Tuesday, June 29, 2010

M,W,F 10:25am (post on population explosion and sustainability)

29 comments:

Fanny Montoya said...

To atain sustainability it requires for all human beings to take into consideration the relevance of environmental issues. For example in the U.S. many people throw away 25% of the food they consume. If everyone in just one country would share or disminish their food consumption with those that are limited that would be a start to sustainability and food production.
I understand the fact that our population is growing 74 million per year, but unless we forget about the constitution and begin being like some countries that control families to only have 1 child per family and it mainly has to be a boy, then we can control population. I think that the earth will continue as far as it can and as far as its population keeps on being concerned.

Ellen Ortiz said...

Although I think there its not much we can do about the worlds population and sustainability there are little things each of us can do to make a difference. Theres no way to stop our population from growing because the government can't force anyone to not have kids or have a limited few, it goes agaisnt what "America" is all about. Therefore we can help in the amount of food each household wastes. What happens to all of our leftovers? the milk children leave in their cups, the fruits n vegetables that get rotten because of all the days that pass by without them being eaten. people should be more cautious of how much they buy and how little they eat. Donations are always good and not many of us do it. People should donate food to families all over the world that are less fortunate than us. There are lots of issues that deal with this topic; lack of education, different backgrounds, culture, and knowleage. I think the government has so much to worry about that they forget the important stuff, and we should put wars aside and help the ones who are starving... since America eats 9 times more than Africa.

Maeva Mansana said...

The issue of world population vs. food production is a major issue that seems to have no solution overtime. I believe that there is no way to reduce the world population because we are unable to tell anyone not to have so many children or to have fewer children. People have kids as they please. I believe though that people should only have as many kids as they know they can maintain and feed and keep healthy so that they don’t have to suffer the way many people do, including their parents. An attempt to solve this issue is to stop wasting food. People, especially in America, waste a great amount of food at every meal they eat. All the food they waste could have been food fed to people in sub-Saharan Africa or any other starving country in the world. Also, here in America, we have a lot of donation programs and services where anyone can drop anything off all year around. I myself usually donate clothes, but food is always accepted. If everyone could donate a can of food once every 6 months or once a year at least, the starvation rate in poor countries would lower. I am sure that there are other ideas out there that can really make a difference. The true key to solving this problem though is to ACT. If everyone would act a little bit, there would be a noticeable change going on.

Maeva Mansana said...

The issue of world population vs. food production is a major issue that seems to have no solution overtime. I believe that there is no way to reduce the world population because we are unable to tell anyone not to have so many children or to have fewer children. People have kids as they please. I believe though that people should only have as many kids as they know they can maintain and feed and keep healthy so that they don’t have to suffer the way many people do, including their parents. An attempt to solve this issue is to stop wasting food. People, especially in America, waste a great amount of food at every meal they eat. All the food they waste could have been food fed to people in sub-Saharan Africa or any other starving country in the world. Also, here in America, we have a lot of donation programs and services where anyone can drop anything off all year around. I myself usually donate clothes, but food is always accepted. If everyone could donate a can of food once every 6 months or once a year at least, the starvation rate in poor countries would lower. I am sure that there are other ideas out there that can really make a difference. The true key to solving this problem though is to ACT. If everyone would act a little bit, there would be a noticeable change going on.

Stefanie said...

The issue of world population vs. food production increases more and more. I think about this all the time. Every time I think about this it just makes me sad because here in America we throw away so much food. In my house we don’t throw away that much food but we do cook more than we should but because either a friend, or family is over which is all the time or my brothers want to eat more. I come from a very, very large family I have 4 brothers and 2 sisters also my mother is 1 of 12 and my father is 1 of 9. With world population I really can’t think of a solution because we cannot tell someone to have a certain amount of kids or to not have any at all. Even though I come from a large family I would only like to have 2 kids. With food there are many solutions that I can think of to not throw away food 1. Give away the food, there are many homeless people in the streets where you live that are hungry, 2. You can offer a neighbor or friend your leftovers from last night. It’s better for them they don’t have to cook that day, 3. We have many donation programs here in America. If just one American donates 1 can per year this will not be a problem, and most important 4. Don’t buy more than what you consume. Always think of the future for your kids.

