There is no question that the world’s population will grow dramatically in the next decade. The members of the United Nations are working to understand the impact that population growth has in developing countries. For this assignment, imagine you have been hired by the UN to help assess the social impact of population growth. Your first project as a consultant with the UN is to develop a whitepaper on three issues related to the population growth faced by a developing country of your choosing. Read the overview below, then write a whitepaper addressing the questions below.
I.Overview
Our obsession with continual economic growth deters us from studying the role that an expanding population plays in global warming. (1)
About 3 billion years ago, the earth suffered a mass extinction caused by catastrophic volcanic activity in Siberia and wildfires that covered the entire planet. Since then, four more mass extinction events eradicated up to 80% of all species each time. The world’s community of climatologists and scientists overwhelmingly agree that we are now on the verge of a sixth mass event that, over the next few tens of thousands of years, will wipe out nearly all living species on Earth, including mankind. This is not the stuff of science fiction or speculation, but rather the studied view of the experts who are most qualified to make this kind of assessment. As anthropologist Richard Leaky, author of The Sixth Extinction, wrote in 1995, “Homo sapiens might not only be the agent of the sixth extinction, but also risks being one of its victims” (2).
This leaves us with two issues worth reflecting on:
1.Does the rate at which people are reproducing need to be controlled to save the environment?
2.To what extent does human population growth impact global warming, and what can be done about it (3)?
The answer to the first is quite simply “yes,” but the solution to the second is more problematic. The damage humans do to the climate is ruining the atmosphere surrounding the planet; at the rate this damage is increasing, there will eventually be no atmosphere left to protect life on Earth from the sun’s ultraviolet radiation. Compared with other planets in our solar system, Earth has mild temperatures, thanks largely to an atmosphere protected from harmful gases. However, since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution (around 1775), damaging gases have become stuck in the atmosphere. This causes some of the heat radiating from the sun—that which does not exit into space—to reflect back to Earth. The result is that oceans have become warmer, and glaciers are melting, including parts of Antarctica. If we think of Antarctica as the stopper in a bottle, its disappearance by melting away will release the water it holds, raising sea levels to uncontrollable levels and flooding coastal regions for miles inland. The two main culprits for this warming trend are carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). These gases, called “greenhouse gases,” are trapped by the earth’s atmosphere and, in turn, heat up the entire planet. It is worth noting that warming oceans are killing off kelp beds throughout the earth’s oceans and coastlines at a prodigious rate. Not only do hundreds of millions of people depend on the fish that thrive on this ecosystem, but kelp is a natural absorbent of CO2 and purifies both the water and the air we breathe.
A growing population that consumes natural resources is partially to blame for the release of greenhouse gases, as are deforestation, soil erosion, and farming (overturned dirt releases CO2). However, the real issue is the burning of fossil fuels (hydrocarbons) such as coal oil and natural gas, which is produced by the organic remains of prehistoric organisms. The release of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) such as refrigerants, propellants in aerosol sprays, and solvents contributes heavily to the depletion of the ozone layer in the earth’s stratosphere. At the current rate at which these gases and CFCs are released into the atmosphere, affecting the earth’s ecosystems and level of biodiversity, the earth’s surface temperature will increase by about two degrees Fahrenheit. This will cause a change weather patterns across the globe. In December 2017, the World Bank stated, “Climate change is an acute threat to global development and efforts to end poverty. Without urgent action, climate impacts could push an additional 100 million people into poverty by 2030” (4).
Sources:
1.George Gitlitz. 2018. Opinion: The pernicious climate dictum–don’t mention population. https://www.berkeleyside.com/2018/06/19/opinion-the-pernicious-climate-dictum-dont-mention-population
2.Gemma Tarlach. 2018. Mass Extinctions. http://discovermagazine.com/2018/jul-aug/mass-extinctions
3.Larry LeDoux. 2018. Does Population Growth Impact Climate Change. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/population-growth-climate-change/
4.Bill McKibben. 2018. A Very Grim Forecast. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/11/22/global-warming-very-grim-forecast/
II.Assessment
The world’s population is expanding at a such a fast rate that some natural resources are being stripped from the environment. Global institutions are working to prevent both the loss of these resources and the consequences of not having access to them.
