Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
MWF 8am
30 comments:
Anonymous
said...
agriculture and the advancement of medical technologies have contributed to the over population of the human species.The underdevelopment of countries does not allow for sustainability. Moreover, the cycle continues when we procreate, as we Proactively Create another mouth to feed. We might be at the forefront of consumerism,we might fill our food with steroids, but China and India are screwed. Too many mouths not enough land to cultivate. No wonder they have the one child policy.By the way Highest infant mortality in the world! And to think that if a child is adopted they're lucky. Being a Chinese baby adoptee, must be like winning the lottery. -MR
The degree to which we are privileged as Americans ceases to continually surprise me. However, it would be ideal if we could literally spread the wealth. While I'm probably being naive, there should be a way to send our overabundance of food to countries that need it. I doubt America would go hungry if we gave up what would be a third helping to every meal, as we are famous for our obesity. Overpopulation is also an uncontainable issue. While it may not be ethical to limit the amount of children people have, bringing babies into the world when a family can't support them is almost worse.
We have created a web of environmental global problems , because of having such an enormous world population, which doesn't understand our natural reality. We are consuming our natural resources: our forests, fisheries, range lands, croplands, and plant and animal species. We are destroying the biological diversity on which the evolution is based on. What should we do to change that.The answer is education.We need to learn how to shift very fast our behavior.We have to stop avoiding problems-we have to face them and try to deal with them not individually but hand in hand with each other and with our planet.
This was an issue I had a discussion long ago on. Our population is growing and our resources fall short. The way I look at it is that the world will keep growing at a tremendous rate where food production will either remain the same or increase slightly to nothing. I believe china has the right idea somewhat. There idea is they should limit the amount of births in a household to one child. This would slowly and humanely cut down the numbers of people in the world because we are unable to support them now. Although this wouldn't sit well with certain cultures such as many Latin ones since their culture tends to lean more towards massive families which would assist in the survival of there family; more kids, more opportunity. Places like India will have to get their government together i order to control population and food growth. In a study done after world war 2, America noticed that people in Europe started living longer and healthier lives since much of the livestock were killed off due to war and famine. The idea I'm trying to reach here is that eating more green will ensure more strength which will increase the strength of the people. In terms of education, the people who are having scarcity problems need to be educated on how to manage the land but there is a dual edged sword to this method. If we help people then this will ensure more people in the world meaning more population growth. A term comes to mind; "killing with kindness".
Over population is inevitable, as the above persian said, mainly due to the advanses in the medical field, and the standard leaving of life. With limited resources, countrys that are underdeveloped can suffer a great deal without any hope of escaping their depretion. As an American, I do notice that we take food for granted, because of our agriculture technology. We can grow an adult chicken twice as fast as a normal free roaming one can. So having the recourse is a major source to feed the millions on this country. Without that, it would be a hole different way of living and life in general.
Indeed since the 20th century a great many advances has improved the lot of all of humanity. We have witnessed a drastic growth thanks to the green revolution following world war 2. Modern medical advances have improved the health of many as well as increased human life exopectancy. However all of this has made overpopulation a real danger.
Overpopulation is exponentionally straining all of our resources. All efforts to go "green" through conservation, preservation, and sustainability are failing. All of these efforts have been mitigated by ever growing number of people inhabiting our world. Worst of all it is occuring in underdeveloped nation-states rife with abject poverty.
Despite all international efforts the amount of impoverished people are growing. They are growing in underdeveloped nation-states whose resources are rapidly dwindling. This new mass of people is becoming ever the more hostile due to fierce competition for resources.
Unless overpopulation is curtailed and all of its related problems ameliorated we shall suffer on a global scale.
I propose three solutions.
1. Effective worlwide planned population growth and maintainance.
2. Increased economic-educative-social cooperation between HDCS to MDCS and LDCS. (Studies have shown that higher standards of living, education, and social mobility/awareness lowers birth rates significantly).
(This is an extreme but plausbile option) 3. Selective negative eugenics policies, compulsory sterilization, and strict Government regulation on procreation.
As you said in the comment the lack of food due to the growing population is in direct correlation to the lack of education, poverty, infrastructure, and poor or non-existent public health. I do not believe that we can over come this problem as a whole but we can certainly make an effort in certain areas especially America. We tend to eat in one sitting what two or three persons can eat. We need to educate ourselves simply in the amount of food we consume. We can help out and export the amount that we used to eat to those countries such as Africa. This is just a tiny step. We need to not take food for granted as Americans and over feed ourselves and our children. Then again this is only one problem. We must deal with the other issues that are directly related to this problem as well.
For years we have been saying we'll find a solution for poverty, under-development as well as infustration along with many other problems. Unfortunaltey, as we know, it is easier said than done. Deminishing the amount of children to one per household like China does is absurd, but people want large families especially in Latin countries.With families having three-four kids per household the world population will increase and agriculture will decrease due to more cunstruction for roads, bulding, etc. The situiation that is occuring in Africa is devastating and i believe that if all American come together and help out we can make a big difference in those peoples lives. "Make it Right". Mike Holmes (Holmes on Homes)prod.
