The Backhaul Response

This is a response to Chapter 5, The Backhaul, of the book "Junkyard Planet" by Adam Minter

a.     India and China are both rapidly industrializing countries with a large demand for resources, yet the vast majority of US scrap metal goes to China. Explain why.

The reason why the vast majority of US scrap metal goes to China is that the cost of transporting the scrap metal to China is cheaper than to India. One reason for this is that India is farther away from the US than China is. Also India doesn’t export many products to the US, meaning that the backhaul for shipping companies will be empty. This takes away incentives for shipping companies to ship to India from the US and back. It is much cheaper to ship to China because China does export a lot to the US making the backhaul profitable.

b.     Choose a passage from this reading that illustrates a large issue or problem related to globalization. Explain.

Globalization brings the world together, expanding markets tremendously. This expansion brings larger incentives for companies to make products have a more competitive edge in the global market. This incentive can mean companies cut corners to get that edge. One corner companies can cut involves environmental pollution. This is mentioned in the chapter, where India’s environmental authorities are pressuring manufactures to stop polluting. Being green when it comes to pollution costs money and discourages companies from being green on their own.

Globalization brings more competition and more opportunities for businesses. These businesses expand and with them pollution rises.

c.      More generally, how does modern transportation relate to the themes raised by Jared Diamond in “Why Did Human History Unfold Differently On Different Continents For The Last 13,000 Years?”

Modern transportation relates to Jared Diamond’s article in that the countries that are not players in the global markets and not involved in modern transportation, large container ships, are countries that don’t have the resources, infrastructure, and economy to participate. Many of these countries are the ones, because of the geography and climate, which could not create as sustaining and strong civilizations like that in Europe. Minter gives an example of this be explaining why Sudan is not benefiting more from modern transportation and globalization. Minter says that because Sudan “doesn’t have many factories” and is “without end markets—or the possibility of such end markets” even with cheaper labor and lower environmental standards than China, it cannot participate.

To add on, any country that has poor geography to participate in the current trade routes. Mexico, for example, has great geography because it has a lot of coastline on both the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean. Brazil is a country that has poorer geography because it only has convenient potential shipping routes in the Atlantic Ocean. Even with the Panama Canal, shipping companies have built ships that are too big for the canal making Brazil less easily accessible.