This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands.
- Barack Obama
This quote taken from a speech that Barack Obama gave whilst running for the presidency will go down in history as an embodiment of the vision of hope and change that gave life to his campaign. It also is an explicit reference to anti-global warming movement. Although the sentiment is profoundly noble it is rather interesting that famine is presented in the same vein as sea rise and storms, that is to say presented as a direct result of environmental issues. Famine is however a greatly complicated issue.
There are two prominent strands of thought which consider famine a natural disaster- Malthusianism and climatology. Malthusianism takes its name from The Reverend Thomas Malthus. As a concept Malthusianism is concerned with demography. The theory claims that famine is a natural check on overpopulation. Famine keeps the balance between the need for food and food supplies (Devereux 2001:117). This is a simple yet deadly equation; too many mouths to feed + too little food = famine (Arnold 1988:34).However there is no evidence to support the claim that famine regulates populations. Yet there is evidence of baby booms following famines an example being that since the Chinese famine of 1960, where 30 million died, the population has increased from 650 million to over 1 billion (Devereux 2008:177) .Therefore perhaps the most useful way to see demographic pressure is as one of the underlying factors which increases vulnerability (Devereux 2001:126). ...
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...n Devereux, S. ed. The New Famines:Why Famines Persist in an Era of Globalization, London: Routledge pp. 1-26
Deverux, Stephen (2008) 'Food Aid and Trade', in S. Devereux and S. Maxwell eds. 2008 Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa, ITDG. pp
Dréze, J. (2002) 'War and Famine', in V. Desai and R. Potter eds. 2002 The Companion to Development Studies, Arnold, pp.432-36
Madeley . J (2000) Hungry for Trade, Zed. pp 116-301
Sen, A (1981). ‘Poverty and Famines’, Clarendon Press ,Oxford pp39- 92
Smith, Ron. (2009). “Exceptional drought” covers 32 million acres in south Texas. Available: http://southwestfarmpress.com/management/exceptional-drought-covers-32-million-acres-south-texas. Last accessed 14th Dec 2010.
Wanmali, Suddhir and Islam, Yassir . (2002) 'Food Security’ in S. Devereux and S. Maxwell eds. 2008 Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa, ITDG. pp 156-159
Famine can be highly detrimental to human health and cause a lot of sickness throughout humans. It is clear that there are many biological effects caused by famine but there are also many effects on society and human agency. Famine can cause a breakdown in society and create barriers to economic growth. This can lead to dramatic changes in religions, cultural practices and the structure of government.
Following this reasoning, it could be inferred that the cyclical reduction of population through famines is a necessary condition for the efficiency of an economy. Therefore, by clearing the surplus population from the land, the market rebalances itself. So at that point, it can be suggested that a definition for overpopulation is the moment when a community is too large to maximize the efficient production of its economy; so it would need a reduction in numbers that would raise income per
In this paper I will examine both Peter Singer’s and Onora O 'Neill 's positions on famine relief. I will argue that O’Neill’s position is more suitable than Singer’s extreme standpoint. First I will, present O’Neill’s argument. I will then present a possible counter-argument to one of my premises. Finally I will show how this counter-argument is fallacious and how O’Neill’s argument in fact goes through.
Singer, Peter. “Famine, Affluence, and Morality.” Current Issues and Enduring Questions. 8th ed. Eds. Sylvan Barnet and Hugo Bedau. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 7-15. Print.
What do you think of when you hear the word “famine”? Do you think of natural disasters, of unpredictable tragedy, of innocent lives lost? Tragedy and death are inherent to the concept of starvation on a large scale, but the nature of some famines may have as much to do with politics as it does with the environment. What I expected to uncover as I began my research on the 1994-98 famine in North Korea was food shortages on a massive scale as a result of terrible growing conditions, extreme climates, unpredictable and unpreventable circumstances, for the most part. Admittedly, my knowledge of famine was limited to what I knew of the countryside of pre-communist China, where the most sustenance provided by the land the bare minimum was, and any number of external changes negatively effecting growth of or access to crops could equal devastation for entire regions. With that as my frame of reference, I was surprised by the uniquely political circumstances behind the famine in North Korea. The famine that killed 2-3 million in the 1990's was more closely tied to its independence from the southern half of the Korean peninsula it had once shared, to the fall of communism and the Soviet Union, than to any singular natural disaster. The millions that died did so as a result of their government prioritizing its independence over their survival, its budget over their sustenance. North Korea's famine was born of 1950's conflict, fueled by 1990's politics, and sustained by human error and hubris from within.
