SOC450 Solutions to Global Issues
Assignment 1
Whitepaper
on the Impact of Population
There is no
question that the world’s population will grow dramatically in the next decade.
The members of the United Nations are working to understand the impact that
population growth has in developing countries. For this assignment, imagine you
have been hired by the UN to help assess the social impact of population
growth. Your first project as a consultant with the UN is to develop a
whitepaper on three issues related to the population growth faced by a
developing country of your choosing. Read the overview below, then write a
whitepaper addressing the questions below.
I. Overview
Our
obsession with continual economic growth deters us from studying the role that
an expanding population plays in global warming. (1)
About 3
billion years ago, the earth suffered a mass extinction caused by catastrophic
volcanic activity in Siberia and wildfires that covered the entire planet.
Since then, four more mass extinction events eradicated up to 80% of all
species each time. The world’s community of climatologists and scientists
overwhelmingly agree that we are now on the verge of a sixth mass event that,
over the next few tens of thousands of years, will wipe out nearly all living
species on Earth, including mankind. This is not the stuff of science fiction
or speculation, but rather the studied view of the experts who are most
qualified to make this kind of assessment. As anthropologist Richard Leaky,
author of The Sixth Extinction, wrote in 1995, “Homo sapiens might not only be
the agent of the sixth extinction, but also risks being one of its victims”
(2).
This leaves
us with two issues worth reflecting on:
1. Does the rate at which people are
reproducing need to be controlled to save the environment?
2. To what extent does human population
growth impact global warming, and what can be done about it (3)?
The answer
to the first is quite simply “yes,” but the solution to the second is more
problematic. The damage humans do to the climate is ruining the atmosphere
surrounding the planet; at the rate this damage is increasing, there will
eventually be no atmosphere left to protect life on Earth from the sun’s
ultraviolet radiation. Compared with other planets in our solar system, Earth
has mild temperatures, thanks largely to an atmosphere protected from harmful
gases. However, since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution (around 1775),
damaging gases have become stuck in the atmosphere. This causes some of the
heat radiating from the sun—that which does not exit into space—to reflect back
to Earth. The result is that oceans have become warmer, and glaciers are
melting, including parts of Antarctica. If we think of Antarctica as the
stopper in a bottle, its disappearance by melting away will release the water
it holds, raising sea levels to uncontrollable levels and flooding coastal
regions for miles inland. The two main culprits for this warming trend are
carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). These gases, called “greenhouse gases,”
are trapped by the earth’s atmosphere and, in turn, heat up the entire planet.
It is worth noting that warming oceans are killing off kelp beds throughout the
earth's oceans and coastlines at a prodigious rate. Not only do hundreds of
millions of people depend on the fish that thrive on this ecosystem, but kelp
is a natural absorbent of CO2 and purifies both the water and the air we
breathe.
A growing
population that consumes natural resources is partially to blame for the
release of greenhouse gases, as are deforestation, soil erosion, and farming
(overturned dirt releases CO2). However, the real issue is the burning of
fossil fuels (hydrocarbons) such as coal oil and natural gas, which is produced
by the organic remains of prehistoric organisms. The release of
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) such as refrigerants, propellants in aerosol sprays,
and solvents contributes heavily to the depletion of the ozone layer in the
earth’s stratosphere. At the current rate at which these gases and CFCs are
released into the atmosphere, affecting the earth’s ecosystems and level of
biodiversity, the earth’s surface temperature will increase by about two
degrees Fahrenheit. This will cause a change weather patterns across the globe.
In December 2017, the World Bank stated, “Climate change is an acute threat to
global development and efforts to end poverty. Without urgent action, climate
impacts could push an additional 100 million people into poverty by 2030” (4).
Sources:
1. George Gitlitz. 2018. Opinion: The
pernicious climate dictum–don’t mention population. https://www.berkeleyside.com/2018/06/19/opinion-the-pernicious-climate-dictum-dont-mention-population
2. Gemma Tarlach. 2018. Mass Extinctions.
http://discovermagazine.com/2018/jul-aug/mass-extinctions
3. Larry LeDoux. 2018. Does Population Growth
Impact Climate Change. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/population-growth-climate-change/
4. Bill McKibben. 2018. A Very Grim Forecast.
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/11/22/global-warming-very-grim-forecast/
II. Assessment
The world’s
population is expanding at a such a fast rate that some natural resources are
being stripped from the environment. Global institutions are working to prevent
both the loss of these resources and the consequences of not having access to
them.