Victoria Montero said...

The issue of world population vs. food production is becoming a big issue all over the world. It seems that as the population keeps on increasing food is becoming scarce. The problem with overpopulated regions, provinces, territories, and cities leads to degradation of the land and its resources, as well as, an increase in toxic, detrimental living conditions (lack of food). Although, this idea may sound a little bit abrasive, I believe to increase our life span and decrease overpopulation, we must strategize our living condition to the ways of the Chinese (with restriction) that way ,we may have a chance to save the world from overpopulating and the insufficient production of food in the near future. The Chinese government uses several methods to stop over growth of the population. There is a law in China that states that, for every family there should only be one child. In my opinion, this law has bad and good qualities, for example, by limiting a person reproduction to one child a parent may not have to struggle as much to provide for that child compared to providing for a house of four. Another quality which might make this law a good idea would be, because by only having one child the government may give special benefits to the family. The bad outcome of this law is, that citizen who decided to have more than one child would either be taxed 50% of their incomes or lose employment benefits. I believe that others should follow some of these guidelines to the Chinese law, except the part of taxation if you do have more children, because I believe that if you can afford to take care of more children, you should have the right to procreate, but on the other hand, if you can’t afford more than two children, you should be limited to how many you can have, and maybe, just maybe this will help the world to not become so overpopulated, which would therefore, cut down the scarcity of food.

Valery Bustos said...

The issue of world population vs. food production is obviously a problem around the world. There is much that can be done to try to solve the problem but we seem not to do anything about it. If we were to give away food that we no longer want we can feed others. We may give it to people in Africa for example. Many people would no longer starve and we can help save people. The population is growing by the minute and if women were to stop having as many kids as they have now it could help lower the population. Having a large amount of kids in one family is an issue, there are many mouths to feed with the small amount of food that is produced and can be available to them. There should be restrictions and I do believe that someday we will have to have restrictions like China in order to help our population. America is a country that has too much of everything and we take it for granted. The more that is available to us the more we throw away just look at the large amounts of food we throw away everyday. These issues occur because the majority of people lack education, have different cultures, and have their own way of thinking. America does have issues of their own but it would not hurt us to stop and think of the many things it can do to help. Seeing how much we throw away and knowing that there are others who are not as fortunate as us should make us want to give away some of what we don't want especially since America does eat 9 times more than Africa.

Anayureidy Lopez said...

Its is unjust that people in third world countries have to suffer food shortages, while Americans eat gluttonously and even throw food away! so far there isn't much that has been done about this but we have helped and provide food for other countries such as sending them rice, can beans among other things. people in the united states take for granted what we have and that other people are suffering day by day without being able to feed their children and even dying of starvation and diseases. i believe to completely eliminate this situation we can distribute food evenly among all countries and share all food resources equal. of course, this may never happen since this world isn't made equal but if one day this could be achieved it WOULD cure world hunger.

Marco Medina said...

World population versus food population
Underdevelopment: Poverty. Lack of education. Lack of education Lack of infrastructure. Poor or non-existent public health. 

Underdevelopment is obviously the underlying cause behind the population versus food supply debate

What is the underlying cause behind the overpopulation versus food shortage debate?  As the post stated in the end, underdevelopment is main reason behind these "limited" problems. The reason these problems are limited is because they are only issues that pervade third world countries. Consider the fact that food shortages because of overpopulation are not problems that our modern politicians discuss on a daily basis. Even though statistics show that the United states is the largest consumers of energy and food, we are also the country least affected by food supply and overpopulation. In order for someone to win, someone has to lose. Americans are able to enjoy the "luxuries" provided to them because other third-world nations are enduring the "sufferings". Maybe our sources really are limited but the balance of resources between each country is extremely skewed. And the reality is most Americans are not going to be willing to give up their luxuries for others.

Unknown said...

