Rights of the Unborn in the UK and EU Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Rights of the Unborn in the UK and EU - Essay Example is that continuing with the pregnancy involves a greater risk to the physical or mental health of the woman, or her existing children, than having a termination. Abortion of up to 24 weeks is allowed if there is a substantial risk that the child when born would suffer "such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped. The second condition is that an abortion must be agreed by two doctors and carried out by a doctor in a government-approved hospital or clinic. The right to life of the unborn was historically protected by British laws on abortion. The English common law did not prosecute for abortions performed before quickening. In 1803, with Lord Ellenboroughs Act, Parliament enacted statutes overriding this relatively lenient stance (Potts Diggory, and Peel 1977). In 1861 Parliament passed the Offences against the Person Act. Section 58 of the Act made abortion a criminal offence, punishable by imprisonment from three years to life even when performed for medical reasons. Two laws, the Infant Life Preservation Act 1929 and Abortion Act of 1967 provided the exceptions to this 1861 Act. In 1929, the Infant Life Preservation Act amended the law stating it would no longer be regarded as a felony if abortion was carried out in good faith for the sole purpose of preserving the life of the mother. The Act made it illegal to kill a child capable of being born alive, and enshrined 28 weeks as the age at which a fetus is presumed to be viable. Th e Act allowed a doctor to perform an abortion legally if he/she was satisfied that the continuance of the pregnancy was liable to endanger the health of the expectant mother. In 1938, the Bourne case unfolded. The Bourne case concerned a young woman was gang raped by a group of soldiers and became pregnant. Dr Alec Bourne agreed to perform an abortion for her and was subsequently prosecuted. The judge agreed that forcing her to continue with the pregnancy would have been tantamount to wrecking her life. This

Personal Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Personal Ethics - Essay Example In addition, she worked to assure that patients under her care were healthy. Her critical thinking of Environmental Theory dramatically revolutionized the nursing methodology in which sanitary conditions for patience became a focal point for all nurses. As a nurse, it is imperative to provide the utmost care to patients especially in the realm of elderly. As a nurse, one must understand that not nurturing elders can be against the moral standards of a nurse. Elderly neglect is one of the most prominent issues that needs to be addressed in modern society. It is clear that every year, an estimated 4 million older Americans are victims of neglect. Elderly neglect has been an issue not only in nursing houses but also in other aspects. Conducive research indicates that for every case of elder abuse and neglect reported to authorities, experts estimate as many as 23 cases go undetected. The quality of life of older individuals who experience abuse is a critical element because elderly often feel neglected which may cause physiological trauma that is definitely not healthy. This physical trauma can be a huge element as much research also suggests that older people who have been abused tend to die earlier, which is a huge concern. For the elderly, it highly imperative that they don’t experience this short of emotional trauma in their later years. From my personal perspective, nursing are majority in charge of handling patient’s nutritional status. Most patients that are sick tend to lose weight and must be supplemented with proper amount of food and nutrients. Conducive research indicates that as many as 65% of elderly patients are malnourished when they enter the hospital while in the hospital. Without having the proper nutritional assessment, it is highly illogical and difficult to monitor their status. Morally, they must have the right to

Implementation of Wireless Receiver Algorithms

Implementation of Wireless Receiver Algorithms Figure 1 System Specifications (Tsimenidis, 2016) Figure 2 Message format (Tsimenidis, 2016) Figure 3 Non-coherent receiver (Tsimenidis, 2016) Figure 4 Coherent receiver (Tsimenidis, 2016) Figure 5 Receiver Front-End (Tsimenidis, 2016) Figure 6 Frequency response of a passband filter (Tsimenidis, 2016) Figure 7 Band-pass filter response Figure 8 Band-pass filter input/output Figure 9 Implemented DPSK demodulator (Tsimenidis, 2016) Figure 10 Low-pass filter input/output Figure 11 Optima sample time diagram Figure 12 Symbol with 40 samples (Tsimenidis, 2016) Figure 13 Early-Late sample at an arbitrary point (Tsimenidis, 2016) Figure 14 Early-Late sample at the maximum point of power (Tsimenidis, 2016) Figure 15 Early-Late symbol synchronization input/output Figure 16 Result of non-coherent receiver detection Figure 17 IQ Downconverter (Tsimenidis, 2016) Figure 18 Sine and cosine table graphs Figure 19 Index control flow (Tsimenidis, 2016) Figure 20 Filter comparison (Tsimenidis, 2016) Figure 21 Down-conversion: x3I vs. x3Q counter clockwise Figure 22 Down-conversion: x4I vs. x4Q counter clockwise Figure 23 x6I vs. x6Q Figure 24 Averaging approach to overcome the jitter (Tsimenidis, 2016) Figure 25 Code to solve the jitter Figure 26 Principle of the differential detector (Tsimenidis, 2016) Figure 27 Constellation without Phase Offset (dI Vs dQ) Figure 28 Result of coherent receiver detection using differential coherent demodulator Figure 29 BPSK and DPSK BER comparison (Tsimenidis, 2016) Figure 30 Costas Loop algorithm (Tsimenidis, 2016) Figure 31 Costas loop: yQ vs. yI Figure 32 Message obtained using Costas loop Figure 33 BER comparison of different modulation schemes and techniques (Sklar, 1983) This project is focused on implementing and coupling several functional blocks that will allow us to detect, extract and decode a wireless message that is being broadcasted in the Merz lab of computers. In the following sections, we will find the implementations of coherent and non-coherent receivers. In the section 1 we define the basic background knowledge that will be commonly used in the posterior phases of the report. We define the basic structure and features of the transmitter as well as the message format that the system is intended to detect. Finally, we define what is a coherent and a non-coherent system and provide a classification about the different techniques. In the section 2 we will analyse the non-coherent receiver implementation from the message acquisition, going to the filter section, signal scaling and refinement, using a DPSK demodulator to define the probable symbols represented, then establishing a synchronization for the symbol and finally presenting the message obtained. The section 3 will focus in the realization of a coherent receiver, considering two possible variations on this type of implementation: the first will be developed using a differential coherent demodulator, in this technique we will not recover the carrier signal. The second implementation of this receiver, will be done using a carrier recovery technique, which is in this case a Costas Loop Algorithm. Some common blocks are done in all the possible implementations that were carried out during this project: the first is the receiver front-end which is the responsible to acquire and prepare the signal for the posterior processing. To recover the symbol synchronization, we use a technique called early-late gate, this will let us know what is the most convenient instant of the time to sample the signal. For the case of coherent signal, we must adapt this technique to apply it separately for the signal I (in-phase) and Q (quadrature). The section 4 contains analysis, conclusions and discussions of the results obtained during the realization of the phases. The last sections of the report detail the references used for further explanations and the different programs used for implementing each block. In each section, we include little further explanations that could be referred to understand the steps and details that have been done in the corresponding section. 1. Background knowledge 1.1. Aims and objectives The focus of this project is to demonstrate the implementation and the behaviour of data links using Radio Frequency as media and different techniques. Basically, we use two techniques: coherent and non-coherent implementations. A further explanation of these techniques will be done in the following sections. A second implementation of a coherent receiver will be carried out by using a phase recovery technique with the Costas Loop and coupling the posterior phase to this block. The specifications of the system to be implemented could be defined as a set of blocks connected as follows: Figure 1 System Specifications (Tsimenidis, 2016) Where the transmitter has been already implemented, therefore the work will be carried out in the receiver algorithm to obtain the final data, which of course must be in a human readable format. We also must consider that the format of the message that is being broadcasted wirelessly in the Merz lab has the following format: Figure 2 Message format (Tsimenidis, 2016) 1.2. Digital modulation The digital modulation process refers to a technique in which the digital representation of the information is embedded in a signal, a carrier typically a sinusoidal signal, in such a way that this information will modify an established parameter of the signal. We can define a sinusoidal carrier in a general way as a signal that will correspond to the equation: Where the information could be embedded in this will be called amplitude modulation, if the parameter this will be called frequency modulation and finally the phase modulation will be obtained if we embed the data in the expression. Regard to the symbol this is called the angular frequency, it is measured in radians per second, this is related to the frequency (f) expressed in Hertz by the expression. 