It’s easy to say we want to help the planet to become what it was before, and with technology it seems like we can, but that also seems to work on our disadvantage and makes things worse and therefore problems aren’t getting solved. In the U.S. we consume a lot more than what we are supposed to because we have the resources. Other countries don’t have that choice, they’re forced to rationalize and consume much less than we do to the point of starvation. In one of my classes we studied the ecological footprint, it measures more or less how many resources we consume. Mine said I needed almost four planets to keep up with my lifestyle, which included the amounts and quality of foods i eat, the type of transportation i use, the energy I consume, etc. Now as we know there’s only one planet to live in, as far as today goes, so that right there tells me that I’m consuming four times more resources than I should, if not more. Agriculture also plays a big role in this sort of self-destruction too because it displaces forests, and fertilizers and diesel machinery affect the environment in negative ways. In the end the only temporary solution I can come up with is to realize that we are consuming away the few resources we have left and try to slow down and think that there’s people out there who as its mention before eat nine times less than we do, so why can’t we at least try and consume less?
When I was around 11 years of age I would watch this show called FEED THE HUNGRY FOUNDATION. It would go on for hours throughout the night. I would be in tears for days. My mom stop me from watching this show. I couldn't understand how we had so much and they couldn't just have food and water. Not toy's or bike's or even books but the basic necessities. There were so many organizations asking for money (donation)to obtain the food and things for those needed places. My family explained that they were scams. That if they help, that the people or countries that needed the support would never get it. The way the children would look on the T.V.show I watch was heart breaking. I would sometimes ask myself why won't they just commit suicide and end their long suffering. Starvation, diseases, injuries, how could the mothers keep having children in those conditions. Why won't the government give the women birth control or sterilize the men. You have the have and the have not's. I feel that the billionaire's and millionaire's should give to the counties suffering the most instead of the charities in least damage places that are here in the states. The locals here can take care of their communities and the rich should take care of the far away.
Its incredible how we Americans have the "privilege" to be able to eat and sustain a healthy weight, in many cases actually faced with obesity, while countries in Africa are starving and don't have the privilege to be able to eat more than once a day. We continuously take for granted what we have here, until we are naively reminded what the rest of the world is facing with.
I believe a lot of the poverty and food supply is directly related to the lack of education. With the increase in population its inevitable there will be an issue with food supply unless the population remains under control. Just as "MR" stated, its understandable how China has the one child policy considering they have about 20% of the worlds population, meaning approximately 1 in every 5 people are Chinese. What would have happened if they were not adamant about the one child policy? The policy does sound bizarre, but they needed to take control of the increase in population, and they have, although the rest of the world is not in such a huge crisis as china was, other actions need to be applied as well.
Americans portray themselves as if they alone are the cause and solution to overpopulation and its related troubles.
I must say:
1. America does distribute food stuffs freely through international organizations. The reason being that we DO NOT MAXIMIZE FOOD PRODUCTION because it would harm the American agrigarian business sector by depressing food prices. Thus after meeting various qoutas established by the Department of Agriculture, surplused food is dumped on international agencies inorder to safeguard american food production. MOST HDCS DO THIS DELIBERATELY.
2. MDCS and LDCS are enacting rapid industrialization programs without the much immediate concern (make money now, clean up sometime in the distant future).
3. OVERPOPULATION IS A GLOBAL CRISIS. Not one Superpower or an amalgam of regional powers can resolve this issue.
4. All nation-states are forced into "green" policies only because they have a burgeoning population struggling to obtain rapidly disappearing resources.
Now, please someone speak from a GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE.
I’m not going to claim I know much; in fact, I’d like to make the claim that I am the least informed person in the world. But, since you asked so nicely, I guess I’ll attempt to answer your little, world, ending problem: world population vs. food production. I’m really surprised no one in my class has used my answer, probably out of fear of sounding stupid, nerdy, or both, but I’m going to stand by my answer despite the stupid, nerdy vibes it gives off. If we want this problem to end we kind of have to leave Earth. Well some of us at least. You don’t have to move to another planet in a galaxy far, far away, but some should soon, at least, move to a station above the Earth: The Jetson’s style. It would have to have the ability to grow crops, raise livestock, and even allow you to live there. Why go to this extreme? Well, because all other options seem to be stalling for time or so morally bankrupt that no country would dare do such an act. Yes, China may seem to have a logical plan about restricting the birth of children and food given to the people, but with medical treatments becoming more “advanced” the people would live a lot longer with each generation. This means that, despite the restrictions, more food would still need to be produced due to more people being born and a lot less people dying. I doubt any government would actually put time and effort into doing genocide due to its moral bankruptcy and also due to its people rising against it. However I do believe a resource war will occur. In fact I’ll put money on it. Countries would horde and fight for each other’s resources for survival and this would bring the population down, however the resources would still be extremely low and still have a good chance of running out anyway. So leaving Earth is the only way for us humans to survive in this growing technological world. If you have any disagreements or facts to the contrary please correct me, because I don’t want live with my ignorance forever.
Poverty is a very common problem around the world. Personally, I think that the problem is not the slow production of food and the fast growing population rate. I believe that there is plenty of food around for everyone. The problem is bad organization and the lack of interest in sharing. There is so much food being thrown away every day from restaurants and supermarkets. Foods that are still useful but not good enough for these businesses. If everyone had united together and cared about what others are going through, this wouldn't be a problem. If there was more organization in the United States on this subject there would be more food taken to these areas where there is none. Millions of children and people die of hunger every year and here in America there is a problem of obesity. There must be something wrong with this equation. More importance should be put on this issue and We should all start to appreciate what we have and realize that there are others that might need that loaf of bread we are throwing away in the garbage.
