Free sample - Overpopulation and its negative consequences. translation missing

Overpopulation and its negative consequences. Overpopulation and its negative consequencesThe United States has been rated as the most populous country after China and India and is estimated to have a population exceeding 265 million. Further, statistics indicate that the country’s population is growing at 2.5 million people per year; hence the United States is one of the world's fastest-growing industrialized nations. For instance, in 1994, there were approximately 3.95 million births versus 2.29 million deaths in the United States, resulting in a net natural increase of nearly 1.7 million. Net immigration therefore stood at approximately 816,000 people. By 2050, the country's population is projected to increase by approximately 130 million people whom critics place as the equivalent of adding another four states the size of California. However, for such an industrialized country, it experiences one of the largest cases of unintended teenage pregnancies indicated by 60 percent of pregnancies and 40 percent of births. The world’s population is currently approximated to be growing at 74 million people every year and projections put forward by the United States indicate that the world’s population shall hit the 9.0 billion mark by the year 2050 assuming the projected decline in fertility rate of 2.65 children per woman shall decline to 2.05. This decline is projected under a comparative analysis since the 1950’s was double this rate at 5 children per woman. The less developed countries such as Uganda, Nigeria and Pakistan are expected to account for the largest quota of 5.3 billion with a world’s population of 7.8 billion. The United States however is an exception to this since it’s expected to grow by 44% from a population of 305 million in the year 2008 to 439 million in 2050. Global life expectancy has also increased from 46 years in 1955 to 65 years in 2000-2005 and is projected to rise to 75 years in 2045-2050. Population increase in more developed countries wil l further be boosted by high immigration rates whereby the net immigration rate is projected at 98 million. Further, deaths are projected to exceed births in developed nations by 73 million by 2050; international immigration shall play a key factor in the net population increase. By 2100, the Unite States population is expected to be at 3,145,049,297. This essay therefore endeavors to show that overpopulation is a major problem in the United States and further discusses its social, economic, political and environmental impact. There are various merits and challenges of overpopulation. The resultant advantages are however few and it has largely been detrimental to various aspects such as the environment. The large population has largely driven consumption and demand for various goods and services higher. This therefore has created a vibrant market which has boosted the country’s economy. Already, demand for beef and grain has reached staggering levels. In fact, the per capita grain consumption in the United States is four times higher than that in less developed nations. Rapid population increase has prompted the growth of megacities and rapid urbanization. By 1800, only 3% of the world’s population lived in cities. 47 percent of the world’s population had already migrated into cities by the twentieth century. In 1950, there were already 83 cities with a combined population exceeding 1 million. In 2007, this had risen to 468 agglomerations. In 2000, there were 18 megacities and conurbations such as New York City with populations exceeding 100 million. Greater Tokyo already has a population of 35 million which exceeds Canada’s entire population. By the year 2025, Asia alone shall have over 10 hyper cities each with a population exceeding 20million such as Jakarta with 24.9 million. Currently, cities the world over hold 3.2 billion of the population which is expected to rise to 5 billion by the year 2030 whereby 3 out of every 5 people are expected to live in cities. In the next 25 years, most melodramatic changes are expected to t ake place in developing countries. This however may not be positive in its totality since cities encourage the rise of shanty towns which are breeding sites for drug addiction, crime, alcoholism coupled with problems such as high unemployment rates, poverty resulting in high child and infant mortality rates and diseases due to poor sanitation, malnutrition and poor basic health care. Currently, one billion people, which is one-sixth of the world's population and a representative of one-third of the overall urban population, lives in shanty towns and is expected to rise as urbanization and the consequent industrialization sets in. There are however multiple challenges resulting from overpopulation. The greatest challenge of them all is the unavailability of adequate fresh water for domestic purposes as well as sewage treatment and effluent discharge. This has prompted nations such as Saudi Arabia to use highly energy-intensive desalination to solve water shortages. The world over, 1 billion people cannot access a clean glass of water every day. This has resulted in the starvation to death of 10 million children and 8 million adults. These water shortages have not been limited to other nations only. Contrary to popular belief of immunity to this critical problem by the United States citizens, various states have experienced water shortages. Atlanta, Georgia has exceeded its water carrying capacity in the past 4 years yet its population is expected to double from the current 8.2 million to 16.4 million. In Florida, wells have been sunk resulting to the environmental hazard of sunk holes. Yet, homes and malls are rapidly being built and the population is expected to double from 18 million to 36 million by the year 2050. This is truly absurd and uncalled for. In Colorado, 11.5 billion gallon annual shortfall is estimated in contrast to a projected population growth of 5-6 million by 2050. Therefore, Colorado’s water resources shall not only be unable to support humans but also