1.3. Coherent and non-coherent detection Considering the receiver side, we can classify the demodulation or detection based on the use of the carriers phase information in the process of information recovery. In the case that the receiver uses this information to detect the signals it will be called coherent detection, and non-coherent detection otherwise. This are also called synchronous and asynchronous detection, respectively. Coherent Non-Coherent Phase Shift Keying (PSK) Diferential Phase Shift Keying (DPSK) Frecuency Shift Keying (FSK) Frecuency Shift Keying (FSK) Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK) Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK) Continuous Phase Modulation (CPM) Continuous Phase Modulation (CPM) Figure 3 Non-coherent receiver (Tsimenidis, 2016) Figure 4 Coherent receiver (Tsimenidis, 2016) 2. Non-coherent receiver 2.1. Receiver Front-End This segment of the non-coherent receiver will consist of the first two blocks, which are common for both coherent and non-coherent implementations. Figure 5 Receiver Front-End (Tsimenidis, 2016) The first block is the responsible to take a sampled input expressed as bits, represent it as a float number and then normalise it to a range +/- 1.0. The second stage applies a bandpass filter to the signal, this will attenuate the parasites components of frequency that could contaminate the signal that we received. Figure 6 Frequency response of a passband filter (Tsimenidis, 2016) To design the passband filter we must consider the following information: let = 4800 Hz, data rate = 2400 bps and sampling frequency = 48000 Hz. These assumptions, led us to the following results: Lower passband cut-off frequency: = = 3600 Hz Upper passband cut-off frequency: = + = 6000 Hz Lower stopband cut-off frequency: = = 1200 Hz Upper stopband cut-off frequency: = + = 8400 Hz The implementation of the filter will be done using the sptool command of Matlab, using the above defined values as parameters for the filter. The following figure shows the result obtained in the realization of the lab, considering the number of filter coefficients of 101. Figure 7 Band-pass filter response Figure 8 Band-pass filter input/output 2.2. DPSK demodulator To implement the non-coherent detection, we are going to use a DPSK demodulator, which was previously categorized as a non-coherent technique. The DPSK demodulator will take advantage of two basic operation that occur on the transmitter: the first is the differential encoding, and the second is the phase-shift keying. In the transmitter, the signal will be advanced in phase, with respect to the current signal, if the symbol to be sent is 0, and the phase will be preserved if the bit corresponds to 1. In the side of the receiver, we have memory that will be able to compare the phase of two successive bit intervals, i.e. it determines the relative difference in phase of these two, determining the correspondent symbols without the need of having information about the phase of the signal in the transmitter. Figure 9 Implemented DPSK demodulator (Tsimenidis, 2016) The FIR matched filter block will correspond to a low-pass filter, this is required because the demodulation process, as it is a multiplication between two sinusoidal signals, will generate a low-band signal and a high-band signal, where the second one should be filtered. 2.3. Symbol synchronisation The symbol synchronisation, also called symbol timing, is a critical process that consists in the continuous estimation and update of information of the symbol related to its data transition epochs. This is a critical process that must be conducted to keep the communication accuracy in acceptable levels. Broadly speaking, the synchronization techniques could be classified in two groups: open-loop and closed-loop. The chosen technique for this project corresponds to the Early-Late Symbol Synchronization which is a closed-loop type. The most popular technique is the closed-loop synchronization because Open-loop synchronizer has an unavoidable nonzero average tracking error (though small for large SNR, it cannot be made zero), a closed-loop symbol synchronizer circumvents this problem.(Nguyen Shwedyk, 2009) The corresponding results of the output of the demodulator are the following figures, these corresponds to the signals before and after the signal is filtered with the FIR low-pass filter. Notes: The curve in blue corresponds to the signal containing the high-frequency parasite component, and the curve in red shows the result of filtering the high frequency component, i.e. this is the output signal of the filter. The symbol correspondence is: symbol 0 for positive numbers, and symbol 1 for negative magnitudes. Figure 10 Low-pass filter input/output 2.3.1. Early-late Symbol Synchronization (Reed, 2002) The algorithm Early-late used for synchronization is supported by the idea that the sample of a symbol must be taken in the time where the energy is maximum, this will warranty a minimum error probability. This algorithm exploits the symmetry of the signal, neglecting the distortion and noise. Considering the following figure, we can see that the optimal time to take the sample, identified as T, should be in the halfway between two points T0 + d and T0 d, if the power in the T0 + d and T0 d is, ideally, the same. Figure 11 Optima sample time diagram Suppose the following figure shows a symbol, we can notice that if we take an arbitrary sample, e.g. n=3 and depending on the thresholds, could be wrongly interpreted as 0, however the most appropriated value is 1. Figure 12 Symbol with 40 samples (Tsimenidis, 2016) With a buffer size of 20 registers, we can notice that in the following figure the power levels of the signal for n=0 and n=19 are different, then we need to move the whole buffer one space to the right. Figure 13 Early-Late sample at an arbitrary point (Tsimenidis, 2016) If we continue with the iteration and we follow the rules described in the flow diagram, we will converge in a finite number of iterations, where we can see that the result is located as expected, this could be seen in the following figure. Figure 14 Early-Late sample at the maximum point of power (Tsimenidis, 2016) The results of the application of this algorithm for our case are shown in the following figure: Note: The signal in red is the input of the early-late symbol synchronization block and the signal in blue is the value of Em that will finally determine the value that the symbol is representing, in each case. Figure 15 Early-Late symbol synchronization input/output 2.4. Frame synchronisation As was stated in the in the background section, the message frame will begin with the characters ++++ and the message has 72 bytes encoding the message using a ASCII characters. Therefore, this section will deal with two tasks: (1) Detect the message preamble and (2) Decode byte per byte of the data contained in the payload. After the preamble section, we will detect 576 bits, corresponding to the 72 bytes that correspond to the ASCII characters. These characters will be dumped into an executable file that will then show the message that has been detected and decoded. The specific implementation of the algorithm is attached in the appendix section of this report. 2.5. Results and evaluation The result of applying the steps described in the sections from 2.1 to 2.4, we obtain the message, getting the result showed in the next figure: Figure 16 Result of non-coherent receiver detection 3. Coherent receiver The coherent receiver, also called synchronous receiver, implies certain degree of agreement or knowledge about parameters used in the transmitter side. For the case of the project, we have a signal of type DPSK, i.e. the codification is contained in the variation of the phase of the signal. 3.1. IQ Down-converter The aim of this component is to decompose a complex signal in terms of its in-phase and quadrature elements. To achieve this decomposition, we are going to perform the implementation using lookup-table oscillators, i.e. that for a given signal in-phase and quadrature components will be obtained by using the definitions given by: Figure 17 IQ Downconverter (Tsimenidis, 2016) Upon these definitions, the components that we obtain could be represented in two separated graphs, each one of them representing a different component table. Figure 18 Sine and cosine table graphs As for the index control of look-up table, we decide to use for loop to generate x2I[n] and x2Q[n], storing and transporting data to corresponding files as x2I.h and x2Q.h. These files will be used later to perform the conversion of values. Figure 19 Index control flow (Tsimenidis, 2016) After understanding the principle, we defined all of variables and initialized them to zero inside the main, and select the appropriate value of some variables such as state_mf, coeffs_mf and N_mf.Same as the picture over, the original data from bandpass output is also separated into two filters: Matched Filter I and Matched Filter Q, and the coefficients of the filters are the same with the original one. The benefit of using the lookup-table oscillators (setting x2 into x2I and x2Q) is to decrease the time of simulation because of the lower required sampling rate.