilities
• 2 million without running water 
• Air quality is equivalent to smoking 60 ciggarrettes a day

Political:

Lax anti-pollution laws

Waste:

• Ozone is excessive on 98% of days - Gets trapped in inversion layer
• Groundwater polluted by industrial waste
• 14,000 tonnes of garbage produced everday
• Only 25% of solid waste is placed in landfill - most is left to rot
• Huge noise pollution trapped by buildings
• 41% of trips done by car
• 46% of trips in low quality buses
• 75% of air pollution from internal combustion engines 
• 4 million tonnes of pollutants each year

102nd out of 215 most polluted

Physical:

• Basin
• Prevaling winds move winds eastward towards Scandinavia

Economic:

• Decline of heavy industry
• Decline of port
• Heavy traffic - especially M25
• Two Airports - Heathrow & Luton

Social:

• Density is falling
• Housing quality rising - no longer use coal

Political:

• Pollution laws - Clean Air Act
• Controls on lorry emissions with fines
• Congestion charge - led to 20% fall in emissions
• Recycling policy - 20% in reclycling usage
• Laws against excessive noise

Waste:

• Nitrious oxide levels exceed EU limit for 0.3 million of the population
• Pollution trapped in 'urban canyon'
• Vastly reduced water pollution due to new sewage plants
• Salmon have returned to the Thames
• 70% of waste goes to landfill but most is exported from the city
• Recycling is increasing

Huge disparities between the predominant ethnic groups - Whites, Blacks, and 'Coloureds'

Social Inequalities:

• Cape Flats was an aparthied 'dumping ground' for non-white groups
• After aparthied, due to rural-urban migration, many non-whites still settled here to find work
• Number of shacks rose from 28,000 in 1993 to 265,000 in 2005
• Housing quality is extremly poor - susceptable to extreme winter conditions due to lack of amenities
• AIDS epidemic is at its worst in the poor townships of Nyanga & Khayelitsha townships - 1 in 4 people suffer from AIDS

Cross Roads v Constantia:

• 80% of households live below the poverty line, with 40% of there pitiful allowance spent on food
• Less than 50% of houses in Cross Roads have access to water
• Region has recorded 266 murders & 196 rapes between 2007 & 2008
• Contanatia is one of the most wealthiest suburbs

• 87% of Constanatia population is white and less than 10% live below the poverty line
• One of the safest suburbs - gated community, schools, armed guard, barbed wires

Economic inequalities:

• Whites make up 19% of population yet hold 58% of the wealth
• Blacks make up 32% of the population and hold 9% of the wealth
• Loss of aparthied ironically increased poverty due to lack of work
• 32% of Cape Town households live below the poverty line
• 44% of working age Blacks are unemployed, 5% for whites, 25% for 'coloureds'
• 1/5th of Cape Town work is informal, those whom are uneligable for the formal sector
• Those who can find work in the formal sector are often badly paid & can barely afford bus travel

UK:

• Inner city v periphery inequalites
• Decline of old heavy industry

Limit:

Set higher tax rates in wealthy/growing areas

Encourage:

Set up activities with huge multiplier effects - ports, tourism etc

Tax Insentives:

• Tax breaks for those in declining areas
• Rate relief for poorer local authorities

Relocations:

• Tax offices to north-east, DVLA to cardiff
• Military bases moved north

Development projects:

• New power stations - Severn Barrage
• Tourist developments - Eden project in Cornwall

Urban redevelopments:

• Urban redevelopment schemes - Manchester
• New deals for communities
• Gardan festivals