animals and crops. In Denver, 2 million residents are expected to settle in the state by 2050.This shall also greatly strain its water resources. However, the State of California shall be worst hit with an addition net population increase of 1700 a day and 400 vehicles a week! The Colorado River is the chief source of water for desert states such as Arizona, Nevada and California but with the projected population growth rates, the environmental impact on this vital water resource shall wipe it out.A strain on natural resources has been documented in a recent study carried out by the United States Geological Surv ey. Deforestation and the loss of ecosystems which sustain the oxygen –carbon dioxide balance has been greatly tampered with. Estimates show that eight million hectares of forest are lost annually the world over. This has ultimately resulted in global warming, the irreversible loss of arable land and desertification. Over 2 billion hectares of arable land have already been lost with a projection of an annual loss of 16 million. In Nigeria alone, 351000 hectares are lost annually due to the expanding population’s activities. Research projects that the United States has lost 90 percent of its northwestern old-growth forests, 50 percent of its wetlands and 99 percent of its tall grass prairie in the last 200 years. Most mass species have become extinct or endangered especially in tropical forests due to human activities such as slash and burn practiced by rapidly expanding rural populations. It is estimated that around 140,000 species are lost annually. An IUCN Red List i ndicates that 717 animal species have become extinct during recorded human history. Fossil fuels have been largely depleted driving energy costs higher. Estimates indicate that 51% of the world’s fossils are used by China and USA. There is a higher contrast in that Americans constitute 5% of the world's population yet they consume 25 % of the world's energy. Pollution has been a key effect resulting from overpopulation. Air, water, soil and noise pollution has risen significantly in the last century. Approximately 39% of rivers, 46% of lakes and 51% of estuaries in the United States are still too polluted for safe fishing or swimming. Pollution caused nearly 20,000 beach closings in 2004, the highest level in 15 years. Already in Florida’s Boynton Beach pollution due to overpopulation has resulted in the demise of the popular Florida coral reefs. This is the United States only continental reef system which extends from Boynton Beach to Delray Beach. This is due to the flushing of water from canals which contains high nitrogen and phosphorous levels from the land and sewage. Therefore, fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides used on lawns, agriculture and golf courses ends up in the water courses. While pollutants such as ammonia may evaporate, they eventually end up in the lake through rain. This results in marine eutrophication since these substances encourage the growth of algae which kills both hard and soft corals. Consequently, tourism has declined by 25 percent. These are the world’s environmental treasures and they deserve to be protected. In 2004, 31 states had statewide fish consumption advisories in place because of toxic pollution. The EPA’s Wadeable Streams Assessment found that 42% of all U.S. stream miles are in poor condition. More than half of those found in the eastern portion of the U.S. and 40% of those in the central region are considered to be in poor condition. According to American Rivers and the website healthyrivers.org, eighty percent of streams contain insecticides, drugs, or other chemicals. During 2002 and 2003, in just Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and Missouri, pollution in rivers and streams killed 3.5 million fish. The numbers of miles of rivers containing fish that may be harmful due to pollution, increased from 2% to 14% from 1993 to 2001. Waterborne germs and p arasites cause an estimated 7.1 million mild-to-moderate cases of infectious disease in the U.S. annually. Every year more than 1.2 trillion gallons of untreated sewage, storm water and industrial waste are discharged into U.S. waters.   The Environmental Defense Fund reports that 80% of the cancer risks from air pollutants nationwide are from mobile transportation sources. As cities and suburbs continue to grow at record pace, pollution emitted by commuters will only grow worse. About 70 percent of the heavy construction equipment used in California in 2005 was old enough not to have to face any emission control regulations, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. In 2004, fine particle pollution exceeded the annual and daily national health standard at air quality monitors in 55 small, mid-sized, and large metropolitan areas located in 21 states and home to 96 million people. Therefore, overpopulation, as a way to curb pollution, needs to be taken care of. Finally, governing an overpopulated country presents a load of problems. Since the economy is stretched to the breaking point, civil wars are likely to break out over farmland. These wars lead to underdevelopment since industrialization and urbanization is greatly neglected. The government has to sell vital fossil fuels at cheap prices to raise cash in order to cover rising national debts. In Queensland, Australia, the politics of overpopulation are already boiling over. In the United States, numerous campaigns and awareness programs have already started which are also putting pressure on the government to act on overpopulation. Overpopulation is therefore a major problem in The United States and the world over. Man does not need land for standing on only as this may be the case by 2100. Major steps such as birth control, economic incentives such as those successfully implemented in China whereby women with less than 2 children are rewarded, removing tax write-offs for large families and employing birth control and family planning methods should be put in place. This shall go a long way in ensuring that Mother Earth is able to sustain her population in coming years.