ÂÂ   We can use via lookup table method to call them from x2I.h and x2Q.h, so that we can use it more efficiently in Matlab instead of shifting itself. And then, we multiplied x1 to x2I[n] and x2Q[n] one by one by using another for loop and got x3I and x3Q.Besides,the code of matched filter had been given by tutors and got x4I and x4Q. {x4I=fir(x3I,coeff_mf,state_mf_I,N_mf);ÂÂ   //match filter I } {x4Q=fir(x3I,coeff_mf,state_mf_Q,N_mf);ÂÂ   //match filter I } Figure 20 Filter comparison (Tsimenidis, 2016) We monitored and recorded x3I and x3Q in PicoScope and print screen. The wave of them spinning fixed at the origin point so three of these blows were selected to describe this wave batter. Figure 21 Down-conversion: x3I vs. x3Q counter clockwise After this, we can visualize the outputs of each one of the filters, now we are going to plot in the figure x4I and x4Q, obtaining: Figure 22 Down-conversion: x4I vs. x4Q counter clockwise 3.2. Symbol synchronization After IQ down-converter, the next stage is symbol synchronization. To achieve this, we create x5I[n] and x5Q[n] and sent x4I, x4Q one sample at the time. The procedure that we should do in this section is similar to the one seen in the non-coherent detection, however we must consider two buffers instead of one, one for I and other for Q parts. The sum of the above established energies will correspond to the energy that can be seen as the total energy of the signal, which is similar to lab of the symbol synchronization for the non-coherent receiver. The corresponding calculations to obtain the signals after the symbol synchronization process are defined as: Then, plotting the results obtained, we see the following figure: Figure 23 x6I vs. x6Q Due to synchronization problems, we threated the jitter that was causing these inconsistences using the averaging approach, as described in the follows: Figure 24 Averaging approach to overcome the jitter (Tsimenidis, 2016) Figure 25 Code to solve the jitter 3.3. Differential coherent demodulator In this section, we will implement a differential detector, also called a differential coherent demodulator. Figure 26 Principle of the differential detector (Tsimenidis, 2016) At first, we declare and initialize appropriately the required variables and define .In this differential detector, need to multiply ,1 symbol delay by . N N=1 N=2 N=3 After this, we defined x6I_prev and x6Q_prev to deal with this problem and let x6I_prev and x6Q_prev denote the values of x6I and x6Q from the previous symbol. It is very important to initialize them to zero at the declaration because we know . (Tsimenidis, 2016) x6I_prev=x6I; x6Q_prev=x6Q On the same time, dI contains the first two terms which stand for the In-phase part and dQ which contains the last two terms which stand for the Quadrature part. Hard decision is then achieved by deciding whether the dI value is positive or negative, with a negative value indicating that a logic 1 was transmitted which might be used in the next step that is frame synchronization and message detection. Now we obtain the plot showi

Brave New World Vs Reality Essay -- essays research papers fc

Brave New World vs. Reality In many cases when you read a novel you may find comparisons between the "fictional" society and your realistic one. The author may consciously or unconsciously create similarities between these two worlds. The novelist can foresee the future and write according to this vision. In Brave New World, Adlous Huxley envisions the future of our society and the dangerous direction it is headed in. Brave New World is greatly dependant upon soma, as in our world where prescribed drugs and drug abuse are prominent. This is evident when Bernard and Lenina return from the Savage Reservation. Lenina is devastated from her experiences, so decides to take soma. It illustrates how like our world when something upsets us instead of trying to solve the problem we use drugs to mask them. Linda's addiction to soma is also an illustration of the similarities of drug abuse between our two worlds. Linda's return to Brave New World after many years brings her to the abuse of soma. She uses it as an escape from reality. Some of us use drugs to escape from the harshness and the tough brutality of reality. We always dream of the perfect utopia and expect our world to transform into it. Some of us always look for the easy way out and drugs allow us that. A further similarity of Brave New World to us, is when John is in the hospital after his mother's death due to soma abuse, and witnesses the workers receiving their soma rations. John begins to throw the soma out ...

Business Cycle

Tanzania Business Cycle. Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world. According to the United Nations’ data approximately 36% of the global population (43. 7 million people) lives below the poverty line. This signifies that the per capita income of Tanzania is relatively low. The Tanzanian economy depends highly on agriculture, which makes up 40% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), provides 85% of exports and employs about 80% of the labour force. The remaining 20% is employed either in tourism, construction, mining or the service sector.Although agriculture has boosted Tanzania’s economy, hurdles still exist due to the poor infrastructure of the country. However, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), together with private foreign companies are adopting measures to develop the country in order raise its GDP, and have a sustainable growth rate. (Roubin Global Economics 2012). The business cycle represents four phases that the economy of a count ry goes through over a period of time, moving away from it actual growth trend as suggested by Grant 2000. These include a) depression, b) recovery, c) boom and d) recession.The graph (1) in Appendix A shows, how a economy moves through the four stages, moving away from the actual growth trend. At each stage the economic activities and the total output produced by the economy fluctuate. In addition to that, at each stage the macro economic variables, which include inflation and unemployment, also fluctuate. The wealth of the country also fluctuates at each stage signifying that at each phase of the business cycle the level of consumption, investment, government expenditure, exports and imports fluctuate. (Gant 2000). Below the graph represents Tanzania’s business cycle from 1960 to 2011.The graph represents the four phases of the business cycle according to Tanzania’s economy, also represents how the economy moves away from its actual growth trend. Graph 1: Bigsten and Danielsson(2011) This essay will firstly describe Tanzania’s progress through the four economic phases over the time frame of 1960-2011. Thereafter it will discuss how the various macro economic variables fluctuate during each stage. In particular, this essay will focus on the macro economic variables of unemployment, inflation, investment, output growth (including the components of aggregate demand and supply) and will also consider exports.Depression is the period that falls between recession and recovery. This is the period when the economy faces high rate of unemployment, negative net investment, low levels of exports and falling demand for consumer goods and services, as well as capital goods. (Grant 2000) This is the period when the output level falls over a period of time and the economy of the country is at the lowest level of growth. This implies that the aggregate demand for commodities produced will be relatively low. At this stage the economy will experience a ne gative growth rate, thus the country will not experience economic development.Instead the country will experience poverty as the circular flow of income in the economy is at a minimum. (Grant 2000) As shown in the graph above, according to the Tanzania economic business cycle, it shows that during the period of independence in 1960’s, the economy experienced a negative growth rate of -4. 2% and had a per capita income rate of 7. 1%. In addition to this the inflation rate was relatively high at 7. 8% as stated by Bigsten and Danielsson (2011). The situation in which the rate of inflation is relatively high and the country’s growth rate is negative is known as hyperinflation.Hyperinflation occurs when the economy highly depends on imports and the country’s currency has lost its value. (Investopedia 2012). This occurred because Tanzania had just been freed from the colonial British rule and, had been taken over by the father of the nation, J. K. Nyerere. The countr y therefore had to adopt various reform policies in order to boost the economy. (Bigsten and Daneelsson (2011)). By the early 1980’s Tanzania was heading to an economic crisis, due to the war between Uganda and Tanzania, which climaxed in1978. (EISA2010).During this period of warfare, Tanzania faced a reduction in its exports. In addition to this, there were low levels of investment and low levels of production, which decreased the consumption level in the economy. All these factors led to a fall in the aggregate demand and supply in Tanzania. The negative growth also caused the Tanzanian Shilling to depreciate by 25% in 1984, where the wages level decline, thus implying there was a high rate of unemployment, together with that the inflation rate was at 40%, as can be seen on the graph (2) in appendix A. (EISA 2010).According to Rutasita 2004, the high rate of inflation occurred due to the depreciation of the Tanzanian Shilling, which was brought about by the situation of hyp erinflation as the currency lost it value. The effect of this on the country was vast as there was a great dependency on imported products that included oil. Tanzania therefore fell into deep economic crises mainly due to the oil price shock, the war between Uganda and Tanzania; fall in exports and the depreciation of the local currency. (Noni 2011) Recovery is the period between depression and boom.This is the period in an economy when reforms occur which tends to boost consumption levels, increase production, increase net investment, increase inflation rates and decrease unemployment rate. Overall, during recovery period the government implements various reform policies, in order to boost the economy and have a positive stable growth in terms of the GDP growth rate (Grant 2000). According to the Tanzanian growth cycle, Tanzania has adopted several reform policies, to allow the economy to have a stable growth rate that would eventually lead to its peak period.Soon after its indepen dence from British rule, as suggested by Noni (2011), Tanzania established commercial banks in November 1970,with the main aim to facilitate investment by providing medium and long term loans, in order to boost up the economy of the country, through the industrial sector. Tanzania however, is said to have a growth rate of 4. 