MANG1021

Global warming, a topic that hasn’t left the media since the science behind it was brought to the public’s attention. The emitting of greenhouse gasses causing earths ozone layer to slowly rot away and force the planet to heat up to a boiling point seems like something we would want to prevent, no? Well it seems some of the corporate giants would agree and have started to lead the way to a greener future.

Unilever, the corporation in charge of getting you everything from your Vaseline to ice-creams has taken huge steps towards becoming 100% green. According to their website, Unilever have committed themselves to using 100% renewable energies across everything they do by 2030 and have already made big steps to doing so, reducing their emissions by 43% since 2008 (Unilever, 2020)

Another big company putting in the work to tackle climate change is Ikea. Ikea states that they are aiming to reduce more greenhouse gas than they emit alongside working with their suppliers and supporting them in going greener (Molin, 2018). Ikea also stated that they want to improve their overall energy efficiency compared to 2005 by 25% through the usage of solar panels and eco-friendly lightbulbs (Ikea, 2020).

To name a few other businesses that are making a conscious effort would be the likes of Nike, L’Oréal and even McDonalds (not that im advocating for fast food). So if you’re truly passionate about climate change and sustainability make sure you do your research and support the right businesses next time you look to give you money to them.

References:

doigstar1, 2017. [image] Available at: <https://www.flickr.com/photos/doigy/35501970063/&gt; [Accessed 28 April 2020].

Ikea.com. 2020. Climate Change – IKEA. [online] Available at: <https://www.ikea.com/ms/en_JP/about_ikea/our_responsibility/climate_change/index.html&gt; [Accessed 28 April 2020].

Molin, A., 2018. Bloomberg – Are You A Robot?. [online] Bloomberg.com. Available at: <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-07/ikea-sets-new-climate-goals-to-tackle-unsustainable-consumption&gt; [Accessed 27 April 2020]

Unilever UK & Ireland. 2020. Sustainable Living. [online] Available at: <https://www.unilever.co.uk/sustainable-living/&gt; [Accessed 28 April 2020].

The COVID-19 pandemic has the world firmly in its grasp, with entire countries confined to their homes in a global effort to slow and prevent the spread of the deadly virus.

The full effects of COVID-19 have still not been felt as the pandemic rages on. According to a survey from Saker-Clark (2020), roughly 25 percent of UK businesses are closed or completely frozen because of government restrictions. This has seen businesses take huge hits to their earnings and employees seeing cuts in their wages. With over 140,000 UK companies having applied for the government furlough scheme (Osborne and Kollewe, 2020) seeing employees receive 80% of their usual salary and businesses covered for the bare minimum.

Because of this, many fear for what state the economy may be in after the pandemic settles and the world starts its recovery. With non-essential stores being forced to close alongside the lower income for the majority of the country, retail stores have seen their sales tank at a record pace in the last month (Romei, 2020). Clothing & footwear stores have been hit the hardest by COVID-19, whist not being able to operate on a physical level, their online stores have been their only outlet for making money, yet their sales online are tanking too, some up to 15% in comparison with pre-pandemic sales (Romei, 2020).

Instead of preparing for a summer of success, businesses have now been forced into isolation themselves and are trying to avoid sinking instead of swimming in the summer sea.

References:

Foreman-Peck, E., 2020. [image] Available at: <https://www.economist.com/briefing/2020/04/11/the-changes-covid-19-is-forcing-on-to-business&gt; [Accessed 27 April 2020].

Osborne, H. and Kollewe, J., 2020. 140,000 UK Companies Apply For Coronavirus Job Furlough Scheme. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/apr/20/fears-of-flood-as-uks-covid-19-furlough-scheme-opens&gt; [Accessed 27 April 2020].

Romei, V., 2020. Data Reveals Damage Done To UK Economy By Covid-19. [online] Ft.com. Available at: <https://www.ft.com/content/1602e772-ea55-4c83-ad1a-ddba2ce38fc7&gt; [Accessed 27 April 2020].

Saker-Clark, H., 2020. Quarter Of UK Businesses Shut Down In Response To Coronavirus Pandemic. [online] The Independent. Available at: <https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/coronavirus-businesses-close-doors-shut-ons-data-a9468211.html&gt; [Accessed 27 April 2020].

It’s no secret that the UK, deal or no deal, wouldn’t leave the EU unscathed. Regulations on trade with EU countries are all a part of the deal currently being negotiated for Brexit. Brexit will also see the UK with a shortage of incoming medicine. Brexit will further increase how fragile things already are in the UK’s current medicine supply chain, with much higher shortages of extremely vital medicines for treatment of things like epilepsy, depression and psychosis (Cox, 2020)

Medicine is not the only thing that will see shortages. The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) staff has many staff who are not British, with a report stating that of the 1.2 million NHS staff, 5.5% claim an EU nationality (Baker, 2019). Despite only 5.5% being made up of EU nationals, they take up a large percentage of the high skill roles with 9.5% of NHS doctors listed as EU nationals (Baker, 2019). The threat Brexit poses here is according to a study conducted by Cooper (2018) a third of EU doctors working for the NHS are considering departing which could see job vacancies in the NHS triple.

According to findings from Cooper (2018) NHS staff stated that one of their most prominent reasons for departure from the EU is the negative attitude toward EU workers. So if you don’t want to be left with a shortage of high skilled medical professionals next year try and support EU migrant workers in future.

References:

Baker, C., 2019. NHS Staff From Overseas: Statistics. [online] House of Commons Library. Available at: <https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-7783/&gt; [Accessed 26 April 2020].

