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Population growth effect on the environment
The concept of sustainable development
Environmental impacts of overpopulation
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n 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) used the term sustainable development to describe their goals, which was defined as “to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” () Sustainable development is the core value that supports any practice that places equal value on the environment, economics, and equity rather than solely on economics. The idea of sustainable development has been—and still is—subject to major criticism, because it places a limit on the actions of humans in the light of the environment and impacts on everyone else. The growth of the human population is difficult as a result of this method, which has some environmentalists challenging …show more content…
Humans farm about 38% of the Earth, one-third of that is crops, while the rest is covered by pastures and ranges for livestock. Though farms in many existing areas could be more productive. We can boost the food production via land clearing and utilizing more chemicals and water, but that would be in turn detrimental to the environment. Instead we can stop our agricultural footprint, slowing down deforestation would reduce environmental damage without majorly affecting the global food production. There is also the option to increase the productivity of the best farms, raising the yield via genetically modified crops and management. That or assist the world’s weakest farms, which can help those regions where hunger is most acute. Making use of our resources can also assist in keeping the environment cleaner, maximizing our crop output per unit of water, fertilizer and energy. Additionally humans can shift away from meat within their diets, reducing the need for pastures which grow livestock and to feed people directly. Unfortunately due to the current diets and uses of crops have multiple benefits economically and socially, but poultry, pork or pasture-fed beef is more beneficial than grain-fed beef. Finally, the obvious method is to reduce food waste. A seemingly simple and often ignored factor, leads to nearly 30 percent of the food produced in the world is discarded and wasted. In the modern world, most of this waste is accrued on the consumer’s side, where food is thrown in the garbage when not consumed. To solve this, changes in how consumptions of food can be made, such as reducing the amount of food that is produced in restaurants and food venders, which can help in benefiting our health and reduce our losses. In less developed countries, the problem lies in the producer of the
Humans are damaging the planet to live comfortably, we must change the way food is distributed worldwide, support local farmers and switch to a healthier diet in order to stop global warming. The current global has been getting better for us humans over the years, from eating bread and eggs 3 times a day in the XV century, now we can eat better than the kings of those times, however the much of the food in not healthy and the global food system still fails in getting food to every individual in the planet and in addition it contributes to the destruction of our world. Ms. Anna Lappe explains how the food system contributes to around 1/3 of the global warming issue in her essay “The Climate Crisis at the End of Our Fork”, while a group of Plos one explains the issues about the export and import of food growth over the last 50 years in the
There is much to be said about how exactly meat is being produced. In the present day, there are hardly any farms out there that still practice the traditional and environmental - friendly way. Animal agriculture is widely used all over the world and greatly contributes to climate change. Meat production leads to global warming because of the combination of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. The process of raising animal is the major source to these harmful gases. It is vital to save the world from the worst impacts of climate change by reducing meat consumption. However stopping this meat eating system is extremely difficult, given that we had been consuming meat ever since our ancestors domesticated animals for that purpose. Over the decade Animal agriculture has been getting worse and worse. In 1973 when the Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz announced ‘’ what we want out of agriculture is plenty of food’’, overproduction was encouraged and lowering the price of meat was carried out; this originally started when there was a massive increase in corn (Wolfson). In order to keep up this mass production of meat, multiple pounds of grains are fed to livestock. Livestock industries depended on corn and soy based food and used over half of the artificial fertilizer used in the United States (McWilliams).
In order for us to maintain our lives, we need to consume food to supply nutrient-needs for our bodies. As the global population increased, the demand for food also increased. Increased population led to mass production of foods. However, even with this mass production, in under-developed countries, people are still undernourished. On other hand, in developed and developing countries, people are overfed and suffering from obesity. In addition, the current methods of industrial farming destroy the environment. These problems raised a question to our global food system. Will it be able to sustain our increasing global population and the earth? With this question in my mind, I decided to investigate the sustainability of our current global food system.
A United Nations report states that land used for animal agriculture, both for grazing and production of crops fed to livestock, takes up an astounding 30% of land on Earth. ("Meat Production Wastes Natural Resources") To meet the industry’s demands, over 260 million acres of forest in the U.S. have been cleared to grow grain fed to farm animals. ("Meat Production Wastes Natural Resources") With that in mind, the meat industry also dumps disease-causing pathogens through animal waste that pollutes water and forces the need for waste lagoons to be constructed, which are susceptible to leaking and flooding. ("Facts about Pollution from Livestock Farms”) Scientists say that about 14% of the world’s greenhouse gases are released by said agriculture industries, which is a growing concern for climate change and global warming. (Silverman) The meat industry uses one-third of all the fossil fuels consumed in the United States. (Moore) There is no question that farming animals has a negative effect on the environment and steps should be taken to mitigate air and water pollution risks and future deforestation. If animal agriculture was phased out, land used for animal grazing could be returned to forest land and some of it converted into fields for cultivating crops for humans. A global shift toward veganism, resulting in the elimination of the meat and animal agriculture industries, would protect the environment from various detrimental effects.