I dont think there is much we can do to sustain the population from growing but do believe that we can take control to how we make use of our food production. Its normal for us to buy goods enough to serve our household and as this happens over time half of everything or 1/4 goes to waste.
We often hear ourselves make such comments to our children when leaving food that there are children in Africa or elsewhere that would kill for leftovers. I believe the value of food has diminshed not in a way where its necessary but its worth. Our population will continue to grow no matter what and food production should attempt to rise to an equivalent to help out those who really need.

Arrielle Hopkins said...

Honestly, i think in order for the world's population to be controlled we have to make it a law that women shall from this point forth refrain from reproducing more than one child. This does not say that we will control the population, but it sure would stop these mothers that are relying on public assistance to feed their huge families in America, while Africans dont have that luxury of Government assistance. Some would argue that this violates our freedom of choices as Americans, but the bigger picture is that if we dont find a way to stop reproducing and at this alarmingly high rate , in 30 years we will have run out of natural resources and the means that we have grown accustomed to.
Arrielle Hopkins

Iriz said...

I think the population will keep increasing as the years pass. There is so many people on earth that it cannot be controlled. Thats why so many people are now injecting hormones to the foods so i can grow in a couple days rather that weeks. thats also a bad choice because of health problems and many more reasons. But there is nothing we can do because the population is increasing every minute and it will keep increasing. The only choice is too wait and see where this ends up taking us and what happens too human kind at the end.

Marvic Boy said...

The appropriate solution for these problems is only possible in long-term. Nowadays there is not too much that we can do; but at least we can begin to create a new future for the coming generations. Beginning with the education and culture, especially in countries where the birth rate is not according the population’s economic situation. In my opinion each family should have children according to the family's economy and to have a supported and strict control over this, rules should be impose by superior institutions, like the government , besides the education(that also should be obligatory) to make the population more conscious of the responsibility that human reproduction carries. As a consequence of the control over population’s increase, the food distribution and production will be better managed too, although is an activity that pollute the planet in different ways, it is a necessary mean to conserve our existence, therefore we should try to maintain a sustainable life cycle by applying conservation methods.

Abniel Garcia said...

Abniel Garcia

We cannot have sustainability with population explosion. Sustainability or sustainable development means economic growth with proper or adequate use of the natural resource, the search for alternative and renewable source of energy, and effective policies of birthrate control. Today, half of the world population lives bellow poverty level according to the UNESCO report, and the most populated nations in the world are China and India. Despite those nations have experimented rapid economic growths in the last decades, they have not been able to take most of their nationals out of poverty because of high levels of birthrate or natality. In addition, those nations have squandered great part of their natural resources because of their overpopulation and unmeasured or unrestrained economic growth. In few words, population explosion hinders sustainability or sustainable economic growth.

Anonymous said...

Much of the lack of food and other important resources come from the amount of contention in many of the nations of the third world. If the people of the Sahel region of Africa could refrain from blowing one another brains and if they could also kindly not enslave one another then I am sure quite of few of the sustainability problems would miraculously disappear before their eyes. Another thing thta could be done is to let the markets of the free world run free and in no time at all food prices across the globe would drop to nothing along with nearly everything else as a result of a highly competitive market press prices down. Also if the people of those regians less acclimated to agriculture would simply promote other forms of industry they would shortly have many things to trades with those countries with an over abundance of food such as our own. Human beings have enough ingenuity to outpace any sort of Malthusian collapse they simply need to sit still stop killing each other and think. Daniel Dodge

Rossana Velasquez said...

I think that when it comes to population growth there really isn't a way to stop it. The first thing that came to my mind when I read about popultion growth being one of the problems was about China and the one child policy they had at some point. Yes it did slow down the countrys population growth,but at the same time it had many flaws to it. The policy did limit to one child per household and if the family wanted another child they had to pay to have it recognized by the country. Familys that have low incomes obviously couldn't/wouldn't pay unless they wanted that financial burden on them. Many of the families in china still had other children,but many ended up unrecognized by the state or abandoned/killed if the child wasn't the sex the family wanted.At the end of the day how do we really know the population estimate is correct if many children aren't recognized?! Aside from that usually lower income familys lack good education and health care. In the US we are educated about many ways to prevent unwanted pregnancies with different methods like condoms and pills, and we are also educated on on many sexually transmitted diseases,but in many countries they have no idea these prevension methods exist or about the diseases that can be contracted by having unprotected sex.I think by educating people on these methods popultion growth can maybe be lowered atleast a little.

