Chapter 2: Emerging Markets Pushing Cellphone Growth
[ http://www.physorg.com/news5335.html ]

"Mobile phones could go on to be the most common consumer electronics devices on the planet."
- Ben Wood

The article chosen talks about the growing popularity of cellular phones. They acknowledge that cell phones are quite possibly the best market that's been out there for ages, seeing as how phone sales rates are expected to increase by 16 percent to 779 million units in one year (2005). The source focuses on pinpointing which countries are selling the most mobile phones by comparing them. Because of population size, it's interesting that the site says that India is currently overcoming China as the largest market for cellphones. The fact that China was the biggest market over other countries such as America or Canada was surprising, but again may be the population factor. The article also talks about Latin America sales. The company did amazing research and found out that the percentage of people using cellphones increased from 0.3 percent in 1991 to approximately 20 percent as of 2005, which is a big jump in just a little over ten years. Obviously this is a market that had lots of potential and is still rising.

Demand and supply are simple when you think about them. If there is a demand, there will be people who will supply. Most companies around the world are constantly trying to guess which products will become the next "fad" and hitch a ride on the supply side. However, there are often many hit-and-misses. When the innovational idea of small cellular phones flooded the market, demand was a little slow to begin with. With technology, there are tons of people who are always interested in trying the latest gadget; however there are only a limited amount of those types of people. A larger, more cautious group exists: the buyer who waits for good reviews about a certain item before purchasing. When cellphones began to get more common, more and more people realized the usefulness of the little gadget and demand began to rise sharply after that. Marketers quickly noticed the increase in demand and the big boom of mobile phone popularity exploded. Cellphones didn't just demand themselves however. The entire world had an inclining interest in technology, period. Currently, there is a huge market for unique cellphone designs, due to consumer taste and preferences. In recent years, there have been significant changes to the cellphone as well, such as phone cases and coverings, downloadable ringtones and games, etc., which are all complimentary products. Cellphone popularity, usefulness, and demands have staggered so high that many people consider their cellphone a must have at all times. Imagine, a product so ingenious that people revolve a large part of their lives around it, using it as an organiser, phone, address book, mp3 player, and so on.

Chapter 1: Water: A Necessity Yet Scarce
[ http://earthtrends.wri.org/updates/node/73 ]

"The amount of water in the world is finite. The number of us is growing fast and our water use is growing even faster. Over a third of the world's population lives in water-stressed countries now. There is more than enough water available, in total, for everyone's basic needs. " - Alex Kirby, BBC News

"Water scarcity is partly due to the uneven geographic distribution of water, as determined by the Earth's climate system. It is also a result of regional variations in population size."

In the article found above, the main issue addressed is the overstressed usage of water and uneven distribution throughout the earth. As little as 15 percent of the world's population can live without worrying about water. But what about the other 85 percent? According to the article, there are about 3.5 billion people at risk for diseases due to bad water conditions. The source has an chart which compares the layout of how water is used in different parts of the world. In almost every case, water is used the most for agricultural purposes. An interesting thing to note on the graph is that North America and Europe, highly developed continents with a large access to clean water, use water more primarily for industrial uses over agricultural. The article also compares a picture of Lake Chad from thirty years ago and a more recent picture. The water has been drained and currently lacks the presence of a large body of water.

Unfortunately, water scarcity has been a major problem in the past several decades. In many areas of the world, this problem hangs over the lives of billions. As stated in the article, an estimated 40% of the world's population lives under "water-stressed" conditions, which means that they don't have the high water quality standards found in developed countries. Depending on the situation, this could mean that the water prices are high, quality is poor, access is limited, and/or just has a complete lack of water altogether. Government officials of these countries and areas are forced to come up with ways to help the people, which usually results in more tax money being spent on water issues and less money being spent elsewhere, such as health care and education. This is a large potential factor for slowing down an entire economical system, because if, for example, the current and future work force should succumb to any sicknesses or don't have enough proper training and education to get decent jobs, then the economy takes a huge blow. Taking the work force out of the equation basically stops all economic activity, since no one will be working and no one will have the financial sustainability to buy anything.

Although we may not notice it, since living in North America offers us access to clean cheap water, water scarcity ultimately affects everyone because systems are interconnected throughout the world. If countries run out of water, they may be forced to take harsh actions, such as purchasing water filtering plants. These plants are likely to add to pollution to the already foggy atmosphere. Opening plants will stir economic activity as it creates jobs, which leads to more consumption which again also sidetracks to more pollution. All the smog and harmful chemicals in the air will damage the Earth's atmosphere, burning holes in the ozone layer, which affects everyone in the world. With this in mind, we wonder how people can continue living the lifestyles they do. The solution to water scarcity does not have to include environmentally harmful options, however. If everyone became a global citizen and shared our water, would the world become a better place?