Sustainability is a concept with a diverse array of meanings and definitions – a widely used glamorous, ambiguous, ambivalent and vague concept that is used by different stakeholder groups in various ways. Presumably to avoid noodling over a terminology or to avoid the confrontation with a definition, most widely the concept is broken down a planning process (c.f. e.g. Döring & Muraca, 2010). That is why most common sustainability is understood as sustainable development.1
“Sustainable Development: At its heart, sustainable development is the simple idea of ensuring a good quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come. It is about living within the carrying capacity of the environment so that how we live, work and enjoy leisure activities, which do not harm or put undue pressures on the environment. It is about ensuring everyone has the opportunity to have a decent education, a quality environment that they take pride in, good health and a decent job (n.p, 2014)”
According to the International Institute for Sustainable Development, sustainable development is defined as development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. If we follow this definition, it becomes easy to see that the vast majority of the “developed” world has not, and is not developing sustainably. The idea of sustainable development requires us to consider how our action of developing will affect other countries, and future generations. Many people believe in “the butterfly effect”, where the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in one part of t...
Sustainable development refers to not only meet the needs of contemporary people, but also not compromising the ability of future generations to meet development needs.Sustainable development and environmental protection have established contact, not the same. Environmental protection is an important aspect of sustainable development. The core of sustainable development is development, but requires strict control of the population, improve population quality and protect the environment for the conduct of economic and social development under the premise of sustainable use of resources.
Many people have not thought about how their actions on wasting will affect the world, but we really should stop and think about what effect wasting will have. Food that didn’t get used and “went bad” end up in landfills, and all of the solid waste produces methane gas. “Restrictions for giving away food past its sell-by date have been removed, and business owners will pay less waste tax the more they donate,” (“Focus on Quality”). Do you know why certain things are happening now, like global warming? Do you know what is helping to increase global warming? Food waste is contributing to global warming. “Agricultural production in general produces emissions, for example, by land conversion or overuse of fertilizer, emissions from agriculture cannot be completely avoided,” (“How reducing food”). Global warming is a big problem, but if we can control how much food we waste in the future, then we won’t contribute to global warming as much as we have been. Food waste starts at the farms, but it’s not as much as in homes, or when the food is in storage, or being shipped out. Over half of the food waste happens during the storage phase, when the food is being stored and waiting to go to stores, and the rest happens when the product is going to grocery stores, and houses. If we can recycle food waste, then we can reduce the amount of methane gas is being put into the atmosphere, and we can help to slow the amount of waste goes into the landfills. "We're trialling two options, one is composting food waste with green waste, the other is processing food waste only in a facility that produces biogas,” (“A
Humans have become a threat to our own way of life by consuming more resources than needed, blind to the consequences that we may face in the future. As of 2016 the world population is at 7.4 billion and it is estimated to be at 11.2 billion by the year 2100. However 10 billion is the maximum population that can be sustained in terms of food security, only one of the many factors to global sustainability. Due to the fact that human consumption exceeds the amount of resources available, the United Nations “recognizes that eradicating poverty is the greatest global challenge” in A/RES/70/1. Sustainable development is not only required to fulfill the necessities of the present but to guarantee the capability for future generations to satisfy theirs.
In class we discussed what sustainable development meant to us; each group had its own definition. Our group’s definition was that sustainable development is for the long term for future generations, for the basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter, and job. The basic will increase over time and our resources will diminish, which why sustainable development is important. Sustainable development is important for future generations so that they end up with a world better than ours. Sustainable development is achievable if society works together to meet everyone’s basic needs and create a better world.
‘Development that meets the needs of the present with the ability for the future generation to meet their own needs.’ (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987) Sustainable development requires three key components: economy, society and environment, sustainable development can be success through striking balance in those factors. These three components are indispensible, they compel to depend on each other. On the other words, we can only gain a decent and energetic environment and society if the economy is strong with a healthy a stable growth rate.
Sustainable development means that the present generations should be able to make use of resources to live better lives in such a manner that it doesn’t compromise the ability of future generations to survive and make better lives for themselves as well. For sustainable development to occur, there needs to be sustainable economic, ecological and community development. Society needs to be educated about ways in which they can use resources, especially natural, in such a manner that it doesn’t cause harm to the environment and put future generations lives at risk.
If a producer knows they are over producing they can cut back on their production. There is also a food trade model that is being tested as well. Where we can get the over excess food to other countries who may be food insufficient. Munesue explains about “The Partial Equilibrium Agricultural Trade Simulation model, developed by the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (was adopted in this study to evaluate the effects of food loss and food waste reduction on food insecurity, natural resources, and GHG emissions through the international food market.” This will give an outlet for some of the food. With the food being able to be used it should reduce the emissions given off from rotting food in the landfills. There model is showing how to reduce food waste. They want to be able to start from before and after harvest to put a stop to the waste. Munesue also states “The present study involved simulating the effects of developed countries reducing food losses and waste by up to 50 % during the postharvest handling and storage, processing and packaging, distribution, and consumption steps in response to the food price crisis, with reference to the EU reduction target of halving food wastage by 2025.” If we can reduce the amount of food that is being produced while also combatting the hunger crisis that exists in so many places we can ultimately help the environment by reducing emissions, deforestation, and water loss from over
Sustainability simply defined to me as balancing act between the development of sustainability is necessary for both planet Earth and humans to survive. This is reinforced in the World Commission on Environment and Development report (1987) that sustainable development must meet the needs of the present without compromising the well-being of future generations”. The Earth Charter Organization widened the idea of sustainability to respect for a culture of peace, universal human rights, nature, and economic justice (What is sustainability?, n.d.).