Environmental Crisis
"We Have An Environmental Crisis Because We Have A People Crisis - A Crisis of
Population Growth, of Wasteful Consumption of Resources, and A Crisis of Apathy
and Inaction."
An environmental crisis is an emergency concerned with the place in which every
human lives - the environment. A people crisis is an emergency with the
community that inhabits the world environment. A crisis of population growth is
a turning point where the environment can no longer sustain the amounts of
people which it contains. A crisis of apathy and inaction is one where the
human race cannot be motivated to solve the problems with the environment that
they themselves have created.
The claim that we have an environmental crisis because we have a people crisis
is valid because our environmental problems have largely resulted from
population growth, which has lead to apathy and inaction with regard to the
wasteful consumption of resources. Examples are the desertification of the Sahel
in Africa, the one child policy in China and the mis-management of our oceans.
The Sahel is a strip of land that extends for more than 6000 kilometres across
the southern edge of the Sahara desert. It stretches from Senegal and
Mauritania in the west to Ethiopia and Somalia in the east. These nations are
among the world's poorest.
The area is one of social and biophysical crisis because of the way the
population are forced to live; they are destroying the productivity of the land.
The alarming rate of population growth and ever increasing pressure on the land
have initiated an expansion of desert-like conditions into the Sahel - a process
called desertification.
Traditionally, the people of the drier, northern Sahel followed a nomadic
lifestyle, constantly moving their herds of cattle, sheep and goats over large
areas in the search for suitable grazing land. These movements prevented
overgrazing and lessened the likelihood of land degradation. With increasing
human numbers, the... [continues]
"We Have An Environmental Crisis Because We Have A People Crisis - A Crisis of
Population Growth, of Wasteful Consumption of Resources, and A Crisis of Apathy
and Inaction."
An environmental crisis is an emergency concerned with the place in which every
human lives - the environment. A people crisis is an emergency with the
community that inhabits the world environment. A crisis of population growth is
a turning point where the environment can no longer sustain the amounts of
people which it contains. A crisis of apathy and inaction is one where the
human race cannot be motivated to solve the problems with the environment that
they themselves have created.
The claim that we have an environmental crisis because we have a people crisis
is valid because our environmental problems have largely resulted from
population growth, which has lead to apathy and inaction with regard to the
wasteful consumption of resources. Examples are the desertification of the Sahel
in Africa, the one child policy in China and the mis-management of our oceans.
The Sahel is a strip of land that extends for more than 6000 kilometres across
the southern edge of the Sahara desert. It stretches from Senegal and
Mauritania in the west to Ethiopia and Somalia in the east. These nations are
among the world's poorest.
The area is one of social and biophysical crisis because of the way the
population are forced to live; they are destroying the productivity of the land.
The alarming rate of population growth and ever increasing pressure on the land
have initiated an expansion of desert-like conditions into the Sahel - a process
called desertification.
Traditionally, the people of the drier, northern Sahel followed a nomadic
lifestyle, constantly moving their herds of cattle, sheep and goats over large
areas in the search for suitable grazing land. These movements prevented
overgrazing and lessened the likelihood of land degradation. With increasing
human numbers, the... [continues]
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"Environmental Crisis." StudyMode.com. 10, 1999. Accessed 10, 1999. http://www.studymode.com/essays/Environmental-Crisis-2108.html.