2% after 1986 through the reform policy on macro stability (Shanghai Poverty Conference). In addition to this, in order to reform the economy, the Tanzanian government adopted various policies to reduce the poverty level in the county.Between the 1994 and 2002, through the adaptation of the policy, the level of poverty reduced by 28%. The rate of inflation reduced from 30% during the 1980’s and early 1990’s to a single digit in the late 1990’s, as seen in the graph (2) on Appendix A. As suggested by Shanghai Poverty Conference, the introduction of various policies by Tanzania boosted the economy, as it created new investment, both private an d foreign direct. The policy also created employment began to expand the economy.The reforms also improved the balance of payment, which stabled the exchange rate to allow the inflation rate to reduce to a single digit in 1999 being 7. 9%, as the economy was less dependent on the imported productions, and also because of the improvement in balance of payment the shillings gained value, thus stabilizing the economy to a certain level (Rutasitara 2004). This implies that overall production level to increase, which signifies that the aggregate demand for the products’ production would also increase, bring an overall increase in the consumption level.Thus the country has experienced a steady rate of economic growth over the time frame of 1962 to 1976, 1984 to 1995 and finally from 1998 to 2011. The fact that the country’s overall economy has been growing signifies a steady flow of money circulation in the Tanzanian economy. Boom is the period in the economy that comes afte r recovery and before recession. During this stage of the business cycle, goods and services are at high demand. Also there is a high import and export rate, the inflation rate is relatively high and employment is at the peak.This stage of the economy is when production is at its highest level and thus the expectation of profit is relatively high. (Grant 2000) Referring to the graph above, between the years 1960 and 2011, the Tanzanian economy has been recovering showing a significant growth overall in the economy. Tanzania experienced a significant growth rate in 1966 when the growth rate peaked to 12. 8% (ESED International). Thereafter, the economy has also peaked from the year 2000 to 2011, with an average growth rate of 6. 6%, over a period of 11 years.During this period the average inflation rate was 7. 25% (ESDE International). During this period Tanzania had found natural resources including gold and natural gases which has led to the development of its infrastructure. The i ndustrial sector grew by 9. 2% in 2007, and was estimated to grow by 10% in year 2008, as suggested by Campbell and Christie (2010). Tanzania also showed a great improvement in 2010, performing well in foreign exchange reserves tourism sector. The country has collected $3. 7 billion reserves by September 2012 (The Citizen 2010).Furthermore, the country has taken various measures to improve its growth, as stated by Business Development Gateway (2012). For example, in the year 2010, there had been more development under private sectors, which benefit the investors, and allow investment to occur in the country, which would bring about employment opportunities. Overall, since the beginning of the twenty-first century Tanzania has experienced a great improvement in terms of the GDP growth rate. (Campbell and Christie 2010) Recession is the period between boom and depression.This is the period when the economic growth slows down eventually attaining a constant level in the economy. This i s the phase where the rate of unemployment would rise, while the rate inflation rate would decrease. During the recession period the economy is growing but at a low rate. (Grant 2000). According to the graph above, Tanzania’s economy faced a recession during the year 2008. This occurred due to the global financial crises of 2008 that originated from the United States of America caused a general fall in the level of output.This effected Tanzania’s economy as this caused fuel prices to increase, which led to an increase in price in all the sectors of Tanzania’s economy, causing poverty to increase. According to Ngowi (2010), the crises mainly affected the low income earns countries (such as Tanzania) as they are highly financially dependent on the developed nations. Furthermore, due to the financial crises, according to Ngowi (2010) the growth rate predicted by Tanzania reduced from 7. 8% to 7. 5%, in 2008.The investment level also decreased by 10%, together with the level of exports reduced by 44% in cotton industry, 30% in the tourism industry and 50% in the coffee industry. The reduction in all the main economic activities of the country caused the growth rate of the country to decrease. The average inflation rate over the period 2009 to 2011 was 8. 2% (ESDS International). Overall the consumption of in the economy reduced considerably. The financial crises of 2008 did effect the economy of Tanzania, but not at a vast level, as stated by Ngowi (2010).In conclusion this essay has discussed the four phases of a business cycle, showing how an economy of a country (Tanzania) moves through the four stages over a period of time. Overall, Tanzania’s economy has been stable since the country redeemed its independence from British rule However according to president Kikwete (2011), the government has come up with a 5-year government plan in order to ameliorate the country’s economy to a middle income country, with an average GDP grow th rate of 8% for next 5 years and targeted growth rate of 10% from 2016 to 2025.Appendix A Graph 1 Graph 1: Google image, the business cycle. Graph 2 Graph 2: ESDS Data Change in inflation rate on27th July 2012. REFERENCE 1. Bigsten A. , Danielsson A. (1999) â€Å"Is Tanzania an emerging economy? A report for the OECD project†Emerging Africa†Ã¢â‚¬ . [Online]. Available at: http://www. investmentcompact. org/dataoecd/40/30/2674918. pdf [Accessed on: 12th July 2012]. 2. Business Development Gateway (2009) Your Gateway to Business success; Fanikiwa ki-Biashara. Available at: http://www. bdgtpsf. com/ [Accessed on: 12th July 2012] 3. Christie T. , Campbell J. 2010) â€Å"Tanzania† [Online] Available at: http://fic. wharton. upenn. edu/fic/africa/Tanzania%20Final. pdf [Accessed on: 12th July 2012] 4. ESED (2012) The CPI % Change. Available at: http://esds80. mcc. ac. uk/wds_ifs/TableViewer/tableView. aspx [Accessed on: 12th July 2012] 5. EISA (2010) Electoral Instit ute for the Sustainability of Democracy in Africa: Tanzania: failure of Ujamaa (1976 – 1986). Available at: http://www. eisa. org. za/WEP/tanoverview9. htm [Accessed on: 12th July 2012]. 6. Grant, S. J. (2000) Stanlake’s Introductory Economics. 7th edn.Harlow: Essex. 7. Google images (2012) The Business cycle. Available at: http://www. google. co. uk/imgres? q=the+business+cycle&hl=en&sa=X&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=jagFpjAAwB55EM:&imgrefurl=http://monevator. com/investment-clocks/&docid=J2v1d2NUFnqmMM&imgurl=http://monevator. com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/businesscycle_1. jpg&w=515&h=427&ei=9uIBUPyBAqbC0QXX0uCIBw&zoom=1&biw=930&bih=440 [Accessed on: 12th July 2012] 8. Investopedia (2012)Hyper Inflation: Definition of Hyper inflation. Available at: http://www. investopedia. om/terms/h/hyperinflation. asp#axzz20XRP0LOi [Assessed: 12th July 2012] 9. Ngowi (2010) â€Å"The Current Global Economic Crisis and its impact in Tanzania†. African Journal of Business Manag ement. 4(8) pp 1468 – 1476. [Online] Available at: http://www. academicjournals. org/AJBM/PDF/pdf2010/18July/Ngowi. pdf [Accessed on:12th July 2012] 10. Noni, P. (2011) â€Å"Implementing Successful Reforms and Transformations in DFIs: The Experience of Tanzania Investment Bank Limited†. Tanzania Investment Bank Limited. [Online] Available at: http://www. adfi-ci. org/news/Presentation_by_Mr_Noni_TIB. df [Accessed on: 12th July 2012] 11. Roubin Global economics (2012 )Tanzania: Economic profile: Back ground. Available at: http://www. roubini. com/briefings/119199. php [Accessed on 12th July 2012]. 12. Rutasitara, L. (2004) â€Å"Exchange rate regimes and inflation in Tanzania†. Africa Economic Research consortium. Paper 138 pp. 1-23 [Online] Available at: http://dspace. cigilibrary. org/jspui/bitstream/123456789/32127/1/RP138. pdf? 1 [Accessed on: 12th July 2012]. 13. Shanghai Poverty Conference Tanzania’s Economic Reforms and Lessons Learned. Online] Ava ilable at: http://info. worldbank. org/etools/docs/reducingpoverty/case/31/summary/Tanzania%20Country%20Study%20Summary. pdf [Accessed on 12th July 2012]. 14. United Republic of Tanzania Presidents office planning Commission (2011). The Tanzania five years development plan 2011/2012 – 2015/2016. Available at: http://www. tanzania. go. tz/pdf/FYDP-2012-02-02. pdf [Accessed on 12th July 2012] 15. The Citizen (2010) â€Å"Economy on Course after global recession†. [Online] Available at: http://thecitizen. co. tz/magazines/31-business-week/6759-economy-on-course-aft

The Greenhouse Effect