In this first assignment, research the impact of population growth on society. Homework help – Write a whitepaper for the UN that consists of a minimum of four pages (not including the cover letter). Your assignment is to assess the impact of population growth, citing at least five credible sources in your research. As you compose the whitepaper, review the United Nations list of developing countries (available on the United Nations website).
Select one country from the United Nations list of developing countries to use as an example throughout your assignment. The completed version of this assignment will include the following items:
Cover page: Include your name, course title, the country you have selected from the UN list of developing countries, current date, and the name of your instructor.
Introduction: Introduce the topic of the whitepaper (half-page minimum).
One-page (minimum) answers (for a total of three pages) to each of the following questions:
What are greenhouse gases, and how do they contribute to global warming?
What economic, security, political, and other challenges do these emissions pose to the people of the developing world, and who are the biggest offenders?
Is there a way to control the growth of population on a global level?
Note: Give examples in your responses to each of the above questions as it relates to the developing country you have chosen.
Conclusion: Provide a minimum of a one-half page conclusion.
Cite at least five credible sources excluding Wikipedia, dictionaries, and encyclopedias for your assessment. A brief list of suggested resources has been provided at the end of the course guide.
This course requires use of Strayer Writing Standards (SWS). The format is different compared to other Strayer University courses. Please take a moment to review the SWS documentation for details. (Note: You’ll be prompted to enter your Blackboard login credentials to view these standards.)
The specific course learning outcome associated with this assignment is:
Evaluate the impacts of population growth and its negative impacts on global societies while considering multiple perspectives.
Grading for this assignment will be based on answer quality, logic/organization of the paper, and language and writing skills, using the following rubric:
Global Warming situation
Kenya is a developing country located at the eastern side of Africa. It has a population of about 48million people. Just like any other developing nation, Kenya has been a casualty of massive increase of green house gases into the atmosphere, which absorb infrared radiations thus retaining heat energy and contributing to random climate changes. Kenya, much the same as other creating nations, is innocently a casualty of global warming. Its high reliance on atmosphere touchy horticultural creation abandons it in an unstable position.
On environment, Kenya committed to reduce its carbon emissions by 30% before it gets to 2030. This is on the grounds that nations, for example, Kenya need funds and other resources to safeguard a clear roadmap to the ambitious environment commitment. atmosphere fund, innovation and limit. As of now, there has been expanded recurrence and unpredictable climate patterns, for example, dry spells and floods, has hit numerous areas the nation over. This is representing an issue to the country’s agenda on: affordable housing, manufacturing, universal healthcare and food security. It likewise undermines achievement of the Vision 2030 Development Goal. Poor people, ladies and kids are the most vulnerable population groups because of their low versatile limit. For example, in 2016, Marsabit region lost around 60 percent of its animals.
Of late occasions, the country has encountered an extremely strange climate design that is eccentric, in that when individuals expect a heavy downpour it doesn’t but rather it gets extremely hot. The meteorologists experience considerable difficulties predicticting the climate, for instance, when they anticipated that an El Niño would happen in 2014 rather nothing at any point occurred.
Kenyans have continuously been cautioned against the impact of deforestation by global associations, for example, the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) yet the alert has constantly been ignored. The country observes the water towers such as Mau Forest being cleared to make way for human settlement. The end result for the deforestation is deserted land, the country failed to stick to its policy of; cut one tree plant two.
Because of the ascent of temperature, catastrophes continue deteriorating as the clock continues ticking. That is the reason in Kenya, continues to see prolonged droughts followed by successive floods because of streams busting their banks. In the recent couple of days, the country has encountered extraordinary warmth that can prompt radiations caused skin diseases the country has also experienced less or no rainfall in most areas that depend on the rain for subsistence agriculture.
Because of harm of the Ozone layer, contamination turns out to be increasingly uncontrolled defiling the air. This prompts diseases, for example, asthma or even lung malignant growth. It can likewise decline states of those experiencing heart maladies and increasing the mortality rate and lowering life expectancy. A decent report case is the most exceedingly awful contamination that occurred in China 2015 that prompted loss of an expected 1.1 million people.
The Kenya Administration, in any case, is looking for better methods for managing the prolonged dry spell through empowering farmers in dry areas to grow and cultivate drought resistant crops and burrowing boreholes for individualized and their domesticate animals consumption.
Despite all the challenges, there are mitigations that can be pursued by Kenya to control the menace of global warming. Leading and developed nations state they need an atmosphere bargain, yet they burn through billions of dollars of taxpayers ‘ cash sponsoring the development of coal and gas as the reserves for energy. G20 nations should set a timetable for eliminating non-renewable energy source endowments, with a restriction on investigation and generation sponsorships by 2018.
Kenya is ineffectively served by a system to finance climate policies where more than 50 sources of funding do very little in mobilizing funds for investments in climate. Subsidizing for adjustment must be expanded and united. Offices for financing alleviation and supporting low-carbon advancement – strikingly the Clean Technology Fund and the Scaling Up Renewable Energy in Low Income Countries Program – ought to be rebuilt to be increasingly receptive to Africa’s opportunities and wants.
Kenya, speculators, and worldwide monetary establishments should fundamentally scale the energy investments with a focus on renewable sources of energy to open Africa’s potential as a worldwide low-carbon superpower. A ten times increment in power age is required to give all Africans access to power by 2030. This would lessen neediness and disparity, support development, and give the atmosphere authority that is distressfully absent at the universal dimension. Africa’s creative ‘energy business people’s are as of now catching the venture openings over the region.
Kenya’s frameworks for energy are wasteful and vile. They give financed power to the rich, but not the same for the poor. Governments should act to accomplish all inclusive access to power by 2030, which implies giving access to an extra 645 million individuals through associations with the framework or decentralized scaled down network or arrangements that are off the grid. Each legislature should outline ommunitie that need get to and recognize the best courses for conveyance. Better and increasingly accessibility to reliable power can likewise control up Kenya’s agribusiness. The authority can partner with the private sector and come up with policies and plans that can ensure people get energy at affordable rates and especially to those who live on less than $2.50 daily as they have been marked as the people living below the poverty line.
As within the world’s most quickly urbanizing continent Africa, Kenya has chances to grow progressively smaller, less dirtied urban areas, close by more secure and increasingly productive open transport. Economies of scale and rising urban salaries can possibly extend open doors for giving sustainable power source and accomplishing all inclusive access to fundamental administrations. Connecting Kenyan urban areas to the developing scope of worldwide city systems, including the “C40”, could open new open doors for trading learning, building limit and giving fund. Multilateral organizations, governments and help providers should cooperate to fortify the financial soundness of urban areas, while creating imaginative associations for clean energy.
Kenya, being a major highlight in global warming debates remains to lose on the off chance that it neglects to achieve an arrangement in environmental pacts that confine a dangerous atmospheric deviation to 2˚C. Yet, Kenya might lose will lose the most – in light of the fact that they are the most helpless. An unnatural weather change has exacerbated the atmosphere chance that Africa has since quite a while ago confronted in view of its abnormal amounts of foundation neediness, its frail framework and its absence of social welfare.
Environmental activism and fundamental human solidarity need global efforts to contain all the challenges the country is facing. Kenya as a country has done little to cause the rapid climate change and is innocently a victim, its contribution are just 4% of the world’s aggregate. In any case, it is as of now confronting the most noticeably terrible impacts of environmental change
.
Sources
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/12/5-steps-to-save-africa-from-climate-change/
https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/big-read/2018-10-10-global-warming-why-kenya-is-among-countries-at-crossroads/