Cooper, K., 2018. BMA – EEA Doctors Have No Faith In Government, Finds Survey. [online] Archive.bma.org.uk. Available at: <https://archive.bma.org.uk/news/2018/november/eea-doctors-have-no-faith-in-government&gt; [Accessed 26 April 2020].

Cox, A., 2020. What Could Brexit Mean For Our Access To Medicines? – University Of Birmingham. [online] Birmingham.ac.uk. Available at: <https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/perspective/brexit-medicine-shortage.aspx&gt; [Accessed 26 April 2020].

EPR, 2020. [image] European Pharmaceutical Review. Available at: <https://www.europeanpharmaceuticalreview.com/news/102429/dhsc-supports-continuity-of-medical-supplies-in-a-no-deal-brexit-scenario/&gt; [Accessed 26 April 2020]

Anyone in the gaming community will tell you whose logo this is.

This logo belongs to twitch.tv, one of the biggest livestreaming platforms on the web right now with 3.8 million unique broadcasters in February 2020 and 1.44 million concurrent viewers as of march 2020 (Iqbal, 2020). In my opinion it’s the most entertaining online platform available and many young gamers are dedicating their futures to being successful on Twitch with little regard for anything else, but why would you want to be successful on Twitch? According to Forbes (2020) the top streamer on Twitch that year, known as Ninja, earned a reported $17 million from his Twitch career. but how can that happen just from playing games online?

In early 2014, 3 years after its birth, Amazon purchased Twitch for just under $1bn (Johnson and Woodcock, 2017). This saw twitch receive an overhaul in operations and introduction of the official partnership programme, allowing streamers to earn a living off streaming on the site. This saw streamers earning money through advertisements played during their streams meaning the higher their viewer count was, the more money they would earn. On top of this, Twitch’s subscription system allows users to pay a fixed amount every month to a twitch partners stream and in return they will receive exclusive benefits in that streamers live chat, recognising them as a “subscriber”. For these reasons, videogame fanatics everywhere are trying their hand turning their passion into payday.

References:

Iqbal, A., 2020. Twitch Revenue And Usage Statistics (2020). [online] Business of Apps. Available at: <https://www.businessofapps.com/data/twitch-statistics/&gt; [Accessed 25 April 2020].

Johnson, M. and Woodcock, J., 2017. ‘It’s like the gold rush’: the lives and careers of professional video game streamers on Twitch.tv. Information, Communication & Society, [online] 22(3), pp.336-351. Available at: <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1386229?casa_token=7WqCaXc3nSgAAAAA%3AFOI_xqNjYxhUs8sXz4ZrQns3SjY4d304Y2XrtV76M6kzHhHBaa-DxJhAr8BQygYeLNk1-fzuKSmVEQ&gt; [Accessed 25 April 2020].

Perez, M., 2020. Top-Earning Video Gamers: The Ten Highest-Paid Players Pocketed More Than $120 Million In 2019. [online] Forbes. Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattperez/2020/01/29/top-earning-video-gamers-the-ten-highest-paid-players-pocketed-more-than-120-million-in-2019/#d234be74880b&gt; [Accessed 25 April 2020].

Twitch, 2019. Nice to meet you again, for the first time. [Blog] Twitch Blog, Available at: <https://blog.twitch.tv/en/2019/09/26/nice-to-meet-you-again-for-the-first-time/&gt; [Accessed 25 April 2020]

Would you rather live in a war-torn city or a refugee camp during a global pandemic?

While still ongoing, the Syrian civil war has been mostly ignored by international mainstream media. As the conflict grew worse, many Syrian citizens to fled to neighbouring countries and refugee camps near the countries border in fear for their lives. However, a new threat in the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to end the long-standing conflict in the worst way possible.

With the spread of COVID-19 being reported in the country (Doctors Without Borders, 2020), Syrian citizens occupying refugee camps near the Turkish border have begun to move back into the city of Idlib despite the area not being cleared as safe; citizens said that they have a better chance of survival in the war-torn city they do in an unsanitary refugee camp during the pandemic (NEWSWIRES, 2020).

You would believe that the pandemic would prompt a ceasefire between government forces and rebels, however this is not the case. The Syrian civil war has seen heavy foreign “sponsorship”, with Russia and Iran openly backing the President Assad’s government whilst the United States and recently Turkey have supported Rebel forces. This strengthens the wars current paradoxical nature, seeing the losing side gain stronger foreign involvement until they are winning again, a never-ending process (Fisher, 2016). A painful existence for those trapped within the country’s borders seemingly only gets worse.

For a further look on what pandemic life in Syria is like I would recommend this article.

References:

Doctors Without Borders, 2020. COVID-19: Urgent Humanitarian Aid Needed In Northeastern Syria. [online] Doctors Without Borders – USA. Available at: <https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/what-we-do/news-stories/news/covid-19-urgent-humanitarian-aid-needed-northeastern-syria&gt; [Accessed 24 April 2020].

Fisher, M., 2016. Syria’S Paradox: Why The War Only Ever Seems To Get Worse. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: <https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/27/world/middleeast/syria-civil-war-why-get-worse.html&gt; [Accessed 24 April 2020].

NEWS WIRES, 2020. ‘Our Lives Go From Danger To Danger’: Displaced Syrians Begin Returning To Idlib. [online] Available at: <https://www.france24.com/en/20200412-our-lives-go-from-danger-to-danger-displaced-syrians-begin-returning-to-idlib&gt; [Accessed 24 April 2020]. Kadour, Omar Haj, 2020 [image] Available at: <https://www.france24.com/en/20200412-our-lives-go-from-danger-to-danger-displaced-syrians-begin-returning-to-idlib&gt; [Accessed 24 April 2020].