Have you ever thought, why some people have breathing problems in the cities? The answer is simple – air pollution. Air pollution is one of the most important problems in the world. How can we solve this environmental problem? Today factories produce more and more cars. Factories and cars are one of the biggest air pollutants. To begin with, drivers should use unleaded petrol. However, they use leaded petrol, as it is cheaper. The cars should be banned from city centres, as they cause big smog. Another serious problem is that there are no filters in factories.Moreover, factory managers save their money. They do not care about nature and what may happen with it. Some plants just cannot afford to buy filters, as they are too expensive. Pasekmes This factory fumes cause acid rain, smog and other environmental problems. As a result, more and more people are developing skin cancer. Also, many trees, plants and animals continually die out. Sprendimo budai mankind can solve air pollu tion problems, but they do not want. However, we should take care and try to safe the world, because we are a part of nature. So, if nature dies, we will not survive either.Air is the ocean we breathe. Air supplies us with oxygen which is essential for our bodies to live. Air is 99. 9% nitrogen, oxygen, water vapor and inert gases. Human activities can release substances into the air, some of which can cause problems for humans, plants, and animals. There are several main types of pollution and well-known effects of pollution which are commonly discussed. These include smog, acid rain, the greenhouse effect, and â€Å"holes† in the ozone layer. Each of these problems has serious implications for our health and well-being as well as for the whole environment.One type of air pollution is the release of particles into the air from burning fuel for energy. Diesel smoke is a good example of this particulate matter. The particles are very small pieces of matter measuring about 2. 5 microns or about . 0001 inches. This type of pollution is sometimes referred to as â€Å"black carbon† pollution. The exhaust from burning fuels in automobiles, homes, and industries is a major source of pollution in the air. Some authorities believe that even the burning of wood and charcoal in fireplaces and barbeques can release significant quanitites of soot into the air.Another type of pollution is the release of noxious gases, such as sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and chemical vapors. These can take part in further chemical reactions once they are in the atmosphere, forming smog and acid rain. Pollution also needs to be considered inside our homes, offices, and schools. Some of these pollutants can be created by indoor activities such as smoking and cooking. In the United States, we spend about 80-90% of our time inside buildings, and so our exposure to harmful indoor pollutants can be serious. It is therefore important to consider both indoor and o utdoor air pollution.Smog is a type of large-scale outdoor pollution. It is caused by chemical reactions between pollutants derived from different sources, primarily automobile exhaust and industrial emissions. Cities are often centers of these types of activities, and many suffer from the effects of smog, especially during the warm months of the year. Additional information about smog and its effects are available from Environment Canada and the Air Quality Management District (AQMD) in southern California. For each city, the exact causes of pollution may be different.Depending on the geographical location, temperature, wind and weather factors, pollution is dispersed differently. However, sometimes this does not happen and the pollution can build up to dangerous levels. A temperature inversion occurs when air close to the earth is cooler than the air above it. Under these conditions the pollution cannot rise and be dispersed. Cities surrounded by mountains also experience trapping of pollution. Inversion can happen in any season. Winter inversions are likely to cause particulate and cabon monoxide pollution. Summer inversions are more likely to create smog.Another consequence of outdoor air pollution is acid rain. When a pollutant, such as sulfuric acid combines with droplets of water in the air, the water (or snow) can become acidified. The effects of acid rain on the environment can be very serious. It damages plants by destroying their leaves, it poisons the soil, and it changes the chemistry of lakes and streams. Damage due to acid rain kills trees and harms animals, fish, and other wildlife. The U. S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Environment Canada are among the organizations that are actively studying the acid rain problem.The Greenhouse Effect, also referred to as global warming, is generally believed to come from the build up of carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is produced when fuels are burned. Plants convert carbon dioxide back to oxygen, but the release of carbon dioxide from human activities is higher than the world's plants can process. The situation is made worse since many of the earth's forests are being removed, and plant life is being damaged by acid rain. Thus, the amount of carbon dioxide in the air is continuing to increase.This buildup acts like a blanket and traps heat close to the surface of our earth. Changes of even a few degrees will affect us all through changes in the climate and even the possibility that the polar ice caps may melt. (One of the consequences of polar ice cap melting would be a rise in global sea level, resulting in widespread coastal flooding. ) Additional resources and information about the Greenhouse Effect and global warming are available from the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), the Science Education Academy of the Bay Area (SEABA) and the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ).Ozone depletion is another result of poll ution. Chemicals released by our activities affect the stratosphere , one of the atmospheric layers surrounding earth. The ozone layer in the stratosphere protects the earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Release of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's) from aerosol cans, cooling systems and refrigerator equipment removes some of the ozone, causing â€Å"holes†; to open up in this layer and allowing the radiation to reach the earth. Ultraviolet radiation is known to cause skin cancer and has damaging effects on plants and wildlife.Additional resources and information about the ozone depletion problem are available from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Ozone ACTION. Many people spend large portion of time indoors – as much as 80-90% of their lives. We work, study, eat, drink and sleep in enclosed environments where air circulation may be restricted. For these reasons, some experts feel that more people suffer from the effects of ind oor air pollution than outdoor pollution. There are many sources of indoor air pollution.Tobacco smoke, cooking and heating appliances, and vapors from building materials, paints, furniture, etc. cause pollution inside buildings. Radon is a natural radioactive gas released from the earth, and it can be found concentrated in basements in some parts of the United States. Additional information about the radon problem is available from the USGS and the Minnesota Radon Project. Pollution exposure at home and work is often greater than outdoors. The California Air Resources Board estimates that indoor air pollutant levels are 25-62% greater than outside levels and can pose serious health problems.Both indoor and outdoor pollution need to be controlled and/or prevented. How can we prevent the damaging effection of pollution? Kas kelia pavoju-priezastys One of the most dangerous air pollutants is cigarette smoke. Restricting smoking is an important key to a healthier environment. Legislati on to control smoking is in effect in some locations, but personal exposure should be monitored and limited wherever possible. Additional information about the effects of â€Å"secondhand† cigarette smoke is available from the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC) and Medicine On-line.Only through the efforts of scientists, business leaders, legislators, and individuals can we reduce the amount of air pollution on the planet. This challenge must be met by all of us in order to assure that a healthy environment will exist for ourselves and our children. Find out â€Å"What you can do to reduce air pollution†. Black carbon pollution is the release of tiny particles into the air from burning fuel for energy. Air pollution caused by such particulates has been a major problem since the beginning of the industrial revolution and the development of the internal combustion engine .Scientific publications dealing with the analysis of soot and smoke date back as early as 1896. Mankind has become so dependent on the burning of fossil fuels (petroleum products, coal, and natural gas) that the sum total of all combustion-related emissions now constitutes a serious and widespread problem, not only to human health, but also to the entire global environment. What is Air Pollution What Causes Air Pollution ———– facts sollution Smog hanging over cities is the most familiar and obvious form of air pollution.But there are different kinds of pollution—some visible, some invisible—that contribute to global warming. Generally any substance that people introduce into the atmosphere that has damaging effects on living things and the environment is considered air pollution. Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is the main pollutant that is warming Earth. Though living things emit carbon dioxide when they breathe, carbon dioxide is widely considered to be a pollutant when associated with cars, planes, power plants, and othe r human activities that involve the burning of fossil fuels such as gasoline and natural gas.In the past 150 years, such activities have pumped enough carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to raise its levels higher than they have been for hundreds of thousands of years. Other greenhouse gases include methane—which comes from such sources as swamps and gas emitted by livestock—and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which were used in refrigerants and aerosol propellants until they were banned because of their deteriorating effect on Earth's ozone layer. Another pollutant associated with climate change is sulfur dioxide, a component of smog. Sulfur dioxide and closely related chemicals are known rimarily as a cause of acid rain. But they also reflect light when released in the atmosphere, which keeps sunlight out and causes Earth to cool. Volcanic eruptions can spew massive amounts of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, sometimes causing cooling that lasts for years. In fact, vol canoes used to be the main source of atmospheric sulfur dioxide; today people are. Industrialized countries have worked to reduce levels of sulfur dioxide, smog, and smoke in order to improve people's health. But a result, not predicted until recently, is that the lower sulfur dioxide levels may actually make global warming worse.Just as sulfur dioxide from volcanoes can cool the planet by blocking sunlight, cutting the amount of the compound in the atmosphere lets more sunlight through, warming the Earth. This effect is exaggerated when elevated levels of