OVERPOPULATION – MAIN THREAT TO PLANET (1) Climate change and global pollution cannot be adequately tackled without addressing the neglected issue of the world’s booming population according to two leading scientists Professor Chris Rapley, Director of the British Antarctic Survey and Professor John Guillebaud. (2) They believe that dealing with the burgeoning human population of the planet was vital if real progress was to be made on the other enormous problems facing the world. By the middle of the century, the United Nations estimates that the world population is likely to increase to more than nine billion, which is equivalent to an extra 200,000 people each day. Professor Rapley said the extra resources needed to sustain this growth in population would put immense strains on the planet’s life support system even if pollution emissions per head could be dramatically reduced. (3) “Although reducing human emissions to the atmosphere is undoubtedly of critical importance, as are any and all measures to reduce the human environmental ‘footprint’, the truth is that the contribution of each individual cannot be reduced to zero. Only the lack of the individual can bring it down to nothing,” Professor Rapley says in an article for the BBC website. (4) Professor Rapley says the explosive growth in the human population and the concomitant effects on the environment have been largely ignored by many of those concerned with climate change. “It is a bomb shell of a topic, with profound and emotive issues of ethics, morality, equity and practicability,” he says. Professor Guillebaud, who co- chairs the Optimum Population Trust, said it became politically incorrect about 25 years ago to bring up family planning in discussing the environmental problems of the developing world. The world population needed to be reduced by nearly twothirds if climate change was to be prevented and everyone on the planet was to enjoy a lifestyle similar to that of Europeans, Professor Guillebaud said. (5) An environmental assessment by the conservation charity WWF and the World – watch institute in Washington found that humans were now exploiting about 20 percent more renewable resources than can be replaced each year. (6) Professor Guillebaud said this meant it would require the natural resources equivalent to four more Planet Earths to sustain the projected 2050 population of nine billion people. (7) “The figures demonstrate the folly of concentrating exclusively on lifestyles and technology and ignoring human numbers in our attempts to combat global warming,” he said. “We need to think about climate changers – human beings and their numbers as well as climate change.” Some environmentalists have argued that it is not human numbers that are important, but the relative use of natural resources and production of waste such as carbon dioxide emissions. They have suggested that the planet can sustain a population of nine billion people or even more provided that everyone adopts a less energy-lifestyle based on renewable sources of energy rather than fossil fuels. (8) But Proffessor Guillebaud said: “We urgently need to stabilize and reduce human numbers. There is no way that a population of nine billion – the UN’s medium forecast for 2050 – can meet its energy needs without unacceptable damage to the planet and a great deal of human misery.” (Steve Connor) (A) On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer the following questions in your own words asfar as possible. Use one or two sentences only for each answer: (i) What is the pre-condition for tackling climate change and pollution according to Prof. Rapley andProf. Guillebaud? (ii) Why is the United Nation’s estimate of the world population increasing to 9 billion by the middle of twenty first century alarming? (iii) Why does Prof. Rapley call over population a “bombshell of a topic”? (iv) What solution does Prof. Rapley and Prof. Guillebaud suggest to save the planet earth from total catastrophe? (v) How can the earth sustain a population of 9 billion, according to some environmentalists? (vi) “The figures demonstrate the folly,” Which figures demonstrate which folly? (B) Find wordsin the passage which mean the same asthe following: (i) increasing rapidly (Para2) (ii) very deep or far reaching (Para 4)
Answers
Answer:
yes over population is very harmful and does not lead to a peace full day and cannot have a quite j Google it ull get the abswer
Answer:
The environment is the most valuable component of life because it enables
the existence of living and non-living things. The environment is a vast
source of resources like air, shelter, food and water. Living things are
dependent on the environment for the continuation of life. The environment
should be sacred and respected by all living things because of it is
important for survival. However, the environment is not given the respect
it deserves because there are several incidences on environmental
pollution. The pollution of environment contaminates all the resources
required to sustain the life of living things and therefore the lives are
affected negatively. The effects of environmental pollution have been
serious and harmful. The environment needs to be saved from pollution so
that the lives of living things can be saved from full destruction. Saving
the environment begins by identifying the pollutants and trying to
mitigate them. The causes of these pollutions need to be identified and
then prevented as the damage that is already done is being repaired in
order to restore the environment.
Explanation:
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