In this
first assignment, research the impact of population growth on society. Write a
whitepaper for the UN that consists of a minimum of four pages (not including
the cover letter). Your assignment is to assess the impact of population
growth, citing at least five credible sources in your research. As you compose
the whitepaper, review the United Nations list of developing countries
(available on the United Nations website).
Select one
country from the United Nations list of developing countries to use as an
example throughout your assignment. The completed version of this assignment will
include the following items:
Cover page:
Include your name, course title, the country you have selected from the UN list
of developing countries, current date, and the name of your instructor.
Introduction:
Introduce the topic of the whitepaper (half-page minimum).
One-page
(minimum) answers (for a total of three pages) to each of the following
questions:
What are
greenhouse gases, and how do they contribute to global warming?
What
economic, security, political, and other challenges do these emissions pose to
the people of the developing world, and who are the biggest offenders?
Is there a
way to control the growth of population on a global level?
Note: Give
examples in your responses to each of the above questions as it relates to the
developing country you have chosen.
Conclusion:
Provide a minimum of a one-half page conclusion.
Cite at
least five credible sources excluding Wikipedia, dictionaries, and
encyclopedias for your assessment. A brief list of suggested resources has been
provided at the end of the course guide.
This course
requires use of Strayer Writing Standards (SWS). The format is different
compared to other Strayer University courses. Please take a moment to review
?the SWS documentation for details. (Note: You’ll be prompted to enter your
Blackboard login credentials to view these standards.)
The
specific course learning outcome associated with this assignment is:
Evaluate
the impacts of population growth and its negative impacts on global societies
while considering multiple perspectives.
Grading for
this assignment will be based on answer quality, logic/organization of the
paper, and language and writing skills, using the following rubric:
SOC450 Solutions to Global Issues
Assignment 2
Whitepaper
on Food Security
The members
of the United Nations found great value in the whitepaper you provided on
population growth. They are now asking you to expand the whitepaper to include
global food security as it relates to population growth and poverty. Read the
overview and provide an assessment based on the questions below.
I. Overview
We can
define global food security as the effort to build food systems that can feed
everyone, everywhere, and every day by improving its quality and promoting
nutritional agriculture (1). That said, there are certain practices that can
advance this project:
Identifying
the underlying causes of hunger and malnutrition
Investing
in country-specific recovery plans
Strengthening
strategic coordination with institutions like the UN and the World Bank
Encouraging
developed countries to make sustained financial commitments to its success
We must
bear in mind that more than 3 billion people—nearly one-half of the world’s
population—subsist on as little as $2.50 a day, with nearly 1.5 billion living
in extreme poverty on less than $1.25 a day. According to the World Health
Organization, the United Nations, and other relief agencies, about 20,000
people (mostly children) starve to death in the world every day, for a total of
about 7 million people a year. In addition, about 750 million (twice the
population of the United States) do not have access to clean drinking water,
meaning that some one million people die every year from diarrhea caused by
water-borne diseases.
The earth’s
population has grown since it reached 7 billion in 2010. It is expected to
reach 8 billion in 2025, 9 billion in 2040, and 11 billion by the end of the
21st century (2). If the demand for food is predicted to rise 50% by 2030 and
70% by 2050, the real problem is not necessarily growing enough food, but
rather making that amount available to people. Moreover, food illnesses are
prevalent, with nearly 600 million reported cases of foodborne diseases each
year. These mainly affect children but can also negatively impact the
livelihood of farmers, vendors, trade associations, and ultimately, can reduce
the Gross Domestic Product (national income) of a country. These issues can
impose tremendous human, economic, social, and fiscal costs on countries, so
addressing them allows governments to devote more resources to making
desperately needed infrastructure improvements that raise the quality of life
for everyone.
It is not
enough to have adequate supplies of food available. Policies that focus
exclusively on food production can exacerbate the problem, particularly if, to
satisfy the need for quantity, the quality of the food is left wanting.
Reasons for
Food Insecurity
Certainly,
poverty and the contributing systemic internal conditions are the driving
factors behind keeping adequate food resources from reaching people, but it is
only one of several. Others are discussed next.
Inadequate
Food Distribution: The reality is that there is more than enough food in the
world to feed its people, but the primary cause of famine is not poor weather
conditions as much as it is getting the food to the people who need it most.