other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere trap the additional heat. Most people agree that to curb global warming, a variety of measures need to be taken. On a personal level, driving and flying less, recycling, and conservation reduces a person’s â€Å"carbon footprint†Ã¢â‚¬â€the amount of carbon dioxide a person is responsible for putting into the atmosphere.On a larger scale, governments are taking measures to lim it emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. One way is through the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement between countries that they will cut back on carbon dioxide emissions. Another method is to put taxes on carbon emissions or higher taxes on gasoline, so that people and companies will have greater incentives to conserve energy and pollution. Air pollution is a phenomenon wherein the release of harmful chemicals in the atmosphere results in contamination of air, and makes it unsuitable for various lifeforms on the planet.It is considered to be one of the most serious environmental issues in the world. If air pollution statistics compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO) are to be believed, more than 3 million people in the world die due to some health problems related to environmental air pollution every year. That's not at all surprising, considering that the harmful effects of air pollution range from various health disorders in humans to destruction of the ozone la yer of the atmosphere. All being said, our priority now has to be prevention of air pollution and efforts need to start at the very grass root level, i. e. rom our side. Before we move on to the details of these ‘efforts', let's go through some important air pollution facts which emphasize on the need of its prevention. Why do we Need to Prevent Air Pollution? Air pollution is caused when various chemical substances are released in the Earth's atmosphere, as a result of some natural occurrences or some human activities. Natural causes of air pollution include volcanic eruptions, release of methane gas, wildfires etc; while the anthropogenic causes of the same include use of automobiles, power plants, use of solvents, waste deposition, use of nuclear weapons and a lot more.The list of chemical substances which have the tendency to contaminate the air include carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, sulfur oxide, chlorofluorocarbons, ammonia, etc. The high concentration of these substances in the atmosphere makes humans and animals more vulnerable to their hazardous effects. In fact, the effects of air pollution are much more intense than we can possibly imagine. For instance, studies reveal that as many as 500,000 people die from cardiopulmonary disease, which is caused as a result of inhaling fine particles in the atmosphere, in the United States alone every year.Natural hazards such as global warming and acid rain are also associated with air pollution to a significant extent. All these harmful effects call for the implementation of various measures for preventing air pollution, and the earlier we do it – the better it is for us. Some recent power plant designs minimize environmental impact by pumping colder water from further offshore, warming it to the temperature of the seawater surrounding the plant site, and then releasing it. This method minimizes the impact on the surrounding communities, but it still shocks hose eggs, larve, plank ton, and other organisms that are sucked through the power plant with the cooling water. The Living Water Water, a substance that is so often taken for granted yet is such an intricate part of our very existence. In the essay, Becoming Water, by Susan Zwinger, we are asked to make ourselves one with the waves. But why? How can a substance that has no taste or color be so important to life? Like the bonds people form with each other, water has bonds to all aspects of life. â€Å"Let them know in their viens that you both are connected everywhere. † (Zwinger, 243).These bonds are constantly being broken by our irresponsible actions. More precisely, by our tendencies to pollute. Many of us have sat and listened to lectures on how important water is to everything from humans to trees. Eight glasses a day is the recommended daily amount that should be consumed by humans. The human race depends on water for a variety of things. It is used in our hygiene, helps the body to maintain a constant temperature, flushes unwanted items from our systems, and of course provides us with many recreational activities, from swimming to water balloon fights.Indirectly, we are dependent on water because it allows vegetation to grow and animals to live. Also, remember that statistic that sixty percent of our body is water? Without water, there would be no us. For this reason, water has a bond to the human race. Water also has a bond to the land. It allows plants to grow. In fact, without water, try to get something to grow. You will probably end up with a beautifully dry, yellow looking plant. Many beautiful things like flowers, green grass, and tall trees would be nonexistent without water. Like humans, these living things are also dependent on water.The earth is two-thirds water and one-third land. â€Å"View the waterways of the earth as dendritic viens. † (239). Water is like a bridge connecting one place to another. â€Å"Swell up under fishermen in Viet Nam, care ss skin divers in the Caribean, strand a cruise vessel in Glacier bay. † (240). Water also has the power to destroy the land through storms. To demonstrate this power, Zwinger asks us to â€Å"Become fascinatingly deadly. Travel further north toward the poles, go to the extremes. † (240). From flooding to hurricanes, water can change the land and lives in the blink of an eye.This power of destruction is not something to be feared, it allows for the land to rebuild and start over. It is like an unbreakable contract linking the land to the water. I feel that Zwinger was trying to make us realize how important water is by writing Becoming Water. She points out the places which water travels and the things that it â€Å"sees†. â€Å"You have a pulse, the waves, and a metabolism, your food chain. † (242). Zwinger makes a nonliving thing take on human characteristics to stress her point. â€Å"A personality, a character, a conciousness, and a sense of purpose. † (242). I have to agree with her.All to often, we take for granted something that ensures our existence. We allow our waste to be thrown into the our water supplies. Motorized vehicles churn up the sediment from the bottom of a water source causing the water to become very turbid. Some industries even dispose of harmful chemicals into our water sources. In my home town, we have a lake named Crystal Lake. It is a spring fed body of water so, theoretically it should be relatively clean. On the contrary, the lake is disgustingly dirty. Many of the fish have died and swimmers itch has become a common aliment of lake's many swimmers.The problem has been attributed to the increased use of motor boats on the lake and the increased population that uses the lake. Another example of a water source filled with pollution is that big river called the Mississippi. Have you ever tried to look to the bottom of the river? Good luck. The river is so turbid you would be lucky to see one foot do wn. Besides the many gambling boats, the Mississippi is used to transport things by means of barges. Barges are very heavy; their weight causes the sediment from the bottom of the river to be churned up, hence the turbidity.Another problem is that things fall off barges into the water contaminating it even more. The Mississippi, like the lake in my hometown, has also been blessed with an ever increasing amount of motor vehicles on the river. These motor vehicles also add to the amount of sediment that is churned up. These are examples of how our society has allowed a precious resource to be wasted. So, after reading Zwinger's essay, I found it to be a reminder of how important water is to my existence. Water has bonds to both the land and all living things. Becoming Water was a wake up call.It put us, the reader, in a perspective we had probably never thought about. We were able to experience everything water experiences. This new perspective was a very interesting and original way for Zwinger to express her point of view. By making the reader â€Å"become† water, she allowed for a first hand view of the importance of water. By becoming more responsible and more aware of problems around us, we will be able to preserve something that is essential for our existence. Work Cited: Zwinger, Susan. â€Å"Becoming Water†. In American Nature Writing. Selected by John A. Murray. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1997. 38-243. cituoti ‘’Environment, Pollution and the Living Water. † 123HelpMe. com. 16 Apr 2012       . The Population Explosion According to the Population Reference Bureau, in 1991, there were about 5. 