Urban farming, Future sources - Essay Example

Question Urban farming in cities may have its advantages and disadvantages to the people living in the cities. While it would be a good thing for the urban residents to always get fresh products in the city, it may require a lot of planning to implement urban farming (Mougeot 57). This will not only affect those living in the urban areas but also those in the rural areas as they will not have market for their products anymore. Socially, farming in the urban area will result in the provision of job opportunities to various people in the cities as well as production of enough products that can cater the city’s population. However, undertaking this idea may seem as the best way but it will require so many resources for it to be successful especially in the long run. In urban areas, there is scarce land for the increasing population, let alone farming in the same. Maintaining farming activities in the urban area will also require a lot of energy compared to farming in rural areas, which is a very scarce resource. Farming in the urban area will result in improvement of the environment with the crops helping with the regulation of fresh air, while planting of the trees will ensure that the environment is well preserved (Mougeot 96). Though the environment may seem to improve from urban farming, there are circumstances where urban farming may have negative effects on the environment especially during floods. Urban soil cannot hold up well during floods because over the years, it has been weakened by various activities in urban areas. In the future, the idea of urban farming may have more negative impacts on the people living in the cities, as well as the environment. It may seem as the best thing for the people in the short term, but in the long term rural farming should be encouraged and supported to ensure enough provision of products to the urban people. Question 2 In the future, there are resources that would be needed more than today and the way we live right now will greatly affect the same in future (Dernbach 620). There are several important resources, but the two which are really important to the whole planet and without which life would be very difficult are water and energy. Every scientific indication has shown that with the kind of life today’s human beings are leading, these two resources may be very hard to have in the future. Most of the water bodies are decreasing while fossils that provide oil and other products for energy are being used up in various industries around the planet. Without water or energy, there would be no life and if these two resources are not preserved, the future will not have the comfort to survive. If today’s society wants to save the future, they have to start with preserving the most pressured resources and ensuring that it is not wasted. This is by encouraging other ways of getting energy apart from using fossils, using other sources of energy which do not include environment pollution, saving energy by using things such as solar panels and other ways that ensure that energy in the future will not be a problem. Water can be preserved by having regulations against industries that dump their waste products in the water bodies, causing destruction of aquatic living things. This will ensure that fresh water is available for many years to come, and that sea animals are also preserved. Water can also be preserved by encouraging water recycling in various places, especially industries that use a lot of water on a daily basis (Hunt 99). Even at home this can also be practiced, which will lead to minimal wastage of water on the planet and in the future water will not be a problem because it is well used today. Water and energy are the two most used resources on the planet, and this will not change in the future. They will be more required with the population growth, improvement of technologies and other infrastructure coming up around the planet. If they are wasted today, in future life will be more difficult to live, and this is a responsibility of everyone to take good care of the scarce resources for the sake of the future. Question 3 Poverty especially in the third world countries is a major problem with so many people losing their lives as a result of the same. Issues associated with poverty include inhuman living conditions of various people where one can find one family of ten children and the parents living in a single room with no hygienic facilities or even privacy, reduction of manpower in the world as they do not have the ability to fulfill the basic needs, let alone going school and acquiring skills required for them to get good jobs, and this goes on even to their children and having to live a life without any security whatsoever (Pogge 34). Why we have so much poverty around the world is as a result of overpopulation around the world with little resources to cater for the growing head count, misuse of treasured resources such as water and energy, misallocation of resources by the government where the rich become more successful while the poor become even more disadvantaged, and the gap between the poor and the rich is becoming bigger every day with nothing that is being done to change the situation. Poverty is growing because a majority of the population has no idea of what to do to stop it and the world has become a selfish place where everyone just cares about themselves. Poverty is also increasing as a result of civil wars and some natural calamities such as drought and floods around the world, which leads to various activities causing poverty. The world could try to reduce poverty by trying to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor, educating people on ways to improve their lives as well as family planning to avoid overpopulation as well as avoiding wars that have caused poverty especially in third world countries. Poverty cannot be stopped in one day, but every day of trying to make a world a better place may make a difference in various lengths (Mack 88). Providing for those who are greatly affected by the poverty should be a calling to everyone and teaching them how to make a living to improve their lives would really help them. Poverty cannot be stopped by one person; it should be a world’s responsibility where each person should be accountable for everything they do and how it will affect the world at large. Question 4 Futuristic is all about having a vision for the future, thinking of how things would be in the future as a result of today’s actions and responsibilities (Cornish 222). Futuristic has value to the society as it gives people a purpose to live in more ethical and humane ways while preserving what they have for the future. It offers the means of doing something for the positive impact not only on oneself but on the world as well (Shostak 80). Cornish describes how the principals of futuristic can be used by ensuring that one does not misuse what they have; instead, they should ensure that they use enough resources required; how the world should be a better place in the future than it is today and how to ensure that the planet is not destroyed by few selfish people who want to have it all on the expense of other hardworking people in the world. Works Cited Cornish, Edward. The Study of the Future: An Introduction to the Art and Science of. New York: Transaction Publishers, 1997. Print. Dernbach, John. Stumbling Toward Sustainability.Australia: Environmental Law Institute, 2002, Print. Hunt, Constance Elizabeth. Thirsty Planet Strategies for Sustainable Water Management. New York: Academic Foundation, 2007. Print. Mack, Elke. Absolute Poverty and Global Justice: Empirical Data, Moral Theories, Initiatives. Ashgate: Ashgate Publishing, 2009. Print. Mougeot, Luc J. A. Agropolis: The Social, Political, and Environmental Dimensions of Urban. New York: IDRC, 2005. Print. Pogge, Thomas W. World Poverty and Human Rights. London: Polity, 2008. Print. Shostak, Arthur B. Futuristics: Looking Ahead. Vol. 1.Chicago: Infobase Publishing, 2004. Print. Read More