Sustainability is a major concern all over the world. Even though developed countries can still benefit from a non deficient market of food, it is sad to say that some countries cannot benefit from it. Some countries for example eat nine time less than in America. In a period of time like today, it should not be happening still. The moral value being way higher today than in the past, how long must we still wait until people realize that people are still dying all over the world ? Being concerned is in one thing, acting is another one. I am sure that we as developed countries have the possibility to remedy to this situation even if this would mean “sacrifice”. We need to act before it is too late. Now would be a good time.
Humanity could not anymore count on subsistence farming. Today the world population is approximately 7 billion. We cannot wait the maturation of fruit (more or less a year) to consume pear, pineapple, etc. the gestation of a cow lasts 9 months. How many cows will need to consume milk after each gestation? The technology has been accelerated the production process for not running out of stock. The demand is unlimited while the resources are limited. Deforestation, pollution of the atmosphere and the ocean can be considered as collateral damages. It is beneficial for everyone? The answer is no! And everyone pays the same consequences: depletion of ozone layer, acid rain, excess of CO2 in the atmosphere, etc.). It is the reason we urge for a technology transfer from developed countries to undeveloped countries in order to reduce the starvation of the world. Many people die of starvation because it is politics. Canada drops to the ocean the surplus of milk in order to keep the price of milk constant (in economy when supply is superior to demand the price goes down). Brazil, one the top producers of coffee, burns the surplus of this product for the same reason that I have just mentioned. Ivory Coast the first producer of cocoa all over the world cannot fix the price of its own product in the international trade. Why there are so many civil wars in Africa because this continent is rich on natural resources (uranium, diamond, gold, etc) that we do not find somewhere else whose quality or/and quantity are insufficient. So the rich countries provide them weapons in order to manage at their own that wealth. The increase of the population is not the main factor of the famine. The cost of the war in Iraq (2nd version) is estimated of billions dollars every year to American taxpayers, 2003-2010, seven years of war; not to mention Afghanistan. Think about! In addition, how much money, USA, Russia, china, Indonesia, Iran, South Korea spends on massive weapons? How many it costs to launch a spaceship?
Many of us are recognizing that sustainability in our food supply system requires a shift away from our heavy dependence on the national/international food conglomerates and an increasing emphasis on local systems of production and distribution. This shift is becoming necessary as it recognizes that the giant food conglomerates are no longer able to feed the burgeoning population of the planet.
The reasons include the fact that farm land resources are being depleted at an alarming rate worldwide, the old production methods are actually producing less food, traditional agriculture systems and shipping costs are both oil-dependent and oil resources are declining, the intense level of competition among the large food producers for greater shares of the market have squeezed many companies out of business and produced compromises in food processing methods that are resulting in serious threats to human health, the nutritional quality of processed food and even that of food grown “fresh” at distant sites is being questioned by consumers, and not the least of these reasons is the fact that many customers are demanding locally grown food just because it tastes better.
However, the popularity of locally grown food does not automatically guarantee that we can grown enough on our island to become self-sufficient, nor does it promise that our methods will be sustainable. Most people would agree that any sustainability plan must provide for a sufficient supply of food, but the real challenge is to supply that food in adequate quantity and in a consistent manner without damage to the environment. That is what sustainability is all about.
We live in a world where birh control and other prevention methods such as the PLAN B emergency contraceptive pill DO exist,why is it so difficult to provide these options to a community in such desperate need such as this village in Africa? the birh control is out there, why are they not getting it? why is there not a Birth Control for Africa Foundation? out of all those "help Africa" donation commercials I never heard them say the money would help provide birth control......I think maybe hidden goverment agendas maintain control of a vast population by keeping their people in poverty and keeping them in the dark about modern birth control options......I hink the fact of the matter is though many places with a population explosion such as India and Africa contribute to the increase of food consumpion, I belive that it is the rape of mother nature commited by vast and small populations around the world that will eventually lead to the "tap out" of natural resources regardless of world population. Maybe it's not population, maybe it's just greed?
The fact that a sub-Saharan African eats nine times less than what we normally eat in America is just upsetting and unbelievable. I think that the global economy is just TOO disproportioned, and this is obviously affecting a great amount of inhabitants of certain parts of the world. According to this article, agriculture, which to me was one of the most reasonable solutions, has its counter effects. It is sad that people who find in agriculture a way of sustaining themselves, are, without even knowing, killing the planet. I think the best solution is to balance off such a big gap between developed countries and underdeveloped ones. We all could help in the cause, by donating food, money, etc, to those who needed. It doesn’t matter how far we are from them, there are millions of ways that we could get such donations to where they are. I deeply believe that the only solution for poverty, lack of education, lack of infrastructure, and poor or non-existent public health, is having good hears and being willing to help those who are in need.
