Words simply cannot appropriately depict the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan on March 11, 2011. Japan is a developed country with the third largest economy in the world, behind the United States and China. The northeast border of Japan encountered an overwhelming natural disaster in the form of an earthquake that also created a massive tsunami and many strong aftershocks, which has affected Japan domestically and internationally. The aftershocks continually delayed recovery and have increased difficulty for search and rescue teams combing the disaster area for the deceased and wounded. The earthquake and tsunami effected Japan's major export: Rice.
In addition to loss of life and destruction of infrastructure, the tsunami caused a number of nuclear accidents and the associated evacuation zones affecting hundreds of thousands of residents. The overall cost could exceed US$300 billion, making it the most expensive natural disaster on record. 2. The full impact of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami will not be known for some time. The world’s focus at this time is on the enormous loss of life as a result of this tragedy.
Estimates of the Tohoku earthquake's magnitude make it the most powerful known earthquake to have hit Japan, and one of the five most powerful earthquakes in the world overall since modern record-keeping began in 1900. The Fukushima I, Fukushima II, Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant and Tokai nuclear power stations, consisting of a total eleven reactors, were automatically shut down following the earthquake. Japan's government said the cost of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the northeast could reach $309 billion, making it the world's most expensive natural disaster on record. According to the chief scientist for the Multi-Hazards project at the U.S. Geological Survey, the fact that the Tohoku earthquake took place in Japan—a country with "the best seismic information in the world"—meant that large amounts of data were collected for an earthquake of this type and severity. Japan specifically requested teams from Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and the United States; it also requested, via its space agency JAXA, the activation of the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters, allowing diverse satellite imagery of affected regions to be
This rigidity forces the economy towards stagnation. The country’s economy entered the worst phases, nearly collapsing in the 1990s. The disintegration of the Soviet Union followed by severe food crisis due to a series of natural disasters (hails in 1994, flooding in 1995-1996, and droughts in 1997) and mismanagement by the government pushed North Korea into a crisis that lasted till today. GDP of North Korea The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of North Korea is estimated at $33.3 billion (2013), a rise of 1.1 percent over the year 2012. In terms of GDP per capita, North Korea ranks at the 194 spot with its per capita GDP of $1,800 according to the CIA Factbook.
The Chernobyl accident that took place in 1986 is worst ever nuclear disaster faced by mankind. The accident that took place on April, 1986 is the result of a flawed reactor design and incompetent personals that were not properly trained. As a result of the accident, extremely harmful and toxic radioactive elements were released into the environment, the fallout of which is felt even to this day. The accident had tremendous health, economic, social and environmental consequences and it severely affected the lives of a huge section of population in the countries of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. The main radioactive elements that cause maximum damage to the affected population were iodine-131 and caesium-137.
BP has been criticized and put under pressure by critics regarding corporate social responsibility, as Mother Jones Magazine listed BP as one of ten worst corporations in 2001 regarding environmental and human rights issues (Mokhiber & Weissman, 2001). Such accidents cost BP millions of dollars and corporate’s image distortion. For example, in 1999 BP paid approximately $22 million as charges in relation to illegal dumping of hazardous waste in Alaska (EPA, 1999). BP’s ‘Green’ image is supported in its corporate strategy as they follow proved technologies to enhance productivity with less impact on environment. According to BP’s 2006 annual review, 1.2 million tonnes of greenhouse gas reductions have been delivered in a number of projects during 2006.
Dhamar, Yemen: Earthquake Crisis In December, 1982 a disastrous earthquake hit the city of Dahmar, Yemen. The earthquake had a magnitude of 6.0 Mb and resulted in 1,600 deaths and $2 billion in damages to the town (Lohman) . Living in these conditions made it especially hard for the villagers because of their lack of equipment, money, and man-power which forced them to live in ruins after the earthquake occurred. One major problem that caused damaged to the villagers of Dhamar was housing built on rocks and rock outcrops. These buildings were also constructed of rock rather than adobe that are in other parts of the country.
The Great Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011 On March 11, 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake rocked Japan and sent a thirty-three foot tsunami raging down the coast to devastate their towns even further. To make matters even worse, the earthquake also triggered a nuclear emergency that has been compared to the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. (McCurry, 1) This earthquake was the worst earthquake in Japan’s recorded history. (McCurry, 1) It would not be surprising if people will still talk about it for centuries to come. The earthquake began off of the north-eastern coast of Honshu and caused catastrophic damage.
After the earthquake in Japan also known as the Fukushima disaster, the problem of nuclear energy in Japan became the main focus of the world. The earthquake broke the structure of the reactors, this lead to several of explosions, and most seriously- the leaking radioactive substances. Countries like Germany dislike the idea of nuclear energy, because they believe using nuclear energy is risky and the waste that nuclear energy produces causes a lot of problems. Recently people seemed to go against nuclear energy because of the Fukushima accident (Ng 12), however, most of the other countries still use nuclear energy as the main energy resource in the country. Countries should use nuclear energy because it is eco-friendly, it can produce a lot of energy, and it is the best energy resource we can use so far.
Case analysis on Aston-Blair,Inc Background of the case: Aston-Blair was the large U.S producer of precious metal alloys and other specialized alloys for commercial and industrial use, but suffered big losses in the first quarter of 1991. Except the external problems that are economics slowdown and declining price of gold due to the air strike against Iraq, the CEO of Aston-Blair, Wynn Aston felt one of the internal problem which caused the firm’s poor performance is improper forecasting. Aston asked Casey,Vice precident of marketing,and Trott,Vice pricident of corporate planning to reexamine the company’s procedures for forecasting sales. Task force: Casey and Trott decided to form a task force to investigate the forecasting problem and put Michael Bacon who is a special assistant to Trott, in charge of the task force. Besides Bacon, there are 2 members,Reiss and Holt, came from Corporate planning, Bodin,came from Sales division,Meir,came from Economic forecasting, and 3 product managers came from Market division,they are Ratliff,Paulson and Kolinsky.