4 billion people in the world. The global birth to death rate was 27/9, meaning that for every person that dies, three more babies are born. From 1990 to 1991, the population increased by 95 million people, and now has continued to grow at that rate. This may appear to be no danger, but if one were to think of it as a pond doubling its amount of lily pads for 40 days, they'd see it differently.It would start out with one lily pad, the next day it has two, and on the 39th day it is half filled. However, in one day, on the 40th day, it will be completely filled. The Earth's population is doubling about every 40 years. We don't want to wait until the 79th year to fix our problem or else humankind will not have enough time to change the inevitable obstacles that come with overpopulation. In his book, The Population Explosion , Paul Ehrlich, a famous population controlist, came up with the equation I = PAT.He believes the impact on the environment is equal to the population multiplied by the affluence (meaning the amount of energy and food supply the population consumes) multiplied by the amount of destructive technology a country has. He showed that the impact is directly affected by the population. Therefore with a larger population, there is a greater impact on the Earth's water, air, and land. A commo n problem that people think is associated with overpopulation is running out of space to live, but there are also many other environmental predicaments that it causes.More people use more cars, need more firewood, drink more water. This causes more air pollution, more land ruined, and more water to disappear. Therefore, population control is necessary on an international level in order to protect our environment . There are experts who believe that population control is not needed such as in Singapore. The government in Singapore decided that it would be better for the country to grow in population so that they are able to help their economy. Many less developed countries promote population growth because they want their economy to grow.The experts who believe that it is better for us to let the population increase or decrease on its own also think that overpopulation will never become a problem. Justification for this argument is that humans will adjust themselves to the growing po pulation because they are a species that are able to think, make decisions, and find solutions when they encounter a problem Advocates for this argument think that there is no need to worry about environmental problems because there is or will be technology to fix the problems.As for with the limited amount of resources, they believe that there would be more people to think of new ways to make it easier or faster to get newer and more food and energy resources. Even during this time period, scientists are trying to discover a new way for people to live elsewhere such as under the sea. Many people believe that overpopulation will cause and has caused many environmental problems, but they don't think telling families how many children they are allowed to have is the way to control the population.However, there has not been any other plausible suggestion on how to lower population growth, so limiting families to two children is the only solution. The worry about overpopulation started when it was noticed that many of the earth's resources and environment were being hurt. It was traced back to three revolutions that humans populations had grown, where at first it didn't effect the environment, but later on with more advanced technology a lot of damage was done. The graph on the top of the next page shows the world's population growth for 1025 years.The information is from the Population Reference Bureau in 1989. It shows the population is growing geometrically, and will continue to do so unless population control is started. World Population 1000 AD to 2025 AD The first revolution was the evolutionary revolution, about 100,000 years ago during the Ice Age. These homosapiens had larger, more culturally elaborate communities than the earlier human forms. They hunted on a large scale, and as the food supply increased, so did their population. At the end of the Ice Age, there were about 5 million humans. The second revolution occurred around 8000 B.C. and was called t he Agricultural Revolution. At this time, humans were able to have a reliable source of food at a location of their choice. This was when villages and towns had started to form, and were able to store more food they needed at the time. This caused birth rates to go up, and families to get larger. Up to this point, only 6,000 years after the discovery of farming, the population increased by at least 4000%. Each century afterwards the population grew a little faster, with certain setbacks like during the Black Death, an outbreak of the bubonic plague.This killed a quarter to a third of the people in Europe during the 14th century, but still in 1650, the world population had grown to 500 million. It was the third revolution, a century later, that really increased the population and hurt the environment. This was the Industrial Revolution. During this time coal, petroleum, natural gases, and other new energy sources started allowing the world to have factories, railroads, automobiles, c hemical and plastic industries, and automated industries. It was also during this time that the death rate had been lowered, meaning people were able to live longer.This revolution introduced many positive things such as pest-control chemicals, modern sanitation, and medicine. These made life expectancy increase and infant mortality decrease. From 1750, when the Industrial Revolution started, to 1991, the life expectancy increased from 25 years to 65 years, and the infant mortality rate decreased from 400 to 68 per thousand births. It was during this Industrial Revolution that environmental damage started to occur. In Greece, they had worried about soil erosion from too many trees being cut down in their mountainous region. Deforestation also caused water runoffs, flood, and droughts in China.In Rome, the air and water had been dangerously polluted. In addition it was at this time that negative things started to occur such as oil spills in sea, automobile exhaust making too much smo g, and chloroflourocarbon gases that destroy the ozone layer being released into the atmosphere. The landfills were full and water sources polluted because of toxic waste from plastics and chemical manufacture. It was an increase of population that caused these things such as using up more landfill space, releasing more chloroflourocarbon gases, and more toxic waste to be dumped out in the ocean.Overpopulation is degrading the Earth's oceans and other water sources, and by doing so will not only lessen our water supply for the future, it will also hurt the animals living in the water. It is obvious that we need water to survive, but it will not do any good if the water is polluted. If there is a pond that is being degraded, when the pollution is released slowly, the microorganisms in the pond could break down the pollution. However, if it was released all at once, the pond can not get rid of the pollution fast enough and the water becomes degraded.With fewer people there is less pol lution released, leaving more time for the pollution to be degraded. (Randers, 257) In aquifers or natural underground reservoirs such as in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Egypt, the natural water has been depleted by more than 50 percent. As there is less and less natural water in them, more and more salty water from the Mediterranean Sea seep in contaminating the water. Under the Great Plains in the United States, the Ogallala Aquifer, that supplies one-fifth of the crop land in the United States with water, was half emptied in the late 1980's.If this aquifer is completely drained it may collapse causing sinkholes in the land above, and never allowing it to be refilled again. Not only will low water supplies affect a human necessity, it could also cause â€Å"water wars. † Ethiopia, for instance, wants to build dams along the upper part of the Nile river. This action, however, could prevent enough water from getting down to other countries that rely on the Nile such as E gypt. Also the Turkish government wants to build 21 dams along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.This strategy would cut 40 percent of the water flow from those rivers to Syria and 80 percent of the water flow to Iraq. Even though about two thirds of the Earth is water, not all of it is available for use. A lot of it is not even in the places where it is needed most. Between 1950 and 1980 in the United States, water use increased 150 percent, while the population grew by only 50 percent. In 1975, 19 countries in the developing world did not have enough renewable water resources, and it is expected that by the year 2000, that number will increase to 29 countries.By 2025, at least 37 nations could experience a severe demand for water. As said by the Population Institute's Werner Fornos in 1991, â€Å"The water crises of the 1990s will make the oil crises of the 1970's pale in comparison. † ( Stefoff, 67) Besides water, overpopulation is polluting the air we breath, and causing ma ny unwanted results such as the greenhouse effect, acid rain, and the depletion of the ozone layer. The greenhouse effect had probably started around the industrial revolution when a large amount of carbon dioxide was released.These gases build up around the earth's outer atmosphere turning the earth into a greenhouse. What happens in a greenhouse is heat is allowed in, hits the ground and reflects back out. But instead of escaping back out into space, it is trapped inside the Earth's atmosphere, raising the Earth's average temperature. This greenhouse effect affects the temperature, which inadvertantly raises sea levels causing natural disasters such as hurricanes and flooding, and heat waves not allowing crops to grow properly. (Stefoff, 39) Along with the greenhouse effect, there is the deteriorating ozone layer.The ozone layer regulates the quantity of UV light from coming down to the earth's surface from the sun. It has started to deteriorate from chloroflourocarbons (CFC's) be ing emitted into the air. These chemicals are found as fluids in air conditioning systems, as aerosol propellants, and as industrial solvents. Scientists say that each chlorine atom that is a part of a CFC compound can destroy up to 100,000 ozone atoms. However, even if we stop releasing CFC's into the air, it can remain in the atmosphere for 50 to 100 years and continue to degrade the ozone layer.With less of an ozone layer, more UV light enters the atmosphere and causes skin diseases such as skin cancer. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the degradation of the ozone layer will cause 12 million people to develop skin cancer within the next 50 years. Significantly, more than 200,000 of those cases will be fatal. (Keeling, 4) Acid rain is a direct result of air pollution which occurs when too many people are releasing toxins into the air. Fossil fuel that is burned is released into the air as a gas and reacts with sunlight, oxygen and moisture in the atmosphere.Thi s changes compounds like sulfur dioxide into sulfuric acid, and nitrogen oxide into nitric oxide. It precipitates to the ground and pollutes water and the land, killing fish, damaging forests and crops, and corroding metals. Main causes of air pollution are the needs of too many people for the use of cars and industrial plants, both which release many harmful fumes into the air. An increasing population leads to more CFC's emitted into the air from the car's air conditioning. Also when the cars are not able to be used anymore, they are taken to the junk yard, and occupy more landfill space.Furthermore, cars have damaged terrain when vacationers go over more land with off-road vehicles (Bouvier, 51). Again, increased usage of energy produced by oil, coal and natural gas-fired power plants will have a negative effect on the world's air. A larger population also increases usage of air conditioning when it becomes warmer. Air conditioners cause more carbon to be emitted, heat to be trap ped in the atmosphere, and UV light to enter in. Likewise, if there are less people, less air conditioning is used, and global warming and a deteriorating ozone layer could be prevented.According to the United States Nations Population Fund, they predict the developing countries will double their carbon dioxide emissions by 2025. What the population is causing, air pollution, is harmful to them. With air pollution, humans, plants, and animals do not have clean air to breath. Air is one of the necessities to life, and the cleaner it is, the better. As well as the Earth's water and air, there is another part of the environment that is a threat of too many people. Overpopulation is destroying the land and therefore could end the life of all the creatures onEarth. There are many examples that there is not enough land. For instance, there is not enough landfill space. Every year, the United States alone creates 13 billion tons of waste. This is 50 tons a person. How can there be enough r oom for all this trash? An example of this is in the state of Ohio. In 1988, Ohio started running out of landfill space. To solve this problem the government decided to make it easier to open new larger landfills. This allowed the owners of the landfills to lower their prices so businesses will want to use their landfills.Doing this could make people recycle less, take up more landfill space, and ruin the earth more. (Overpopulation, 3) Overpopulation also threatens the Earth's agricultural resources. An example of this is desertification of land. It occurs when fertile land is turned into infertile land. This can happen from overgrazing of cattle as in the southwestern United States, or erosion where the topsoil is carried away. Even irrigation can cause desertification if too much water is used, flooding the land, and not allowing crops to grow there anymore.Desertification is caused mostly by a growing population. More people need more food, causing more land to be used unproperl y. The most serious desertification occurs in places such as China, India, and Africa, all places with large, fast growing populations. Each year about 82,000 square miles, the same size as the state of Kansas, of the earth's surface is made useless by desertification. According to the United Nations Environment Program, by the mid-1980's 13 million square miles of the earth's surface had lost 25 percent of its productivity and 6 million square miles lost 50 ercent its productivity. Also in the United States, at least one-fifth of its land (not including Alaska and Hawaii) is desertified or is threatened by desertification. A third example of the deterioration of the Earth's land because of too large a population is deforestation. The Population Institute and the United Nations estimate that half of all the remaining forests will be destroyed by the year 2000. Forests are cut down for humankind's demand of fuelwood, agricultural space, paper products, and more space to live. However , forests are needed for more than human needs.They stabilize global weather, and when large amounts are cut down soil erosion and siltation of rivers occurs. They also regulate the amount of carbon dioxide let out into the atmosphere. When they are cut down and burned, not only are they not able to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released anymore, they increase the amount released because burning wood makes carbon dioxide (Keelings, 2). Rainfall is absorbed by trees and other vegetations into the ground, and then flows to springs, streams, and aquifers. With no forests, rainfall flows without being absorbed and aquifers and streams are not refilled.This, then, causes water shortages and droughts. Studies conducted by the United Nations show that between 1973 and 1988, 79 percent of total deforestation was a direct result of population growth. This is greatly due to the fact that 70 percent of all families in developing nations, which is about two billion people worldwide, rely on firewood as their only fuel. If they stop using firewood as their fuel they will have to use fuels that release gases to pollute the air. Already developed countries such as the United States also account for deforestation.In Canada, at least one million hectares are cut annually, and in Siberia, the rate of deforestation can be up to four million hectares annually, which is twice the rate of Brazil. An example of land being destroyed by overpopulation happened in the Sahel, a place along the sothern border of the Sahara desert in Africa. It is not a true desert, usually receiving 10 to 30 inches of rainfall a year. However, in the 1950's and 1960's, it received a high amount of rainfall. Also during this time the population increased greatly. For example, in Niger, one country that is a art of the Sahel, the population increased by 1. 3 million in a 14 year period. Everything seemed fine until in 1968 when a 20 year drought started. This affected everyone, but especially the nom ads who travel with herds of livestock. The land became infertile, the soil was carried away by the wind in enormous amounts, and any vegetation grown was either burned for fuel or eaten by the starving animals. Also because there was no vegetation to absorb the rainfall, the water quickly ran off, carrying more topsoil with it. Even now, much of the Sahel is still in famine.With more and more land being destroyed as the population grows larger and larger, there is not enough room for other species. The larger animals that need to travel over hundreds of square miles are left with less and less room as each town grows. Some animals such as frogs, are slowly decreasing in number because of pollution, which is caused by humans, that affect their eggs. Animals that live in the forest are also slowly disappearing because even though you can replant the trees you cut down, the animals that live there can not be brought back.An example of this is the Eastern migratory songbirds in Central America and Northeastern United States. Finally, it is estimated that each year 27,000 species vanish forever, meaning three plants, animals, insects or microorganism disappear every hour. Scientists estimate that about one fifth of all life forms will be gone in the next thirty years. None of them being named, and even less being studied or understood. The key to the answer to a problem could be lost forever. (Keelings, 2) Overpopulation is not a new issue.Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean is an example of when population control was needed, but was not used; the end results being disastrous. Around 1600, Easter Island had 7,000 Polynesians. They used the trees on the island for fishing boats and housing, and soon all the trees were cut down. When that occurred they were forced to live in caves. Soon they started to group together to fight with each other for resources, and even practiced cannibalism. When the Europeans arrived there in 1722, there were only 3,000 Polynesians lef t.Another example is of Mauritius, a tropical island nation in the Indian ocean. Fortunately they have a happier ending than the Polynesians. On this island there were as many people as in Bangladesh. The country had a balance of a good economy and ecosystem. The government officials of the nation had noticed that many ebony forests had been cut down causing erosion and the extinction of the dodo bird. Because of this they decided that they should set up population control and educate the people about stabilizing population growth. Now it is one of the most prosperous countries in Africa.As Richard Grove, an environmental historian of Cambridge University, said, â€Å"I would be much less pessimistic about the future if the rest of the world could act like Mauritius. † (Linden,70) It should be known that population control will not end all the problems mentioned above, but they would definitely allow more time for them to be fixed. Also, population control helps alienate envi ronment problems. The alternative, letting the population grow indefinitely could only hurt the environment. Overpopulation is a negative solution for everyone; plants, animals, land, water, and humans.According to the Index of Human Suffering in 1987, sponsored by the population Crisis committee, countries with a larger population increase also had higher suffering. The Earth's environment is finite and can be destroyed if we do not start population control. Measures need to be taken now to correct the current situation which includes the increase of deforestation and desertification, the decrease of farmland, more water pollution, the deteriorating ozone layer, and the greenhouse effect. Additionally, three new kinds of plants, animals or other species disappear every hour.It is evident that there is no way our population can keep growing at the rate it does now without severely negatively impacting our environment. We should learn from the mistakes of the people on Easter Island, and the solution the people on Mauritius used. It is our obligation to keep the environment in good condition for future generations. As most population scientists say, â€Å"Whatever your cause, it's a lost cause – unless we come to grips with overpopulation. † â€Å"Pollution and Environment Essay – The Population Explosion. â€Å"