Quite often, disruptions in food distribution result from political instability
and poor infrastructure (such as poorly functioning port facilities, lack of
transportation options, and inadequate road networks). Paradoxically, although
the world’s population is increasing, the amount of potential food available
will increase along with it, due mostly to advances in bio-agricultural
engineering and seed immunity to molds.
Writing in
the late 18th century, Thomas Malthus warned that the global population would
exceed the earth’s capacity to grow food, in that while the population would
grow exponentially, food production would grow only arithmetically. Although
this theory was proved invalid, its propagation has unfortunately resulted in
some governments rationalizing political choices that avoid helping the
poverty-ridden and starving.
Political-Agricultural
Practices: The widespread use of microbiological, chemical, and other forms of
pesticides in food continues to be a serious issue throughout the global food
chain. Widespread use of fertilizers also causes illness in millions of people
every year, not only from the food itself, but from run-off into streams and
rivers, contaminating entire water supplies. The human, social, fiscal, and
economic costs of such practices impede improvements not only in the raising of
crops, but in their distribution. Added to this, the rising demand in developed
countries for biofuels, refined mostly from corn and soybean, reduces the
amount of arable land devoted to producing food.
The failure
of many farmers in the developing world to rotate their crops harms the replenishing
of nutrients necessary to continue growing crops. In addition, neglecting to
allow land to remain fallow exhausts the soil, making it much more difficult to
raise a decent amount of food per acre the following growing season.
Economic
Issues: The fact is, government policies that focus on growing cash crops, for
example, are designed solely to export them to earn foreign exchange. This may
be fine for the government in its effort to earn money, but the result is that
farmers end up growing for foreign markets and not domestic ones, leading to
shortages of necessary staples. Consequently, the poorest of the population are
frozen out of the local markets because they cannot afford the food that
remains to be sold (3).
Civil
Strife: Civil war can interrupt the flow of food from gathering depots, such as
ports, to distribution centers where it can be handed out to people. During the
1990s, Somalia was particularly hard hit by their civil war, as clans fought
for control of the main port at Mogadishu, which affected the flow of food to
the rest of the population. In this case, as with many civil wars, whoever
controls the supply of food controls the country. In failed and failing states
like Zimbabwe, Congo, Haiti, South Sudan, Yemen, and Libya, food is very often
another weapon used by one segment of the population against another.
Sources:
1. Peter Timmer. 2015. Food Security and
Scarcity: Why Ending Hunger Is So Hard. Foreign Affairs magazine.
2. The United Nations Population Division.
2017. World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision.
https://www.un.org/development/desa/publications/world-population-prospects-the-2017-revision.html
3. Will Martin. November 2010. Food Security
and Poverty: A Precarious Balance. Let’s Talk Development blog by The World
Bank. http://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/food-security-and-poverty-a-precarious-balance
II. Assessment
The issue
is not the lack of food in the world, but the access to food. In many
developing countries, the food shortage is due to governmental control over
food. These governments maintain control and preference by limiting access of
nutritious food to certain groups, thereby weaponizing food.
In this
second assignment, research the impact of poverty on global food security and
the potential technological solutions. Write a minimum of four pages (not
including the cover letter) assessing the impact of food insecurity. Select one
country from the United Nations list of developing countries to use as an
example throughout your assessment. The completed version of this assignment
will include the following items:
Cover page:
Include your name, title of course, name of the developing country you have
chosen from the UN list, current date, and the name of your instructor.
Introduction:
Introduce the topic of the whitepaper (half-page minimum).
One-page
(minimum) answers to each of the following questions (for a total of three
pages):
What is
food insecurity, and what role does population growth play in it?
What
specific factors interrupt the flow of food from the source to the people in
the developing country you selected?
What forms
of technology can be used to reduce hunger and improve food security? Explain
how these technological solutions would work.
Note: Give
examples in your responses to each of the above questions as it relates to the
developing country you have chosen.
Conclusion:
A one-half page (minimum) conclusion.
Cite at
least five credible sources excluding Wikipedia, dictionaries, and
encyclopedias for your assessment. A brief list of suggested resources has been
provided at the end of the course guide.
This course
requires use of Strayer Writing Standards (SWS). The format is different
compared to other Strayer University courses. Please take a moment to review
?the SWS documentation for details. (Note: You’ll be prompted to enter your
Blackboard login credentials to view these standards.)