Over population and world hunger are serious global issues that have been of concern for a long time. It is difficult to even imagine that 1/9 of the U.S. and Europe food consumption is the amount that food supply sub-Saharan Africa has. The distribution of wealth, resources and help is obviously not evenly spread throughout the world. As a nation, we are detached to the notion that there is a child out in the world dying at this very moment from hunger because there is either limited information and exposure to this epidemic or we as human being have lost our sense of humanity for one another. Although, there are many organization created in efforts to fix these issues, there is much hesitation from many people to help out because of corruption of systems, greed and simply ignorance. The solution to these growing epidemics is unclear and very long term, the best way to extend your concern is through awareness because knowledge is the first step in delivering results.
Over population and world hunger are serious global issues that have been of concern for a long time. It is difficult to even imagine that 1/9 of the U.S. and Europe food consumption is the amount that food supply sub-Saharan Africa has. The distribution of wealth, resources and help is obviously not evenly spread throughout the world. As a nation, we are detached to the notion that there is a child out in the world dying at this very moment from hunger because there is either limited information and exposure to this epidemic or we as human being have lost our sense of humanity for one another. Although, there are many organization created in efforts to fix these issues, there is much hesitation from many people to help out because of corruption of systems, greed and simply ignorance. The solution to these growing epidemics is unclear and very long term, the best way to extend your concern is through awareness because knowledge is the first step in delivering results.
We as privileged people have contributed to help fix this problem of lack in another countries life. However I believe giving someone fish instead of teaching them how to fish will never fix the problem. The main issue going on in these third world countries is the way the people in charge have been running it. I think it is up to them to make this problem go away. We should play our roles but they should play theirs. In other words we provide the fishing rods and teach how to use them, but they have to catch the fish. About overpopulation, the only thing I can say is that I wish my words were the answer to this problem. Apparantly science can't create the solution, philosophy can't teach it, and politics can't find it. I believe man has met his match. When man decided to rely on his abilities and wisdom, instead of the God who created him, that was thwe moment God stepped aside and let nature take its course. That was the moment we started sewing what we now are harvesting (overpopulation, unsustainability, etc.). I believe I have implied the solution, but like I said I wish my words were enough to solve this problem.
The world can increase the rate of food production using technology and changing our eating habits. If combined those we can get food containing nutritional ingredients in small portions. In that way we can fight against hunger and obesity. The exponiental growth of human rate population is an issue that solution stays in education, religion, and real action from go vernments. As Maltus proposed several years ago,by gradually reducing the number of people qualifying for relief. Also, an strict birth control have to be place upon not only in the Africans countries. In the US there are millions of people living from the welfare and they rate of birth is high. Eliminate gradually the tax benefits for family that exceds certain number of children. I know all of my suggestions are hard to put in action, but something has to be done before the hunger kill millions of earth's inhabitants.
This is a serious issue thats taking place all over the world. The problem is deeper than just having enough food to supply. In my opinion, it starts with the economic development of the Country. The source of the problem starts with that and the fact that the country still has some undeveloped areas. We have to look at this problem then go from there. Then again poverty exsits on every part of this earth. I feel that the idea is to reduce although eliminating it would be historical. We probably wont be able to overcome this problem as a whole but here in America we can start to make an effort to do so.
We have known that the world population has been growing at an exponential rate to where we wouldn't be able to sustain every single person since I would like to say the 1960's. But with the advancements of technology it has finally hit home to the "Superpowers". And yet we haven't done anything to help these countries that are so poor that they fight between themselves over pieces of land.
I wish I could say that I had a solution to this problem, but if I did then we wouldn't be talking about this issue. Any solutions would have to involve the world as a whole to drastically change and put aside disagreements and work toward fixing this problem of sustainability and overpopulation. I always like to think that we will someday live in a society that models the science fiction Utopian societies where these problems do not exist. I wait for the day when it is possible to be on an equal playing field as every other human being but that is a dream that I will never see.
As this post states, world population is surpassing food production. What can we, as a society, do about it? Well, one part of the solution could be education. 1.By teaching people in sub-Saharan Africa about the benefits of agriculture, they might have a better chance to produce their own food by utilizing their land. This would increase their food resources and decrease their rate of starvation, malnutrition and so on. (This must include conservation and careful management of land, water, energy, and biological resources needed for food production) 2.By giving safe-sex, reproduction and diseases classes; they might have a better understanding of the consequences and risks unprotected sex can bring and how is related to the decrease of food resources. Another extreme option for such areas could be adapting Chinese’s policy of one child per family. Even though, this policy might be consider as a violation of their rights, it could help them control/reduce world population thus proving more resources/food for their standard population.
Don't you remember your mother telling you whenever you wanted to leave some food from your plate:" do you know how many kids from Africa might die to have all you have left on that dish?" this phrase might have sounded funny at those times because we didn't pay much importance to that. However, nowadays there exists 1 billion of people in the world who face undernourishment every day. I think that all the problems get solved with one powerful tool: education. in matters of this topic,worldwide food production is less than the world population because of the increase of population in areas such as Africa or Asia. A good way to battle this growth besides having the government involved in this matter, is to inform these people with the health issues they face and contraceptive methods they can use in order to avoid bringing a child to a miserable life. it is not fair to make a child live a life full of scarcity. And after knowing that we eat nine times more than a person in sub-Saharan Africa, don't we feel guilty of waisting(sometimes)that half of meal we left in our lunch? Indira F.