Friedman, U. (2011, July 19). What It took for the U.N to declare famine in Somalia. Retrieved
“Africa is failing to keep up with population growth not because it has exhausted its potential, but instead because too little has been invested in reaching that potential.” Paarlberg backs this claim with evidence that India’s food issue was solved with foreign assistance in development and offers that the solution to Africa’s food shortage is also development and farm modernization endorsed by foreign aid.
Gupta, A. "Stuffed & Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System." War Resisters League. N.p., Dec. 2009. Web. 04 Dec. 2013.
allow such terrible things to occur as they do in today's world: The starving in
In the six years from 1845 to 1851 the Irish Famine caused approximately one million deaths from a population of eight and a half million. It is during this period that two million Irish people emigrated with a further three million emigrating in the subsequent 50 years. Historians including Ó Gráda illustrate the longevity and significance of the Famine on Irish society, showing how the event shaped Ireland both economically and indeed politically. Although the Irish famine was not the most devastating of famines, compared to those which occurred in China 1957-62, in Bengal in 1943 and in the Ukraine in the 1930’s, which eclipse it in terms of mortality. Nonetheless, the Irish famine is unique as the proportion of the population who either died or who were forced to escape from its effects was as high as thirty-five percent of the total population in 1850. To this day, the Irish population has never fully recovered, remaining half of pre-famine levels, thus showing Ireland is still socially scarred even in 2013.
Food insecurity and poor nutrition is an alarmingly large problem for low income families, especially in developing countries. Many strategies exist to fight this problem, although not many of these address all the factors contributing to it along with all the possible solutions to solve it. In many cases, multiple strategies must correlate and work together so that all the determinants of this issue are addressed and can fight food insecurity from different angles. This essay will discuss the significance of the problem, a range of possible strategies to solve the problem, and go into detail on a select few that will correlate and work together to solve different factors of food insecurity and poor nutrition.
Former Vice President, Al Gore’s speech, The Climate Emergency, was a highly accurate prediction of the circumstances our planet would be under in coming years. The facts relevant as of 2004 are still true in the year 2015. While many companies and individuals have learned to contribute to helping our plant go greener, the dangers of the climate change are still a pressing issue supported by scientific evidence. With occurrences such as extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and ice cap disappearances, global warming is physically being show on our planet and in order to prevent a complete reversed climate on our hemispheres, the population of Earth as a whole must ban together to reduce our carbon footprint.
Overpopulation remains the leading driver of hunger, desertification, species depletion and a range of social maladies across the planet (Tal, 2013). If you look at the world, most of the countries that are dealing with these problems are due to overpopulation. Impoverished countries do not have the money or resources to help them overcome this issue (Tal, 2013). Impoverished countries also do not have the medicine or technology to even prevent the most common of illnesses (Tal, 2013). Malnutrition is also affecting humans in impoverished countries....
Without access to outside food the population in poorer countries drops and is “checked” by crop failures and famines. But access to outside food could be a problem because “if they can always draw on a world food bank in time of need, their populations can continue to grow unchecked, and so will their “need” for aid”(333). Poorer countries’ populations could surpass richer countries, then poorer countries will receive even more resources and give basically nothing, while the rich receive even less but give
Most of the affected war countries around the globe lack adequate store rooms, dependable water for farming, vegetation 's, good roads and proper way of preserving food for the people. Excellent preservation of the agricultural lands, plant and farm animals can bring a positive change in the farming systems. Most of the developing countries support only a little attention to agriculture, but they rather focus mainly on foreign goods that will earn them quick money. Agricultural investment reduces hunger and poverty than any other sectors in many countries. Investing more in the agriculture sector in most of the rural communities will reduce the number of people moving from the countryside to the cities. "The percentage of donor aid going towards agriculture dropped from 17 percent to 3.8 percent between 1980 and 2006, with only slight improvement in numbers over the last three years" (Diouf). There are plenty of fertile lands that supports plants growth but because less attention has been given to the agricultural sector, more than one million people go to bed without food. FAO "estimates that an increase of nearly $36 billion yearly will be needed for poor countries to develop the necessary infrastructure for food production" (Camacho). The agricultural sector needs more attention from the NGO 's, and the government as Buffet is giving out $3 billion to change farming and food. By