Lakshmi said...

The issue of world population vs. food production is very controversial. It is true that currently population is growing more rapidly than food production, but this wasn’t true until 1997. When the “Green Revolution” took place 13 years ago, this situation was the other way around and the so called “Malthus effect” had been proved wrong. Now a day, the situation has been reversed one more time and the excess of population over food is hunting us again. This brings up Malthus’ theory again, where the biggest problem is not the lack of food, or its consequences such as famine, but the “wars” that this issue carries along. Since food is not enough to suffice everybody, it gets more and more expensive every second, which implies that less people will be able to afford it and the countries will become poorer and poorer, forcing populations into war to survive. I believe that rules should be placed and arrangements made, perhaps controlling the number of children per family would be a good choice to help with the issue. But what is true is that we need to find a way before drastic options are put in practice. For instance another “World War” to thin the population and stabilized the world. But this would be an extreme solution to the problem.

Laura C. said...

The issue of the world's population and sustainability is a very scary reality. I don't know if we have the answers necessary to solve these issues. I worry about the world my chidren will inherit and their quality of life. I am teaching my kids to be mindful of our planet and we are learning different ways we can take care of it. As well as not being wasteful with any of our resources like food, water, clothes, we are recycling big time! But as each one of us does our part I have to ask, "is the rest of the world doing their part"? I don't know what the countries that can't feed their people much less stop them from having too many children, what can they do? Who is responsible? I think their govenment is responsible and unfortunately corrupt. They don't care enough to take care of their own instead they are concerned with lining their own pockets. So will we ever solve the issue of people starving around the world or get the rest of the world on the same page regarding saving the planet. I don't know but I think we better and quick!

Unknown said...

It is sad to know that just with the amount of consumption of Europe and America we have more than enough food to end hunger in the places that there are needed the most. If prospering nation were to work together we could strive to make third world country a step closer to become developing. Is all an issue of money. We can help third world country with sex education and by controlling the birth rate. It is a fact that in a couple of years the population of Sub-Saharan Africa will mainly consist of children, which in the long run will cost a bigger strain on the world. The only solution I find is to prolong the lifespan of adults thus decreasing the death rate by providing food, clean water, sex education, birth control, and education to learn how to provide for themselves.
Jessica Ledon

Jennifer Carril said...

As an American society we are very selfish, greedy and careless.The world that i am inheriting from past generations will have to face the issues of sustainability. It is a concern for us all because we do not have the answer to the question being asked. The United States is one of the most over-populated and obese countries. As a nation we continuously consume and waste our food resources. It is disappointing that we do not help provide for third world countries which have a lack of food we are abundant in. To attain sustainability our world must understand the factors that our booming population has upon the earth. Due to the fact that we have no limitations on reproduction, there is no way to contain our population unless WE as a world take our un-sustainability into consideration. We can start by discovering methods to control our waste. The US does help in times of need such as natural disasters in Haiti and Chile. However, I believe that the starvation in sub-saharan Africa is a crisis that we need to also aid in. We can contribute donations and create more services to help the cause. Although it is not a solved problem, we can begin in the process by taking little steps that are sure to make a difference.-Jennifer Carril

Kangwen said...

Population explosion seems to be such a tough issue that many people think there is no solution to it because they believe that it is human’s right to have as many children as they want. The leaders of most countries in the world have done nothing to control the population growth and as a consequence, with the nonstop high rate increase, 9/10ths of the world population sinks further into poverty, losing educational, resourcing and livelihood opportunities. I think there are solutions. Coming from the most populated country in the world----China, I have experienced how the government controls the population with the “One-Child Policy”. Some might accuse it’s harsh and against the mankind, however, humanity is not above nature and we should think about the consequences of the over-population. In the case of China, the policy has really slowed down the population growth and improved people’s lives in many aspects. So it is important for political leaders to make policies to adjust the current circumstance. On the other hand, families should start family planning. I believe every small effort will make a huge difference.

Unknown said...

