Global Problems Require Global Solutions - Essay Example

Global problems require Global solutions The problem of global warming is one of the most important for the world today as it affects the global population. The increase in population creates a consumer demand for goods and services produced with natural resources, and the increased impact on forest and lands are mounting. Deforestation is one of the problems affected by global warming and human activities. Deforestation is a global problem because it influences many countries and nations, and cannot be solved by one state or a nation. Thesis The problem of deforestation as a result of global warming which requires global solutions and changes in industrial policies and laws. Brazil has taken the leading position among Latin American countries in pursuing the application of the policy initially called agro-ecological zoning, but today known as socioeconomic and ecological zoning. The purpose of this strategy is to take into account the resource potential of a particular geographical area and to determine the appropriate human activity to be pursued in that area. The principle is not new, but there is an innovation in Brazil: a new kind of legislation to guarantee that the zoning is being applied and carefully followed. This legislation, through economic incentives, state services, and infrastructure, will support the economic activity for each zone1. People will be moved to comply with the zoning as a result of their best interest and not as a consequence of police and other control actions. In this situation, political issues to achieve conservation of the forests is vital and is now becoming more evident in Latin America and in the Amazonian countries2. Nevertheless, these countries are still not ready to make hard or unpopular social and political decisions to change financial support to reflect the cost of forest conservation. With rising global warning problems in Latin America and the Caribbean, new projects should receive main concern from the countries in the region, even given their currently difficult financial situation. All new projects will go through an environmental analysis in order to reduce or lessen possible negative ecological effects3. There are many aspects of the agricultural land intensification issue. For example, most of the land used for cattle ranching is not truly suitable for grasslands. It is generally suitable for agriculture and is, in fact, usually the best land available in the Amazon. It is thus important that policies be implemented that promote policies and strategies of reconversion of cattle ranchland into agricultural land. Reconversion will allow many more people to earn a good living than under the present land use pattern. if the state wants people to live comfortably in the agricultural zones, it needs to have a good road system to extract the products and to ensure that they get to market at a competitive price. River transportation also needs to be improved. The financial incentives for inappropriate activities in the Brazilian Amazon have been removed, and that is going to have a very important impact on the future4. It is also important to discuss forest management in the areas that should be maintained as forest. Forest management is not easy, but it is possible and should be done. There are a few successful examples in Latin America, such as the Ticoporo National Forest in Venezuela, which has been successfully managed for more than forty years. Between the extremes of full deforestation and selective extraction and natural regeneration there are hundreds of options suited to every territory and every ecosystem such that there are no technical reasons not to manage a tropical forest5. The explanations for failure to manage are based on social or economic considerations. For instance, people may suppose that a forest is abandoned during the thirty- to fifty- year rotation that is necessary to manage a natural forest. There is a need to explain to the local population what managing a forest entails; they must understand and participate. Conducting a coherent development program in the Amazon territory is very difficult, especially because people are not informed enough of what the Amazon is and what can indeed be done there that today Brazil is at the vanguard of the changes—the deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon is much less severe than in the Peruvian, Bolivian, or Ecuadorian Amazon6. Brazil wishes to engage the industrialized countries in a cooperative effort to preserve the environment. In May 1989, at the United Nations Environmental Program meeting, the Third World asked for assistance with environmental protection and economic development enhancement, access to scientific information and environmental research, development of environmentally sound technology, creation of technology transfer mechanisms, and financing at terms for environmental programs. The industrialized countries should take into account these proposals7. Currently, only the developing nations make such proposals, while the industrialized nations are more conservative. Second, assuming that the industrialized nations are affected as much, the industrialized nations would need assurances that this type of arrangement would guarantee conservation. The situation in the Amazon is out of control. Anyone could guarantee conservation in return for large sums of capital. The researchers also doubt that Brazil could achieve its goal of reducing deforestation by half. One side of the problem is the link between the environment and underdevelopment of the region, which has been discussed extensively from many perspectives and viewpoints. The other side is much more important for the whole planet, and that is the relationship of development, economic maturity, industrially advanced societies, and ecological issues8. These patterns of consumption cannot be changed unless the present levels of global warming and negative impact on the land persist on a worldwide scale. In the industrialized world— that is, the centrally planned economies and the market-oriented economies—the consumption of oil, coal, and natural gas is sixteen times greater than the consumption in the underdeveloped countries. The main problems of the environment are thus linked to energy consumption. The biggest and most threatening of all environmental issues is nuclear weapons. The countries that have nuclear weapons may not simply threaten the environment; they may eradicate life on the planet. These same countries have huge chemical weapons arsenals, and this is another facet of the environmental equation9. In sum, for global warming and deforestation, indigenous technology is not a panacea—there is no panacea for tropical rainforest destruction—but it has been totally neglected on the research agendas of major agriculture funding institutions. In view of the shred of evidence that critics have about its potential utility in achieving sustainable agriculture, we should pay more attention to it than we have. Global warming and deforestation requires a global approach based on sustainable environmental policies and control over natural resources. The rural poor of the Third World, at least in Latin America, are not to be blamed to the extent that they have been for the deforestation that is taking place there. Those governments play a critical role, through their policies and economic models, in determining how those forest lands are used, abused, or neglected. Bibliography Avery, D.T. Unstoppable global warming: every 1,500 years. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2007. Bailey, R. Global warming and other eco myths: how the environmental movement uses false science to scare us to death. Prima Lifestyles, 2002. Gelbspan, R. Modest proposal to stop global warming” Sierra, May/June (2000), 82-85. Goldenberg, S. The recent increase in Atlantic hurricane activity: Causes and implications. Science 293 (2000): 474–79. Lomborg, B. The Skeptical environmentalist, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Read More