Environmental Threats Essays -- essays research papers

Contemporary Issues Environmental threats Overpopulation Every 20 minutes, the world adds another 3,500 human lives but loses one or more entire species of animal or plant life - at least 27,000 species per year. ZGP July 1999 World population growth peaked at about two percent per year in the early 1960s. Latest population figures indicate that the rate of growth has slowed to 1.33 percent annually, equivalent to 78 million people a year. UNFPA 1999 The highest world population growth rate was 2.04 percent in the late 1960's. This year, it is about 1.31 percent. NY Times World population growth is equivalent to around three babies every second. UNFPA '99 New inhabitants add the equivalent of a city the size of San Francisco to world population every three day The world population is growing fast and the effects of this are  food shortages  exhaustion of farm land and soil erosion  insufficient power supplies  social un-rest and war  immense pressure on welfare system and national benefits  crime due to lack of space and jobs The world in the future will be able to support less NOT more people this is due to carefully farmed areas losing there top-soil (the cause is over farming), but the world needs more and not less food so larger fields are required but these large fields allow soil and wind erosion to happen more quickly. Fertilisers only speed up this erosion e.g. America (Arizona) land is useless and dusty because of the chemicals poisoning the land. Also in places such as Egypt where the water supply is irrigated from underground water supplies, the water contains mineral salts, which will slowly poison the land. We can say that overpopulation can effect the police in a dramatic way, as the ratio between a police officer and the public is increasing. This can effect the police officers productivity and effectiveness in dealing with crime. We can say that Public services in general are under-funded, this in part can be blamed on the amount of people not paying tax (asylum seeker's, unemployed, O.A.P's). I.e. as science grows so do length of years people live as dose the funding which is required to keep these people (pension, benefits) which could be spent on Public services. The Police Federation's research found: London has 25,121 officers, one for every 290 ... ...that â€Å"any conclusion upon the safety of introducing genetically modified materials into the UK is premature, as there is insufficient evidence to inform the decision-making process at present.† There are concerned that consumption of the maize will lead to an increased resistance to antibiotics in human and animal populations. The testing carried out on GM foods is inadequate. Quite often the testing is carried out by the companies themselves that seek to benefit financially from the product. Releasing genetically modified organisms into the environment represents 'genetic pollution'. There are long held concerns about the transfer from genetically engineered crop plants to wild relatives to create 'superweeds', which could out-compete and disrupt the natural biodiversity of an area. Many GM crops are also able to crossbreed with neighbouring crops. Government research concluded that crossbreeding would be â€Å"inevitable†. Critics argue that we do not know enough about the way genes operate and interact to be sure of what the outcome of any modification will be. They worry that the alterations could accidentally lead to substances that are poisonous or trigger allergies.