30 comments:
agriculture and the advancement of medical technologies have contributed to the over population of the human species.The underdevelopment of countries does not allow for sustainability. Moreover, the cycle continues when we procreate, as we Proactively Create another mouth to feed. We might be at the forefront of consumerism,we might fill our food with steroids, but China and India are screwed. Too many mouths not enough land to cultivate. No wonder they have the one child policy.By the way Highest infant mortality in the world! And to think that if a child is adopted they're lucky. Being a Chinese baby adoptee, must be like winning the lottery.
-MR
The degree to which we are privileged as Americans ceases to continually surprise me. However, it would be ideal if we could literally spread the wealth. While I'm probably being naive, there should be a way to send our overabundance of food to countries that need it. I doubt America would go hungry if we gave up what would be a third helping to every meal, as we are famous for our obesity. Overpopulation is also an uncontainable issue. While it may not be ethical to limit the amount of children people have, bringing babies into the world when a family can't support them is almost worse.
We have created a web of environmental global problems , because of having such an enormous world population, which doesn't understand our natural reality. We are consuming our natural resources: our forests, fisheries, range lands, croplands, and plant and animal species. We are destroying the biological diversity on which the evolution is based on.
What should we do to change that.The answer is education.We need to learn how to shift very fast our behavior.We have to stop avoiding problems-we have to face them and try to deal with them not individually but hand in hand with each other and with our planet.
This was an issue I had a discussion long ago on. Our population is growing and our resources fall short. The way I look at it is that the world will keep growing at a tremendous rate where food production will either remain the same or increase slightly to nothing. I believe china has the right idea somewhat. There idea is they should limit the amount of births in a household to one child. This would slowly and humanely cut down the numbers of people in the world because we are unable to support them now. Although this wouldn't sit well with certain cultures such as many Latin ones since their culture tends to lean more towards massive families which would assist in the survival of there family; more kids, more opportunity. Places like India will have to get their government together i order to control population and food growth. In a study done after world war 2, America noticed that people in Europe started living longer and healthier lives since much of the livestock were killed off due to war and famine. The idea I'm trying to reach here is that eating more green will ensure more strength which will increase the strength of the people. In terms of education, the people who are having scarcity problems need to be educated on how to manage the land but there is a dual edged sword to this method. If we help people then this will ensure more people in the world meaning more population growth. A term comes to mind; "killing with kindness".
Over population is inevitable, as the above persian said, mainly due to the advanses in the medical field, and the standard leaving of life. With limited resources, countrys that are underdeveloped can suffer a great deal without any hope of escaping their depretion. As an American, I do notice that we take food for granted, because of our agriculture technology. We can grow an adult chicken twice as fast as a normal free roaming one can. So having the recourse is a major source to feed the millions on this country. Without that, it would be a hole different way of living and life in general.
Overpopulation is a threat to the entire world.
Indeed since the 20th century a great many advances has improved the lot of all of humanity. We have witnessed a drastic growth thanks to the green revolution following world war 2. Modern medical advances have improved the health of many as well as increased human life exopectancy. However all of this has made overpopulation a real danger.
Overpopulation is exponentionally straining all of our resources. All efforts to go "green" through conservation, preservation, and sustainability are failing. All of these efforts have been mitigated by ever growing number of people inhabiting our world. Worst of all it is occuring in underdeveloped nation-states rife with abject poverty.
Despite all international efforts the amount of impoverished people are growing. They are growing in underdeveloped nation-states whose resources are rapidly dwindling. This new mass of people is becoming ever the more hostile due to fierce competition for resources.
Unless overpopulation is curtailed and all of its related problems ameliorated we shall suffer on a global scale.
I propose three solutions.
1. Effective worlwide planned population growth and maintainance.
2. Increased economic-educative-social cooperation between HDCS to MDCS and LDCS. (Studies have shown that higher standards of living, education, and social mobility/awareness lowers birth rates significantly).
(This is an extreme but plausbile option)
3. Selective negative eugenics policies, compulsory sterilization, and strict Government regulation on procreation.
As you said in the comment the lack of food due to the growing population is in direct correlation to the lack of education, poverty, infrastructure, and poor or non-existent public health. I do not believe that we can over come this problem as a whole but we can certainly make an effort in certain areas especially America. We tend to eat in one sitting what two or three persons can eat. We need to educate ourselves simply in the amount of food we consume. We can help out and export the amount that we used to eat to those countries such as Africa. This is just a tiny step. We need to not take food for granted as Americans and over feed ourselves and our children. Then again this is only one problem. We must deal with the other issues that are directly related to this problem as well.
For years we have been saying we'll find a solution for poverty, under-development as well as infustration along with many other problems. Unfortunaltey, as we know, it is easier said than done. Deminishing the amount of children to one per household like China does is absurd, but people want large families especially in Latin countries.With families having three-four kids per household the world population will increase and agriculture will decrease due to more cunstruction for roads, bulding, etc. The situiation that is occuring in Africa is devastating and i believe that if all American come together and help out we can make a big difference in those peoples lives. "Make it Right". Mike Holmes (Holmes on Homes)prod.
