Temporary Festival Impacts on Rural Areas

Temporary Festival Impacts on Rural Areas

• Economic Impacts: Coachella generated over $106 million for Indio, CA, and $600 million for the Coachella Valley in 2016. It employed over 4,000 locals in 2012. Governments collected $3.5 million in taxes, funds that can support infrastructure or public services. However, festivals can also increase crime, necessitating more law enforcement spending.

• Environmental Impacts: Noise pollution from events like Coachella can exceed 110 decibels. Burning Man releases over 100,000 tons of CO2 annually, potentially causing health issues (“Playa lung”). Burning Man's impact on the playa's ecology includes disrupting food webs, creating runoff problems and causing flooding due to the lack of water absorption. Coachella generates 107 tons of waste daily, with only 20% recycled.

Festival Site Advantages and Disadvantages

• Burning Man (Black Rock City): Advantages include a large site (over 4 square miles) accommodating 73,000 attendees (2023); the desert climate with minimal rainfall in Spring/Summer, and accessibility to major highways (largely reliant on Highway 34, resulting in congestion.)

• Coachella: Advantages include ease of access via major highways and nearby cities (LA, San Diego), plus airports.

• Disadvantages (Both): Coachella experience noise pollution that is close to residents. Burning Man suffers from accessibility issues (single highway), extreme weather (dust storms, wind, cold nights), and environmental harm to the "playa" soil (runoff).

Tourism as a National Development Strategy

• Economic Benefits: Tourism worldwide supported 330 million jobs (10.3% global employment) in 2019. Some countries heavily rely on it (e.g., Antigua and Barbuda). While employment is a benefit, diversification is crucial; dependence on tourism can leave countries vulnerable to market changes. Tourism revenue can contribute significant tax revenue, e.g., $180 billion in the US in 2019.

• Economic Disadvantages: Leakage of tourism income (e.g., 70% in Thailand), often due to involvement with transnational corporations (TNCs.) This can displace local businesses, further impacting the local economy. Job creation may be low skilled and poorly paid (seasonal). Countries can suffer negative impacts during global crises (e.g., Saint Lucia's 71.7% decline in GDP in 2020).

• Social Benefits: Increased funding for cultural heritage sites (e.g., Wadi-Al-Hitan, Egypt), though mass tourism can negatively impact cultural heritage sites (e.g., 72% of UNESCO World Heritage Sites report negative effects). These effects include cultural degradation (traditional local cultural events being replaced by tourist-oriented ones).

• Social Disadvantages: Locals can be displaced by price increases and overcrowding (e.g., Venice). Tourism can lead to cultural erosion and a distortion of local cultural identities for tourists.

Transnational Corporations (TNCs) and their Impacts

• Negative Impacts: TNCs can introduce processed foods (e.g., sugar-sweetened beverages) to local markets, leading to health crises (e.g., obesity in Mexico). TNCs often push out traditional food sources with cheaper, imported products (e.g., turkey tails displacing traditional meals in Samoa). This results in increased reliance on imported, processed foods, and significant shifts away from traditional diets. TNCs increased FDI substantially from 1992-2007, greatly changing food sectors in low-income countries. They are associated with a higher proportion of processed foods in exports for high and low income countries. Their aggressive marketing strategies, and affordability advantage of their processed foods push out local products in local markets in developing regions.

• Positive Impacts: In some cases, TNCs provide low-income countries access to inexpensive, high-calorie foods.

Government/International Organizations and Famine

• Negative Impacts: Conflicts and blockades (e.g., Yemen) worsen famine dramatically. Aid can be diverted or stolen, leading to limited impact.

• Positive Impacts: Some governments implement programs to address food insecurity (e.g., Ethiopia's PSNP). International organizations (e.g., UNDP) provide short-term and long-term aid, addressing famine and increasing food resilience.

• Complexity: Short-term aid may create dependency, especially for countries with large humanitarian needs (e.g., Somalia). Corruption (e.g., warlords, contractors) can diminish aid impact. Governments may use food aid as political leverage.

Human Factors Affecting Geophysical Hazard Vulnerability

• Economic Factors: Poverty correlates strongly with high disaster vulnerability. Poor infrastructure and building practices make communities highly vulnerable, leading to higher loss of life and property. Lack of disaster preparedness, recovery mechanisms and building codes are all highly correlated with high death and property rates.

• Demographic/Social Factors: Higher proportions of the younger population are more vulnerable in relation to the older population. Dense population concentration in urban areas increases vulnerability. Low levels of education and awareness increase vulnerability since individuals lack knowledge of prevention and preparedness measures.