Museum Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Museum Assignment - Essay Example A tablet known as a cuneiform was majorly used for this purpose to keep records of special events like marriage or even some form of certificate (Cunningham & Reich 345). Generally, the art is classified according to various historical periods the first of which is the Achaemenid Persian empire between 550-330 B.C where art was mainly carvings of animals and gods. This was followed by the Akkadian period between 2900-2350 B.C and art was done on a tablet almost resembling cuneiform tablet done by the majority population of Semites in the region. The last major historical art development was in the 3rd millennium B.C, it was more civilized and in some cases, art was done on metal. The items are preserved in museums like the metropolitan art museum consisting of pottery, bronze horse-like art and even silver vessels. The sculptures were not just for aesthetic purposes, but were also for other purposes (Winter 432). For instance, we have looked at it as a way of storing information and such information are likened by the author as current text books used in schools for educational purposes. Both Winter (543) and Stockstad (31) agree on pieces of art as being important sources of historical happenings. In the near east, they are used to depict civilization for example the improvement from utilizing wood to metal. The kind of art changed from horse carts and animal labor to a more improved form of transport in the near east. Art keeps evolving and is an important source of intrigue in different

History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 86

History - Essay Example Critical thinking is paramount in our day to day lives and provides us with an intellectual approach that facilitates us to choose from the available kind of information what is relevant and applicable in our lives and leave out the rest. The class has enabled me to look at present day as a stepping stone onto the future and that fifteen years from now, the world will have undergone massive transformations ranging from health, infrastructure and the general well being of society (Fea, 2013). Lastly, understanding historical events is essential for effective understanding of the condition of man. This will permit man to build and may also be important in initiating change upon a secured foundation. The most significant determinant of history is time. Time creates history and history exists because of time. And in conclusion, history is situated in time-space, which anchors the cosmos together, framing both the past as well as the present (Fea,

Black People and James Baldwin Essay Example for Free

Black People and James Baldwin Essay In Toni Morrison’s â€Å"Recitatif,† the story is about two girls, Twyla and Roberta. They grow up in an orphanage because their mothers could not care for them. Morrison makes it clear the girls come from different ethnic backgrounds but never states which one is black or white. At one point in the story Twyla comments, â€Å"We looked like salt and pepper. † I grew frustrated with the story and had to read it several times. I could never determine who was black and white and the lesson I learned should have been it doesn’t really matter. The story begins with Twyla’s mother dropping her off at the orphanage. She meets Roberta and they become best friends. The bond they share occurs because they were not considered real orphans. They were abandoned kids unlike the other children whose parents had died. One of the last times the girls see each other was the day of a visitation. On that night, Twyla’s mother was wearing â€Å"those tight green slacks that made her butt stick out. † Many people have labeled blacks as having larger butts. She could have been black, she could have been a heavy white woman with a large butt, or a Hispanic woman like me. But I automatically stereotyped and went with Twyla has to be black. During the visitation Roberta’s mother â€Å"had brought chicken legs. † Twyla notices Roberta does not eat the chicken legs. I always thought black people liked chicken more than white people which means Roberta was white since she did not eat the chicken. Or maybe she just wasn’t hungry. Shortly after that visitation Roberta’s mother came to take her home, leaving the girls devastated. They see each other several times throughout the years. At their first meeting, Roberta was rude and distant because she was high. Roberta tells Twyla she is on the way to see Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix was an infamous black guitarist. I thought at this point Roberta has to be black. However Hendrix’s band was interracial with a diverse audience. Roberta could have been white due to the diverse audience. I am a huge Hendrix fan and I am not black so why would I think Roberta is. Twelve years later they meet again at a grocery store. Roberta married a rich man and was extremely friendly to Twyla. Twyla cannot hold back her emotions and asks Roberta about the last time they saw each other. Roberta shrugs it off, â€Å"Oh, Twyla, you know how it was in those days: black—white. You know how everything was. † I can relate to this. In 1980, the Cuban Mariel Boat Lifts came over bring thousands of Cubans. I am Cuban but I was born here. Kids I had known since kindergarten treated me as if I just come over on the boats. It had a lasting effect on me and matured me beyond my years. The third time they meet is at the school where their children attend. Roberta and other mothers were picketing because they did not want their kids to be segregated. This led to a fight severing any last chance of a friendship for them as it would not be resolved until Twyla and Roberta meet for a final time. As the story ends I do not get a sense of closure. The question of which girl is white or black remains unanswered. It opened my eyes and made me question how prejudice I really am. I try to not stereotype as a result of what I went through as a child but I found myself doing just that. I can understand why Morrison wrote the way she. I am not sure what her goal was overall but to me it seemed as if she were teaching me about prejudices. â€Å"Recitatif† challenged me to not judge either girl by their race but accept them for who they are. In the end, what difference did it really make about the girls’ races? The story is about how their friendship develops and then deteriorates. Nothing more; nothing less.

