In the UK, bananas are cheaper than apples which are home-grown.
Bananas may be used as an incentive for consumers to use their stores, with supermarkets selling them as loss leaders.
A short shelf life, comparison websites and price match promises keep the price for bananas artificially low.
The buying power of supermarkets means they are able to negotiate the best possible price from farmers and plantations.

Fairtrade bananas have an increasing representation on shelves (1 in 3, in 2018)
Many of them are grown on small scale farms and sold via cooperatives.
Despite being several pence more expensive than regular bananas.
A shift in consumer awareness.
This is encouraged by major companies such as Cadbury’s and Nestle.

Unreasonable pressures of UK supermarkets on suppliers to keep prices low creates unethical cultivation of bananas.
Such as removal of natural vegetation for plantations in Latin America, heavily treated with pesticides.
Workers are paid little , living and working in poor conditions.
TNCs agave dominated the industry for years as huge capital was required to develop a mass reliable harvest in climates where prior colonialism there was no tradition of exports.
LArge areas of land kept costs lower, and spare land for when soils are exhausted due to the monoculture.

A banana republic refers to a country whose economy is based on one or few commodities. Pay is low as workers have limited alternatives.
Politically, countries are intrinsically unstable (Guatemala and Honduras)., corrupt government are indebted to large companies.

It is shifting away from TNCs, despite in the early 2000s, 5 companies still controlled 70% of the banana export market worldwide.
Consumer pressure (and Fairtrade) has resulted in supermarkets purchase from smaller wholesaler or directly from producers.

Raise awareness of trade injustices and imbalances of power.

Economic

• Stablised incomes and improvements to standards of living.
• Guaranteed fair wage and long-term supply contract, including direct access to new and international markets.
• Additional capital raised for reinvestment (washer tanks)
• Migrant labourers are helped (assistance to buy their own land)

Social

• Healthcare benefits
• Provision of medical and educational supplies.
• Social security system (retirements)
• Marginalised groups (HIV/AIDS sufferers) helped find employment.

Resource domains outside political and national reach.
Supra-national transcending conintental and national boundaries.

Principle of Common Heritage
Guides international law.
Some localities belong to all humanity, with the resources available to everyone.

Apart from the sea close to land which is an exclusive economic zone, the high seas are unowned.
Countries can use the resources, if one country takes more profits increase, which does not benefit other countries.
Can set trends.

Signed in 1959 by 12 countries studying in and around Antarctica.
Article I: Antarctic shall be used for peaceful purposes only
Article II: Freedom of scientific investigation in Antarctica and cooperation until the end will continue
Article III: Scientific observations and results from Antarctica shall be exchanged and made freely available,

Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, NZ, Norway, and the UK have overlapping territorial claims.
The US and Russia maintain a ‘basis of claim’
This act explicitly states that no new claim to territorial sovereignty shall be asserted whilst the Treaty is in force.

The North Pacific Gyre is the largest, lying between Hawaiii and Japan (3.5 million tonnes of mainly plastic waste).

Increased populations= increased demand for plastic consumption.

TNCs such as Neutrogena phasing out plastics (consumer reaction)
NGO Ocean Conservancy monitor oceans, raising awareness on emerging issues such as ocean acidification.

Ocean Conservancy collaborated with Norton Point making sunglasses out of recycled plastics.

This encourages beach cleaning as well as raising profits for Ocean Conservancy.

UN global campaigning seek to eliminate major plastic sources, with limited direct manipulation authority.

They set moral precedent.

Indonesia, Uruguay and Costa Rica have all pledged the application of reduction methods
These have coastlines.
They are not necessarily highly developed.

The oceans also face problems from whaling.
The International Whaling Commission has protected keys marine species , alongside the 1982 global ban on commercial whaling.
Japan use the excuse of ‘scientific study’ to continue hunting whales.

Management of these issues tend to only be initiated at ‘breaking point’.

Most of Antarctica is within the Arctic Circle.
Continent is fringed with ice shelves, where ice forms over the ocean.
Mountainous and rocky terrain is almost entirely covered in glacial ice, with an average height 2,300m above sea level.

Antarctic Convergence Zone is approx 32-48km wide, varying in latitude seasonally.
Upwelling currents are very rich in marine productivity, especially Antarctic krill.
West wind drift, water flows eastward due to westerly winds.

• Latitude: Further from equator, the lower the angle that the sun is in the sky, giving less heat.
• Distance from sea: land warms up and cools down more quickly than the sea, the more inland, the warmer.
• Altitide: The higher you go, the colder, it is the highest continent.
• Wind Direction: Areas can be sheltered by the vast mountain ranges such as the Transantarctic Mountains.
• Albedo: light snow covered surfaces reflect the heat, colder than areas that are urbanised or vegetation covered.

Climate Change
East Antarctica’s Ice sheet is thickening, greater precipitation only slows sea level rise by a tenth of a millimetre a year.
West Antarctica’s Ice sheet is more vulnerable, this glacial ice slide into the sea will contribute a 5m rise.
Rainwater becomes more carbonic leading to ocean acidification.

Fishing
Nineteenth century saw Norwegian, British and American exploitation of blue whales for oil and baleen, then for meat and bonemeal.
Due to dangerously low stocks, commercial whaling ceased mainly in 1985.
Fishing has replaced whaling. Japanese fishing of krill.
Fishing ships directly destroy marine habitats and contaminate water.
Krill oil capsules can retail for as much as £40 for 100 capsules.
Krill underpins virtually the whole Antarctic food system.

Research
30 countries have research bases in Antarctica , including the UK (British Antarctic Survey)
Vital for research into climate change where ice cores have been extracted to include ice up to 400,000 years old.
Energy- generating foods are required due tot he living conditions, all of which has to be transported.
Although well briefed, scientists still disturb wildlife and the wider environment through vehicle exhausts, construction of buildings and other facilities such as fuel storage.

Mineral Resources
Deposits include coal, oil manganese titanium, gold and silver.
Sizeable deposits easy to reach are rare, and not economically viable to mine.
Any mineral exploitation has to overcome an extensively hostile environment.
No commercial mining since , but future demands is likely to pressure this.
In the 1970s/80s, members of the Antarctic Treaty were formulating nw minerals convention to allow future exploration.
This convention was adoption in 1988 but did not come into force as it was not ratified by all members.

Tourism
Glacial landscapes, wildlife, and historic sites have caused numbers to rise from less than 2000 annually in the 1980s to 27,000 in 2011-12.
Mostly ship-borne, visiting on small cruise ships
The Scott Polar Institute however found that tourists mainly do protect the environment, with more waste being produced by scientific research,