The
specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:
Propose a
plan to address the issue of global food security in underdeveloped countries
that considers the impact of prior solutions.
Grading for
this assignment will be based on answer quality, logic/organization of the
paper, and language and writing skills, using the following rubric:
SOC450 Solutions to Global Issues
Assignment 3A
Many of the
UN members are not satisfied with the progress of the Millennium Development
Goals. They believe that the goals focus on the wrong issues. There is a
disconnect between the types of issues the developed countries in the UN
believe are priorities versus the issues that developing countries of the UN
want to prioritize. For example, the country of Burundi has requested that one
of the goals be focused on food security. However, Austria is adamant that the
major current global issue is to mediate ceasefires within countries
experiencing a civil war.
You have
been asked to provide an unbiased perspective and identify the four issues that
have the biggest impact on the global environment.
Of the
eight major threats listed below, choose the four that you consider the most
critical.
|
Energy sources
|
Civil war
|
|
Globalization
|
Poor health of entire populations
|
|
Lack of educational opportunities
|
Cultural taboos
|
|
Inappropriate uses
of technology
|
Climate change
|
You will
present your findings at the next UN General Assembly. Your goal is to provide
a brief history of each issue, the number of countries affected, and the
effects of this threat on the world population.
The
completed version of this assignment will include the following:
A
PowerPoint presentation containing relevant information for the UN General
Assembly on four of the eight threats listed above.
The order
of your slides should reflect the order of priority you assign to the four
threats you have chosen.
Create a
minimum of four slides per threat (for a minimum 16 slides total) on the
following topics:
A brief
history of the threat
The number
of countries affected, and how they are affected (giving examples)
The effects
of this threat on the world population as a whole
Include a
chart or graph (see #4 below).
Each of the
four slides will include:
A paragraph
in the notes section to explain how the details you have provided in the slide
is pertinent to the UN’s discussion on selecting and prioritizing goals.
For each of
the four threats, include one visual (graph or chart) to represent the data you
have collected. The visual should be incorporated into the information/topics
presented in the slides.
Cite at
least five credible sources excluding Wikipedia, dictionaries, and
encyclopedias.
For
information on how to complete the required assignment deliverables in
PowerPoint, please refer to your Lynda.com account or reach out to your
instructor ahead of time.
This course
requires use of Strayer Writing Standards (SWS). The format is different
compared to other Strayer University courses. Please take a moment to review
?the SWS documentation for details.
(Note:
You’ll be prompted to enter your Blackboard login credentials to view these
standards.)
The specific
course learning outcome associated with this assignment is:
Examine the
factors that account for why the growth in the world’s population can
negatively affect the global society.
Grading for
this assignment will be based on answer quality, logic/organization of the
presentation, and language and writing skills, using the following rubric:
SOC450 Solutions to Global Issues
Assignment 3B
Threats
Defense Argument
The
information you provided in your presentation on Threats to the Global Environment
has led to productive debates at the UN General Assembly! There are now
questions about prioritizing the issues at hand. Some of the countries are
challenging your recommendations and questioning your reasons for not including
the issues they believe are priority.
From the
initial eight global threats, there are four remaining threats that you did not
choose in the list of major global issues. Review the list of topics and
reflect on two that you did not use in last week’s assignment. Defend your reason
for considering these topics lower in priority than the ones in your
presentation.
Energy
sources
Civil war
Globalization
Poor health
of entire populations
Lack of educational
opportunities
Cultural
taboos
Inappropriate
uses of technology
Climate
change
The
completed version of this assignment will consist of the following:
Select two
threats from the list above that you did not use in your Assignment 3a
presentation.
Create a
minimum two-page document in which you outline a counterargument for the two threats
you selected:
Write an
opening statement describing the perception of each threat.
Write one
paragraph for each threat (two paragraphs total) in which you give three
reasons to explain why the threat is less of a priority to the global
environment than the four you selected in Assignment 3a. Support your reasons
with at least three credible sources.
A
conclusion statement for each threat.
Cite at
least three credible sources excluding Wikipedia, dictionaries, and
encyclopedias for your assessment. A brief list of suggested resources has been
provided at the end of the course guide.
The
specific course learning outcome associated with this assignment is:
Examine the
factors that account for why the growth in the world’s population can
negatively affect the global society
Grading for
this assignment will be based on answer quality, logic/organization of the
paper, and language and writing skills, using the following rubric:
