Population and the World Hunger Debate
The correlation between over-population and growing world hunger has become a controversial topic in today’s society. Concerns of population expansion, world starvation, and environment destruction are matters of debate and are of much concern for their outcomes affect everyone of society. The world is home to an estimated 6 billion people with more than 80 million additions every year. With this astonishing growing rate of population it is necessary to address the matter of world hunger before it is too late. The three main theories of world population and the correlation to world hunger are debatable; however, it is ultimately left to an individual to determine the truth/ answer to such
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“The extermination of thousands of species of plants and animals annually, the collapse of over two-thirds of the world’s fisheries, the loss of an estimated 24 billion tons of topsoil each year, and increasing unstable climate, faltering food security, and depletion of the protective ozone layer” (Walker, On Wall Street) will all be effected because of over-population. According to a recent UN Food and Agriculture Report, in order to meet the population demands for the predicted population in 2050, the world will have to increase food production by 75%. This increase in population will have a direct effect on the environment for more land will be needed to support additional population growth. “An estimated 420 million people live today in countries that have less than .07 hectare of cultivated land per person (the bare minimum capable of supplying a vegetation diet for one person without the use of chemicals). That number is projected to increase to 1.04 billion in the year 2025” (UN Food and Agriculture Report). Land elimination and overuse is just one example of environment degradation as population increases. As more people use the land to grow food and found communities, smaller portions of land are left to support large growing numbers of people. One aspect of the land degradation is the overuse and abuse of soil. Soil supports the growth of food with in turn supports the existence of humans. If the soil is destroyed by overuse and
More than 1 billion people in the world right now are suffering from hunger. Food security is “the access by all people at all times to the food needed for a healthy life,” as defined by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. There are four points to food security, which are “availability, access, utilization, and stability.” When one or even all these points are missing, it is described as food insecurity. The rise of food prices in 2008 shocked and affected millions of people, many of whom were very poor. Because of the rise of food prices, there were protests and hunger was put at the top of the list, although it did not stay there. Science has to understand how to deal with hunger as the problem grows. Using scientific research and changing policies can have a huge impact on the issue of hunger. Population is
In recent years, Earth’s issues have become increasingly politicized, publicized, and economically important. When you examine how the environment affects us and how we affect it, it’s easy to see that overpopulation is one of earths most pressing environmental issues.
World hunger is a very serious issue in today’s world, that is very stunning in a world full of resources and food to feed the hungry. World hunger affects millions around the world. There are 795 million malnutritioned people around the world today. The good news is that hunger is a problem that can be solved. There is enough food in the world to feed everyone. Today’s knowledge, and willing people can just be enough to solve the main issue of world hunger.
Overpopulation, pollution, global warming, climate change, genetic modification, ocean acidification, water/soil pollution, deforestation, acid rain, and ozone depletion are among some of the main factors that have a negative impact on the planet. Overpopulation is one the most concerning environmental issues currently. Overpopulation is defined as the human population of a specific area exceeding the carrying capacity. Overpopulation can occur from an increase in births mainly or a decline in deaths. Also, other factors that affect overpopulation can be an increase in immigration or a depletion of resources. It was stated by the United Nations that the worth has a total carrying capacity of somewhere between 4 and 16 billion. Currently we hold over 7 billion humans on Earth. As of 2017 the UN has increased their population predictions to 9.8 billion by 2050 and up to 15 billion by 2100. Pollution we hear about every day.
No matter how many people do claim overpopulation is not a relevant issue, it very much is because of the simple fact that starvation and pollution are very real and existing issues that are ultimately offset by overpopulation. In an article titled “Overpopulation Is Not the Problem,” author Erle C. Ellis uses the analogy “Like bacteria in a petri dish, our exploding numbers are reaching the limits of a finite planet, with dire consequences,” to argue that overpopulation is not a problem by stating the opposing claim. “We are nothing like bacteria in a petri dish,” Mr. Ellis solemnly asserts, “...these claims demonstrate a profound misunderstanding of the ecology of human systems. The conditions that sustain humanity are not natural and never have been. Since prehistory, human populations have used technologies and engineered ecosystems to sustain
World hunger is one of the many dire problems facing the human race. Although the common person probably won't have a big impact on ending world hunger, but by being aware of the issues you become empowered. It is first necessary discuss some other the myths about the reasons for world hunger. World hunger is not caused by population increase, but it is one of the factors. The global grain production is high enough to
Overpopulation can damage or even destroy the environment. The need for resources will grow with the population, but natural resources will not be produced at a fast enough pace. Man may try to produce the resources they need themselves but will there be enough space? According to Young the average person needs a minimum of 100 square feet to feel comfortable in a living space (“How Much Space Do You Really Need?”). Using the estimated population size of 2050, human living space will take up 43.8 billion square feet. Assuming most of these people live in apartment buildings so there is room for farming. Farms will need to switch out crops every year to slow down the process of soil degradation.
