Two Long-Term Problems: Too Many People, Too Few Trees

Two Long-Term Problems: Too Many People, Too Few Tree
-          Moti Nissani


Theme:

This essay is about two problems that are going to make people’s lives much more badly. It is possible they will destroy all life on out planet. These problems are that there are too many people in the world (overpopulation) and that our forests are being destroyed. The problems are linked because when there are too many people, forests get cut down more quickly and trees do not get replaced.

Summary:

Moti Nissani, in this thought-provoking essay “Two Long-Term Problems: Too Many People, Too Few Trees,” talks on two interrelated problems overpopulation and deforestation. He also emphasizes on the danger on eco-system caused by human activities that are creating pollution on this earth and making the earth unsuitable to live on.

In 1992, most o the Nobel Prize winner scientists came to the conclusion that the human activities have made irreversible damages on our biosphere and natural resources. If not controlled in time, the future is in serious risk of altering the present state of living creatures including humans themselves.

Danger diseases like cancer, emphysema, asthma are increasing these days in greater scale than in the previous decades. Toxic chemicals produced by men have affected children’s health and brain. We have polluted our own rivers, lakes, air, and have poisoned our food and our soil. Many of the living creatures have been disappeared already from the earth but we are producing more dangerous and harmful chemicals that may cause the disappearance of other many more species from the earth. Instead of thinking for the prevention, we come into the action when everything is ruined. Soil erosion, desertification, deforestation, floods are increased unexpectedly.

Because of the nutritious food, medicine and sanitation, the people are living longer and the population is growing out of control. To talk about Nepal, there were only 9 million people in 1951 but this number has been doubled within less than 30 years. If increased in the same rate, the population of Nepal will reach to 46 million by the year of 2026. Overpopulation not only creates pollution but it also increases crime rates and ethnic conflicts. Different kinds of environmental problems are created because of overpopulation. The most dangerous problem is the depletion of nonrenewable natural resources. But, it is not too difficult to control excessive growth of population. Modernization, literacy, media campaigns, readily available family planning measures and contraceptives, equal opportunities for women are effective methods to control overpopulation. Overpopulation causes equally dangerous problem- deforestation. People need more land to cultivate and more woods to fulfill their needs. Deforestation increases problems like soil erosion, siltation of rivers and dams, landslides, etc. The topsoil of Nepal is carried away by the rain and causes heavy floods in India and Bangladesh because of deforestation.

The number of human population is increased because of advances in nutrition, sanitation and health. The rate of deaths was higher in 50 years earlier but nowadays it is constant. That’s why, to control overpopulation, the government must bring various programmes and should run effective campaigns for awareness. The growth in population increases deforestation as well. So, moves towards participatory democracies, financial motivations for preserving forest, introduction of new technologies for recycling, and plantation in left areas can be effective methods to control deforestation. Appropriative technologies also provide support to protect forest. More efficient cooking stoves (smokeless chulo) proved successful in Nepali villages.

Population is the main problem of all environmental problems. We have the knowledge and power to control overpopulation but what is lacking is the powerful and ready hands to serve, and wisdom, courage and compassion to convert this knowledge into reality.