It’s easy to say we want to help the planet to become what it was before, and with technology it seems like we can, but that also seems to work on our disadvantage and makes things worse and therefore problems aren’t getting solved. In the U.S. we consume a lot more than what we are supposed to because we have the resources. Other countries don’t have that choice, they’re forced to rationalize and consume much less than we do to the point of starvation. In one of my classes we studied the ecological footprint, it measures more or less how many resources we consume. Mine said I needed almost four planets to keep up with my lifestyle, which included the amounts and quality of foods i eat, the type of transportation i use, the energy I consume, etc. Now as we know there’s only one planet to live in, as far as today goes, so that right there tells me that I’m consuming four times more resources than I should, if not more. Agriculture also plays a big role in this sort of self-destruction too because it displaces forests, and fertilizers and diesel machinery affect the environment in negative ways. In the end the only temporary solution I can come up with is to realize that we are consuming away the few resources we have left and try to slow down and think that there’s people out there who as its mention before eat nine times less than we do, so why can’t we at least try and consume less?
Who is MR?
When I was around 11 years of age I would watch this show called FEED THE HUNGRY FOUNDATION. It would go on for hours throughout the night. I would be in tears for days. My mom stop me from watching this show. I couldn't understand how we had so much and they couldn't just have food and water. Not toy's or bike's or even books but the basic necessities. There were so many organizations asking for money (donation)to obtain the food and things for those needed places. My family explained that they were scams. That if they help, that the people or countries that needed the support would never get it. The way the children would look on the T.V.show I watch was heart breaking. I would sometimes ask myself why won't they just commit suicide and end their long suffering. Starvation, diseases, injuries, how could the mothers keep having children in those conditions. Why won't the government give the women birth control or sterilize the men. You have the have and the have not's. I feel that the billionaire's and millionaire's should give to the counties suffering the most instead of the charities in least damage places that are here in the states. The locals here can take care of their communities and the rich should take care of the far away.
Its incredible how we Americans have the "privilege" to be able to eat and sustain a healthy weight, in many cases actually faced with obesity, while countries in Africa are starving and don't have the privilege to be able to eat more than once a day. We continuously take for granted what we have here, until we are naively reminded what the rest of the world is facing with.
I believe a lot of the poverty and food supply is directly related to the lack of education. With the increase in population its inevitable there will be an issue with food supply unless the population remains under control. Just as "MR" stated, its understandable how China has the one child policy considering they have about 20% of the worlds population, meaning approximately 1 in every 5 people are Chinese. What would have happened if they were not adamant about the one child policy? The policy does sound bizarre, but they needed to take control of the increase in population, and they have, although the rest of the world is not in such a huge crisis as china was, other actions need to be applied as well.
Americans sigh.
Americans portray themselves as if they alone are the cause and solution to overpopulation and its related troubles.
I must say:
1. America does distribute food stuffs freely through international organizations. The reason being that we DO NOT MAXIMIZE FOOD PRODUCTION because it would harm the American agrigarian business sector by depressing food prices. Thus after meeting various qoutas established by the Department of Agriculture, surplused food is dumped on international agencies inorder to safeguard american food production.
MOST HDCS DO THIS DELIBERATELY.
2. MDCS and LDCS are enacting rapid industrialization programs without the much immediate concern (make money now, clean up sometime in the distant future).
3. OVERPOPULATION IS A GLOBAL CRISIS. Not one Superpower or an amalgam of regional powers can resolve this issue.
4. All nation-states are forced into "green" policies only because they have a burgeoning population struggling to obtain rapidly disappearing resources.
Now, please someone speak from a GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE.
I’m not going to claim I know much; in fact, I’d like to make the claim that I am the least informed person in the world. But, since you asked so nicely, I guess I’ll attempt to answer your little, world, ending problem: world population vs. food production.
I’m really surprised no one in my class has used my answer, probably out of fear of sounding stupid, nerdy, or both, but I’m going to stand by my answer despite the stupid, nerdy vibes it gives off. If we want this problem to end we kind of have to leave Earth. Well some of us at least. You don’t have to move to another planet in a galaxy far, far away, but some should soon, at least, move to a station above the Earth: The Jetson’s style. It would have to have the ability to grow crops, raise livestock, and even allow you to live there. Why go to this extreme? Well, because all other options seem to be stalling for time or so morally bankrupt that no country would dare do such an act. Yes, China may seem to have a logical plan about restricting the birth of children and food given to the people, but with medical treatments becoming more “advanced” the people would live a lot longer with each generation. This means that, despite the restrictions, more food would still need to be produced due to more people being born and a lot less people dying.
I doubt any government would actually put time and effort into doing genocide due to its moral bankruptcy and also due to its people rising against it. However I do believe a resource war will occur. In fact I’ll put money on it. Countries would horde and fight for each other’s resources for survival and this would bring the population down, however the resources would still be extremely low and still have a good chance of running out anyway.
So leaving Earth is the only way for us humans to survive in this growing technological world. If you have any disagreements or facts to the contrary please correct me, because I don’t want live with my ignorance forever.
Poverty is a very common problem around the world. Personally, I think that the problem is not the slow production of food and the fast growing population rate. I believe that there is plenty of food around for everyone. The problem is bad organization and the lack of interest in sharing. There is so much food being thrown away every day from restaurants and supermarkets. Foods that are still useful but not good enough for these businesses. If everyone had united together and cared about what others are going through, this wouldn't be a problem. If there was more organization in the United States on this subject there would be more food taken to these areas where there is none. Millions of children and people die of hunger every year and here in America there is a problem of obesity. There must be something wrong with this equation. More importance should be put on this issue and We should all start to appreciate what we have and realize that there are others that might need that loaf of bread we are throwing away in the garbage.
Sustainability is a major concern all over the world. Even though developed countries can still benefit from a non deficient market of food, it is sad to say that some countries cannot benefit from it. Some countries for example eat nine time less than in America. In a period of time like today, it should not be happening still. The moral value being way higher today than in the past, how long must we still wait until people realize that people are still dying all over the world ? Being concerned is in one thing, acting is another one. I am sure that we as developed countries have the possibility to remedy to this situation even if this would mean “sacrifice”. We need to act before it is too late. Now would be a good time.
Humanity could not anymore count on subsistence farming. Today the world population is approximately 7 billion. We cannot wait the maturation of fruit (more or less a year) to consume pear, pineapple, etc. the gestation of a cow lasts 9 months. How many cows will need to consume milk after each gestation? The technology has been accelerated the production process for not running out of stock. The demand is unlimited while the resources are limited. Deforestation, pollution of the atmosphere and the ocean can be considered as collateral damages. It is beneficial for everyone? The answer is no! And everyone pays the same consequences: depletion of ozone layer, acid rain, excess of CO2 in the atmosphere, etc.). It is the reason we urge for a technology transfer from developed countries to undeveloped countries in order to reduce the starvation of the world. Many people die of starvation because it is politics. Canada drops to the ocean the surplus of milk in order to keep the price of milk constant (in economy when supply is superior to demand the price goes down). Brazil, one the top producers of coffee, burns the surplus of this product for the same reason that I have just mentioned. Ivory Coast the first producer of cocoa all over the world cannot fix the price of its own product in the international trade. Why there are so many civil wars in Africa because this continent is rich on natural resources (uranium, diamond, gold, etc) that we do not find somewhere else whose quality or/and quantity are insufficient. So the rich countries provide them weapons in order to manage at their own that wealth. The increase of the population is not the main factor of the famine. The cost of the war in Iraq (2nd version) is estimated of billions dollars every year to American taxpayers, 2003-2010, seven years of war; not to mention Afghanistan. Think about! In addition, how much money, USA, Russia, china, Indonesia, Iran, South Korea spends on massive weapons? How many it costs to launch a spaceship?
Many of us are recognizing that sustainability in our food supply system requires a shift away from our heavy dependence on the national/international food conglomerates and an increasing emphasis on local systems of production and distribution. This shift is becoming necessary as it recognizes that the giant food conglomerates are no longer able to feed the burgeoning population of the planet.
The reasons include the fact that farm land resources are being depleted at an alarming rate worldwide, the old production methods are actually producing less food, traditional agriculture systems and shipping costs are both oil-dependent and oil resources are declining, the intense level of competition among the large food producers for greater shares of the market have squeezed many companies out of business and produced compromises in food processing methods that are resulting in serious threats to human health, the nutritional quality of processed food and even that of food grown “fresh” at distant sites is being questioned by consumers, and not the least of these reasons is the fact that many customers are demanding locally grown food just because it tastes better.
However, the popularity of locally grown food does not automatically guarantee that we can grown enough on our island to become self-sufficient, nor does it promise that our methods will be sustainable. Most people would agree that any sustainability plan must provide for a sufficient supply of food, but the real challenge is to supply that food in adequate quantity and in a consistent manner without damage to the environment. That is what sustainability is all about.
world population vs. food production.
We live in a world where birh control and other prevention methods such as the PLAN B emergency contraceptive pill DO exist,why is it so difficult to provide these options to a community in such desperate need such as this village in Africa? the birh control is out there, why are they not getting it? why is there not a Birth Control for Africa Foundation? out of all those "help Africa" donation commercials I never heard them say the money would help provide birth control......I think maybe hidden goverment agendas maintain control of a vast population by keeping their people in poverty and keeping them in the dark about modern birth control options......I hink the fact of the matter is though many places with a population explosion such as India and Africa contribute to the increase of food consumpion, I belive that it is the rape of mother nature commited by vast and small populations around the world that will eventually lead to the "tap out" of natural resources regardless of world population. Maybe it's not population, maybe it's just greed?
The fact that a sub-Saharan African eats nine times less than what we normally eat in America is just upsetting and unbelievable. I think that the global economy is just TOO disproportioned, and this is obviously affecting a great amount of inhabitants of certain parts of the world. According to this article, agriculture, which to me was one of the most reasonable solutions, has its counter effects. It is sad that people who find in agriculture a way of sustaining themselves, are, without even knowing, killing the planet.
I think the best solution is to balance off such a big gap between developed countries and underdeveloped ones. We all could help in the cause, by donating food, money, etc, to those who needed. It doesn’t matter how far we are from them, there are millions of ways that we could get such donations to where they are.
I deeply believe that the only solution for poverty, lack of education, lack of infrastructure, and poor or non-existent public health, is having good hears and being willing to help those who are in need.
Over population and world hunger are serious global issues that have been of concern for a long time. It is difficult to even imagine that 1/9 of the U.S. and Europe food consumption is the amount that food supply sub-Saharan Africa has. The distribution of wealth, resources and help is obviously not evenly spread throughout the world. As a nation, we are detached to the notion that there is a child out in the world dying at this very moment from hunger because there is either limited information and exposure to this epidemic or we as human being have lost our sense of humanity for one another. Although, there are many organization created in efforts to fix these issues, there is much hesitation from many people to help out because of corruption of systems, greed and simply ignorance. The solution to these growing epidemics is unclear and very long term, the best way to extend your concern is through awareness because knowledge is the first step in delivering results.
Over population and world hunger are serious global issues that have been of concern for a long time. It is difficult to even imagine that 1/9 of the U.S. and Europe food consumption is the amount that food supply sub-Saharan Africa has. The distribution of wealth, resources and help is obviously not evenly spread throughout the world. As a nation, we are detached to the notion that there is a child out in the world dying at this very moment from hunger because there is either limited information and exposure to this epidemic or we as human being have lost our sense of humanity for one another. Although, there are many organization created in efforts to fix these issues, there is much hesitation from many people to help out because of corruption of systems, greed and simply ignorance. The solution to these growing epidemics is unclear and very long term, the best way to extend your concern is through awareness because knowledge is the first step in delivering results.
We as privileged people have contributed to help fix this problem of lack in another countries life. However I believe giving someone fish instead of teaching them how to fish will never fix the problem. The main issue going on in these third world countries is the way the people in charge have been running it. I think it is up to them to make this problem go away. We should play our roles but they should play theirs. In other words we provide the fishing rods and teach how to use them, but they have to catch the fish.
About overpopulation, the only thing I can say is that I wish my words were the answer to this problem. Apparantly science can't create the solution, philosophy can't teach it, and politics can't find it. I believe man has met his match. When man decided to rely on his abilities and wisdom, instead of the God who created him, that was thwe moment God stepped aside and let nature take its course. That was the moment we started sewing what we now are harvesting (overpopulation, unsustainability, etc.). I believe I have implied the solution, but like I said I wish my words were enough to solve this problem.
I must add, religion is not the answer either.
The world can increase the rate of food production using technology and changing our eating habits. If combined those we can get food containing nutritional ingredients in small portions. In that way we can fight against hunger and obesity. The exponiental growth of human rate population is an issue that solution stays in education, religion, and real action from go vernments. As Maltus proposed several years ago,by gradually reducing the number of people qualifying for relief. Also, an strict birth control have to be place upon not only in the Africans countries. In the US there are millions of people living from the welfare and they rate of birth is high.
Eliminate gradually the tax benefits for family that exceds certain number of children. I know all of my suggestions are hard to put in action, but something has to be done before the hunger kill millions of earth's inhabitants.
This is a serious issue thats taking place all over the world. The problem is deeper than just having enough food to supply. In my opinion, it starts with the economic development of the Country. The source of the problem starts with that and the fact that the country still has some undeveloped areas. We have to look at this problem then go from there. Then again poverty exsits on every part of this earth. I feel that the idea is to reduce although eliminating it would be historical. We probably wont be able to overcome this problem as a whole but here in America we can start to make an effort to do so.
We have known that the world population has been growing at an exponential rate to where we wouldn't be able to sustain every single person since I would like to say the 1960's. But with the advancements of technology it has finally hit home to the "Superpowers". And yet we haven't done anything to help these countries that are so poor that they fight between themselves over pieces of land.
I wish I could say that I had a solution to this problem, but if I did then we wouldn't be talking about this issue. Any solutions would have to involve the world as a whole to drastically change and put aside disagreements and work toward fixing this problem of sustainability and overpopulation. I always like to think that we will someday live in a society that models the science fiction Utopian societies where these problems do not exist. I wait for the day when it is possible to be on an equal playing field as every other human being but that is a dream that I will never see.
As this post states, world population is surpassing food production. What can we, as a society, do about it?
Well, one part of the solution could be education.
1.By teaching people in sub-Saharan Africa about the benefits of agriculture, they might have a better chance to produce their own food by utilizing their land. This would increase their food resources and decrease their rate of starvation, malnutrition and so on. (This must include conservation and careful management of land, water, energy, and biological resources needed for food production)
2.By giving safe-sex, reproduction and diseases classes; they might have a better understanding of the consequences and risks unprotected sex can bring and how is related to the decrease of food resources.
Another extreme option for such areas could be adapting Chinese’s policy of one child per family. Even though, this policy might be consider as a violation of their rights, it could help them control/reduce world population thus proving more resources/food for their standard population.
Don't you remember your mother telling you whenever you wanted to leave some food from your plate:" do you know how many kids from Africa might die to have all you have left on that dish?" this phrase might have sounded funny at those times because we didn't pay much importance to that. However, nowadays there exists 1 billion of people in the world who face undernourishment every day. I think that all the problems get solved with one powerful tool: education. in matters of this topic,worldwide food production is less than the world population because of the increase of population in areas such as Africa or Asia. A good way to battle this growth besides having the government involved in this matter, is to inform these people with the health issues they face and contraceptive methods they can use in order to avoid bringing a child to a miserable life. it is not fair to make a child live a life full of scarcity. And after knowing that we eat nine times more than a person in sub-Saharan Africa, don't we feel guilty of waisting(sometimes)that half of meal we left in our lunch?
Indira F.
Post a Comment