Juliana Ortiz said....
As society advance scientifically and technologically, it also seems that we have forgetting about our human nature. Corporations only care about rising the zeros amounts in their accounts. As we demand better product,disregarding the fact that our environmental resources are being destroyed. Sustainability is humankind’s responsibility;but many are limited by those in power. Food companies only worry about making new products and competing with one another. They increase productivity exploiting other humans and their lands. Sometimes companies believe that using somebody else's land would not affect them; ignoring the fact that we all live in the same world. In many of our supermarkets employees through away products that still good. These employees are not allowed to take the products or give them away.There is also homeless people awaiting them outside by the dumpsters. This is not in Africa this is happening here in Miami.Therefore tarvation is not that far away. In African's countries, monarchies still use as a form of government. Many kings and their families are driving Cadillac’s, sending their kids to Harvard, going on vacation with their family, and having social reunions at their castles. According to UNICEF, 24000 children die each day due to poverty in the world, Africa is included in the higher ranks. While many of us are just waiting for the latest technological invention or throwing our food cause we going to get fat many other humans die of starvation each day.Many other are beign exploited and/or dying because the removal of fossil fuels, precious stones and minerals. Every time I eat; I have to thank God for my meals and I prayed that one day our society stop being so indolent.

Gabriel Landrove said...

The human population increases rapidly every year after year. There are currently approximately 6.7 billion people in the world and by 2050 is estimated that is going to rise to 9 billion. As a result, resources become scarcer. I don’t think it is right for us do something to reduce the increase in population, but of course we can do many little things that can help us adapt more to this circumstances. As population increases our space and food becomes more limited. Also it increases the use of finite resources such as fossil fuels and minerals, which causes pollution to increase. Our standard of living also decreases and non-renewable energy resources such as oil decreases too. More waste is also produce and if it is not handle correctly it can cause land and water pollution, affecting the agriculture production, the water supply and putting many species endangered. There are many things we should do and should not do in order to prevent the scarcity of resources and the deterioration of our environment. Handling correctly the waste is a very important because it can harm our environment if is not done properly. Protecting our species from extinction and from declining in population is also very important. The use of renewable resources is something we can do to prevent pollution and the decrease of non-renewable energy resources. Unsustainability is something we cannot have, an example of this is to try to harvest more fish than the sea can produce, which as a result there is not going to be enough fish to maintain a certain population. Deforestation is another issue that causes pollution, and it also destroys forest habitats. Forestry is what we should do instead, which is sustainable as long as forests are allowed to replace themselves, or are replanted after harvesting. Urbanisation or the growth of cities is another issue that we should do something about it, because if we don’t, then what we doing is just reducing the amount of land and resources available for plants and animals. And then that land will no longer be use for food production. Sustainable development is very important for us to practice and achieve in order for us not run out of resources as our population increases.

melissa mathe said...

To much of a good thing could be a bad thing. Our country has alot of excess and we need to start understanding the word waste. It comes down to just a misunderstanding of outside countries and how to establish proper solutions.Our society is already consuming portions way beyond we are suppose to. In regards to the population, we in my opinion need to advocate birth control abit more. There is no need to shove anything down anyones throat but just to show options and other methods. We need to just slowly but surely attempt to make small changes to our daily lives. Why not for each can we buy we buy an extra to donate. Put small portions on your plate rather than automatically getting an extra serving. There are so many forms of birth control like condoms and pills that atleast needs to be constantly taunght in poverish countries. Slow progressions will ultimately be the key

Anonymous said...

Isabelle Magloire said:This article underlines the issue about World Explosion and food sustainability. The word 'explosion'indicates the rapid rate of world demographics where due to an increasing amount of populations the ressources are scarce.Yet,still in the 21th Century people are starving for food.With the advance of technology the World particularly the Industrialized World has yet found a solution for fighting some critical issues such as hunger. If I put the Industrialized World and The Third World, less developped societies, in parallel I see abundance, waste and power in one side but in the other I see scarcity, lack and inaccessability to primary ressources. I think that due to the fact that the less powerful countries are often the ones that suffer the most from poverty and famine a strategy should be put in place. By encouraging low-income people to limit the number of children in their households should make a tremendous difference because as surprising as it is only poor people have lots of
of children to take care of. The bigger the household the more ressources it requires. I truly believe that the government or any people who are willing to make a difference should start by educating on how to avoid having too many children and on how to manage their ressources. Therefore I also encourage the Industrialized World to participate and educate its own people to manage their ressources by limiting their consumptions and to stop WASTING. We actually have one World so we better work hard to not loose it.

Ramzy said...

Wow! Some of these facts that were stated in regards to the agriculture industry are very shocking! I feel that these numbers are the ones that need to be adjusted and accounted for. 85% of human water consumption is used in the agriculture industry, I’m not a specialist but I think this is just a little much. It is also shocking that the 171 million tons of nitrogen as fertilizer in which is used in the same industry also pollutes our sources of water. In regards to population growth and food production, again I am no specialist by any means and less informed than some, but I feel the only solution is to discover or develop ulterior methods to produce the necessary resources to increase food production. One last point I will make is that other more fortunate nations are very capable of making efforts to aid less fortunate nations but many do not.

Darwin said...

The issue of population explosion and food production is something that civilizations have had to deal with in the past. There have been times of great famine before and it was up to the ruler to ensure that his subjects were taken care of. The difference today in our global society is that countries look to outside help to solve their internal problems. Some countries that have problems with over population have taken steps to ensure that they are able to meet it's peoples basic needs by putting limits on the amount of children that can be born to a family. A lot of people say that this is unjust and that these governments are depriving it's citizens of their right to bear children. These people fail to see that with this right comes the responsibility to provide for these children. Yet people in underdeveloped countries continue to produce one offspring after the other without having the resources to provide even the most basic needs for themselves, let alone a small child. One doesn't even have to look to third world countries to see examples of this. This situation is happening in inner cities throughout the United States. Individuals having multiple children that lack an education or a job leaving it up to society to provide for their needs. While I do believe that those who are well off could help to provide assistance to the less fortunate there is a limit. Individuals first have to be held responsible and take responsibility for their own welfare and that of their children. 

Max Delphonse said...

We're all can't stop the vast growing population that we have most likely everywhere on earth; but, we can try to do many things not just to prevent population explosion-rather sustainability. Primarily, the wealth nations have to provide for the poor countries. They also have to supply those poor countries with adequate information about what to do to maintain a descent economy. Equip them with suitable tools such as electronic devices, farming equipment, construction tools and so on. In fact, good resources, in term of technology, can lift up their economy and solve many other problem; such as, poverty. If those wealthy nations provide the third world countries with supplies that can help them to repair their schools, hospitals, houses including their economics, then they would have progressed to provide for themselves by doing more agriculture and other stuff. Lack of agriculture and technology are the two main issues that make many countries in poverty. That's why the wealthy nations have to take a BIG step forward in helping them out as much as they can. Majority of the third world countries don't do much export rather import. They need to obtain supplies that will help them to provide for themselves. Finally, I can’t say much about population explosion because it's not suitable to compel citizen to a maximum number of kid(s) they ought to make. It's just like you are taking their right away from them.

Max Edens Delphonse said...

We're all can't stop the vast growing population that we have most likely everywhere on earth; but, we can try to do many things not just to prevent population explosion-rather sustainability. Primarily, the wealth nations have to provide for the poor countries. They also have to supply those poor countries with adequate information about what to do to maintain a descent economy. Equip them with suitable tools such as electronic devices, farming equipment, construction tools and so on. In fact, good resources, in term of technology, can lift up their economy and solve many other problem; such as, poverty. If those wealthy nations provide the third world countries with supplies that can help them to repair their schools, hospitals, houses including their economics, then they would have progressed to provide for themselves by doing more agriculture and other stuff. Lack of agriculture and technology are the two main issues that make many countries in poverty. That's why the wealthy nations have to take a BIG step forward in helping them out as much as they can. Majority of the third world countries don't do much export rather import. They need to obtain supplies that will help them to provide for themselves. Finally, I can’t say much about population explosion because it's not suitable to compel citizen to a maximum number of kid(s) they ought to make. It's just like you are taking their right away from them.