The body for this paper IS written. however write a introduction and conclusion to complete it. also edit the paper to make it flow. Homework Help

We Are All Responsible For Ending Famine Whenever It Occurs In the World

Climate is by no means the only reason behind the cause of famine in different parts of the world. Our own actions are equally responsible for the cause of famines as well. It is sad to learn that despite being in the twenty first century a significant number of countries have rugged behind and adopted the living conditions of the fourteenth century, which was marred by ignorance, plague and war. For instance, think of conflicts, bad governance and rivalry among neighboring states. All these are as a result of man own creation. On the other hand, we can confidently argue that man’s activities on the earth are the major cause of the alarming climate changes in the world today. One of the reason behind why man is the major cause of climate changes in the world today is that man’s activities, especially those dealing with processing and manufacturing cause emission of carbon dioxide which eventually results to green gas effects. Green gas effects are the major cause of climate changes in the world today. Therefore, it can be equally argued that man is the cause of climate changes in the world today which thereafter leads flooding and drought. Famine is directly related to these two factors. This is because in the case of drought crop production declines leading to lack of sufficient food to feed the population. In the case flooding, the floods destroy the farming fields, again leading to a decline in food production. When these natural causes are coupled by man made causes such as conflict, bad governance as well as rivalry, famine becomes even more worse because of the state instability. It is difficult to perceive in the vague history of famines a major one in which political causes alone were operative, although this may be said of a good many minor famines–typified in sieges of cities. An age-old device of war is to impose famine on the enemy.
The scourge of famine has appeared cyclically throughout history. Often drought, blight, floods and other natural means beyond human control cause it. At other times, the causes are all too human—war, social unrest and breakdown, and inefficient or outright malevolent government policy. In today’s global society, there should be no real obstacle to alleviating the effects of food shortages wherever they occur. Modern agricultural methods and generally stable weather patterns produce bumper crops in the developed world resulting in massive levels of food production, more than enough to feed the hungry of the world. There is no reason to expect people to starve when this is coupled with the means to transport food to any location in the world. Yet famine and suffering from food shortages continue—and at times even grow. The great famines of the world have been due to natural forces, frequently intensified, however, by political factors. Sometimes economic or demographic situations–prevalence of poverty, including unemployment, peasant agriculture of the bare subsistence type, or many landless agricultural laborers in a population of high density–are regarded as causes of famines. They certainly make for vulnerability to famine, but unlike natural or political catastrophes are chronic rather than episodic in character. Five centuries ago famine was regarded almost throughout the world as inevitable and was so accepted, often as a manifestation of divine wrath. Occasionally, however, there were rulers who sought to prevent or relieve it. The Biblical story of Joseph in Egypt, storing grain in “fat” years against the “lean” that might follow, exemplifies probably the most common method of famine prevention in antiquity and medieval times. The rulers of the Inca Empire guarded against famine by storage and by construction of irrigation canals. Irrigation, a safeguard against famine because it both elevates and stabilizes the acre-yields of crops, was practiced some 5,000 years ago in Sumer and is very ancient elsewhere in Asia and north Africa, but famine can hardly have been the sole stimulus for irrigation. Flood control by dikes and dams is also an ancient device which militates against famine but has other values. Destruction of stores of grain and of irrigation and flood-control works is obviously a method of creating artificial famine.
Natural famines having their origin mainly in drought or flood, sometimes in plant disease or insect pest, are not now regarded as inevitable. Within nations, a naturally induced or threatened food shortage is certain to be met by domestic efforts to ward off or relieve it. This was not true in the Soviet Union as late as 1932-1933 but occurred there in 1963-1964, following a very severe drought, when a huge quantity of grain was imported and paid for. So it was in China a year or two earlier. India and Pakistan have been able since war ended in 1945 to arrange, partly on the basis of international credits, for sporadic grain imports sufficient to preclude famine; so also have Brazil and Yugoslavia. The disposition of all governments by the 1960s was to prevent or relieve famine or shortages within their own borders; and of some governments to donate or loan funds or food surpluses to prevent or relieve famine beyond their own borders. The capacity of nations to pay or to loan or donate has increased. International cooperation in famine relief or prevention has increased in the past century, as evidenced by such organizations as the Red Cross, the China Relief commissions, the American Relief Administration of World War I, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration following World War II, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Supplies have been available despite the huge growth of world population; and with the advancement in agriculture everywhere, few localities stand in such risk of drought or pests or plant disease as prevailed even half a century ago. If, nevertheless, natural calamity strikes, the network of transport, by ship overseas, by barge on canal and river, by rail, by truck on roads, even by air, has so grown and is now so far-flung and efficient that stricken regions can be reached. Governments have learned how to ration food in short supply in a manner more equitable than was possible earlier.
Progress in coping with natural famine is thus apparent politically, economically, and socially. Until the end of the twentieth century there seems no reason why true famine of natural origin should be endured in any country, for over so short a time world population seems unlikely to outrun food supplies. What the more distant future holds is purely speculative. However, even in the shorter term, it cannot be said that artificial famine, induced by war or revolution, may not again appear.