The author discusses factors such how population, climate change, and biotechnology affect world hunger. Author Fred Powledge is a writer whose focus is on science, namely the environment. The source of this article is BioScience, an academic journal. This is a slightly older article that was published in 2010. The article seems to contain no bias, while it does contain source work from many prominent global organizations.
Sixty percent of the world hunger is women. In developing countries, one out of six infants are born with a low birth weight. sixty-six million primary school aged children go to school hungry, most of which are in Africa with an insane twenty- three million children. World hunger is a continuing problem and to put it in perspective, count to ten and a child dies across the world because of
As time goes on the advancement in creations and technology grow to help make everyday life easier. For most living in a first world country, the thought of where will the next meal, drink, or shelter will come from is unlikely. Humans have found ways to reach the moon, send satellites into orbit, and connect with one another across the world with just a click of a button. One feasible problem is so over looked and has a general lack of awareness, and that is world hunger.
Hunger is one of the long-lasting international problems that have attracted continuous attention from both scholars and decision makers. Indeed, the history of humanity is “essentially a story of peoples’ attempts to feed themselves.” Unlike climate change, hunger is not a recent problem that people have not dealt with before. Valuable experience is learned from countries that have successfully overcome hunger, or at least those which have reduced the number of hungry people dramatically. As G. Edward Schuh suggests, we know how to solve the world’s food problem and thus to feed a substantially larger global population than we now
In the past ten years the world population exceeded six billion people with most of the growth occurring in the poorest, least developed countries in the world. The rapidly increasing population and the quickly declining amount of land are relative and the rate at which hunger is increasing rises with each passing year. We cannot afford to continue to expand our world population at such an alarming rate, for already we are suffering the consequences. Hunger has been a problem for our world for thousands of years. But now that we have the technology and knowledge to stamp it out, time is running short.
From 1970 to 1997, humanity was solving the starvation problem worldwide. The amount of hungry people had dropped from 959 million to 791 million, which is a total decrease of 168 million people. This decrease is
Education is a very powerful weapon, one that isn’t available to many however if it were, we could solve many issues within the world. The biggest and most fundamental problem which can be seen globally is, world hunger.The sad reality is that this is an issue and one that not many are talking about. In his article Frederic Seebohm proclaims that the world bank estimates “that there are now one billion absolute poor in the world” (Seebohm 5). He continues to define “absolute poor” as “those whose condition of life is so degraded by disease, illiteracy, malnutrition and squalor as to deny its victims basic human necessities” (4). The fact that there are so many hungry people in the world today is mind-boggling when you think about it. We are well into the 21st century. We now have the ability to communicate instantaneously with people all over the world. The collected knowledge of humanity, is literally at our fingertips via smartphones in our hands. Now some may assume that world hunger is still a grave issue simply because there is not enough food to feed everyone. However recently scientists who have studied world hunger, have found that the world produces more than enough food to feed everyone on the planet.The main cause of worldwide hunger is poverty. As R. C. Pickett mentions the “ the world has at present 1.5 billion hectares of arable land that remains uncultivated”(31). The problem isn’t that there isn’t enough land, the issue remains with the coordination of food production. Millions of people around the world are simply too poor to buy food. They also lack the monetary resources to grow their own food, such as the means to harvest, process, and store food.The interaction of domestic animals within the cropping systems needs to be intensively revaluated. A solution that Pickett suggests includes “governments and businesses interacting to provide a favorable price and availability structure of the necessary inputs for adequate production, and to supply needed economical processing, storage, transport, and utilization systems” (32). His solution is to aim more government intervention as he believes that much more food could be produced at least in certain areas but is not, simply because there is no
There are many reasons that may contribute to the cause of world hunger. Historically, the society will continue to change as long as there are people in the world. For what I know, the world had vastly changed from 60 years ago up to now. Whenever I’m with my grandmother, she always told me stories on how accessible and cheap it is to have food in the Philippines during her teenage life. They used to have a small pond where there are tilapia and various crops, vegetables and fruits in their backyard. This scenery was common in each household even