1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia Essays -- Architecture Hist

Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia 1876 Opening day of the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia was a spectacular festival of flags, music, and a one-hundred gun salute. After President Grant gave his opening address, the signal was given to unfurl and raise every flag and insignia simultaneously on the entire fairground. A chorus of one thousand began to sing, accompanied by an orchestra and chimes, and the barrage of one hundred rifles symbolized a century of independence for the United States of America (McCabe). This was the first major international world's fair in North America, and while many foreigners argued the United States did not have anything to show, the country shone through displaying its growth into a major industrial power. Philadelphia, the location of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, was chosen as the site for the fair. Its central location also played in its favor. The Building Committee hired twenty-seven year-old H. J. Schwarzmann as chief engineer. He not only planned the layout of the grounds, but also designed Memorial and Horticultural Halls, the two structures intended to be permanent. The fairgrounds were about two miles north-west from the center of Philadelphia, across the Schuylkill River in a portion of Fairmount Park. One of the world's largest municipal parks, it was devised in 1682 by the founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn. As he was navigating the Schuylkill River, Penn noticed a grand bluff and exclaimed, "What a faire mount!" (Klein). The natural park-like setting, and the proximity to colonial Philadelphia, created a unique atmosphere for the fair. The two artifacts depicted here are a bird's eye view showing the main buildings of the exhibition, and a map ... ... system, and public services. On the last day of the Exhibition, John Welsh, the president of the Centennial Board of Finance, said good-bye: "Our work has its place in the annals of the nation. If the memories of it be pleasant to our countrymen, we have done well." (Maass). Looking back at the exhibition's accomplishments, it is fair to say they did well. Works Cited Armstrong, Lilian. Renaissance Miniature Painters and Classical Imagery. Harvey Miller Publishers. London, England. 1981. Klein, Esther M. Fairmount Park. Harcum Junior College Press. Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. 1974. McCabe, James D. The Illustrated History of the Centennial Exhibition. The National Publishing Company. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1975 Post, Robert C. 1876: A Centennial Exhibition. The National Museum of History and Technology Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. 1976.

Data Preprocessing Essay

Data Preprocessing 3 Today’s real-world databases are highly susceptible to noisy, missing, and inconsistent data due to their typically huge size (often several gigabytes or more) and their likely origin from multiple, heterogenous sources. Low-quality data will lead to low-quality mining results. â€Å"How can the data be preprocessed in order to help improve the quality of the data and, consequently, of the mining results? How can the data be preprocessed so as to improve the ef? ciency and ease of the mining process? † There are several data preprocessing techniques. Data cleaning can be applied to remove noise and correct inconsistencies in data. Data integration merges data from multiple sources into a coherent data store such as a data warehouse. Data reduction can reduce data size by, for instance, aggregating, eliminating redundant features, or clustering. Data transformations (e. g. , normalization) may be applied, where data are scaled to fall within a smaller range like 0. 0 to 1. 0. This can improve the accuracy and ef? ciency of mining algorithms involving distance measurements. These techniques are not mutually exclusive; they may work together. For example, data cleaning can involve transformations to correct wrong data, such as by transforming all entries for a date ? eld to a common format. In Chapter 2, we learned about the different attribute types and how to use basic statistical descriptions to study data characteristics. These can help identify erroneous values and outliers, which will be useful in the data cleaning and integration steps. Data processing techniques, when applied before mining, can substantially improve the overall quality of the patterns mined and/or the time required for the actual mining.

Impact Of A Group On An Individual s Life Experience

What are the impacts that a group has on an individual’s life experience? We use Socialization to see how group’s impact an individual mind set in society for their beliefs and values and determines how a person will behave in society, it begins as a child all the way thought adulthood. We can see that being born in a certain class in society determents your success in life. We can see that less wealthy family teaches their children to be obedience due to the fact that they will not have many opportunities; while wealthy family teaches their children to be creative because they will have more opportunities given to them in life. People are categorize base on class and race this limit are opportunities in society, for black man can’t don’t have many opportunities given to them and are mostly going to be unemployed or poor. For many people base on their environment they may end up to being a crime or being wealthy and that nature and nurture plays and impor tant part in making an individual. Families are impacted our life as individuals as well, we see that a child with a dysfunctional family whole tends to be isolated from society due to the fact of the lack of human contact and abuse; it leads and individual to become a social outcast within society, but it may also lead to an aggressive relationship with other out their family or within the family; although that may not always be the fact for one aggression. 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