...as to why I believe floods has a greater impact on Australia than droughts is because floods cause significant damage to farm land which has the potential to lead to serious agricultural consequences including loss of income, contamination of topsoil, crop loss and damage to harvests, as a result, causes great financial burden to farmers. Despite this, droughts also endure the potential to cause significant destruction of farmland including soil erosion, however, floods are recognised to have more of an immediate impact than droughts. The consistent rainfall and flooding across Queensland’s producing regions in 2011 has resulted in an array of damage to fruits and vegetables including tomatoes, celery, lettuce, watermelon and...
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...extreme water drought. As a matter of fact there are multiple cities in California that are facing these hardships. How can the government and it’s people prevent this drought to worsen or expand to the rest of our country. Resident of East Porterville, Angelica Gallegos declared that she has gone five months without showering due to the drought her city is going through (Source two). This is all due to the fact that water ground reserves have been exploited without regulations or consideration of future water needs. Jerry Cadagan, resident in Stanislaus...
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...Some parts of the Horn of Africa have been hit by the worst drought in 60 years, the UN says. Large areas of Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya are in a crisis or an emergency. The Sahel region of Africa has been suffering from drought since the early 1980s. The land is marginal in Sahel regions over cultivation, overgrazing are human activities can lead to desertification especially when it is combined with drought. Drought is a prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall for a specific area, which leads to a shortage of water. A drought occurs when there in to enough rainfall to support people or crops. Sahel is in the Eco-climatic and bio-geographic zone stretch/transition between the Sahara desert (north) and the Sudanian Savannas (south). It is also located between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red sea. Covers parts of Senegal, southern Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, southern Algeria, northern Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, northern Ethiopia and Eritrea Annual rainfall is 200 mm in the north and 600 mm in the south on average. There are not enough wells to access water in the ground to provide irrigation when the rains fail. Since 1985, 77% of tree cover has been cut down, this reduces transpiration from plants and so means rain is less likely. Ethiopia is a very poor country, the 5th poorest in the world. The result of drought is soil erosion, famine, starvation. 60% export food .80% of the population rely on agriculture mainly in subsistence and rain-fed farming and livestock...
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...The Californian Drought Crisis This section of the paper will outline the current Californian drought crisis, taking the position that climatically, it is a combined result of lower than average precipitation and higher than average temperatures and that the population, in residential, commercial and agricultural settings place an excessive demand upon the state’s water supply. Working together, these stressors have a collective effect in causing the drought crisis in California since 2012. 2015 marks California’s fourth consecutive year of severe drought. The last two years alone have been the driest and warmest individual years since records began in 1895, with ten of the last fourteen experiencing below normal levels of precipitation (Howitt, et al., 2015) (Mann & Gleick, 2015). From autumn 2013 to spring 2014, central and southern California experienced some of the lowest precipitation on record, it is said that the impacts...
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...Name Institution Professor Date Causes of the Maya Empire Decline Introduction The Maya Empire that was located in the tropical lowlands of what now stands as the Guatamela reached its climax of power and influence in the sixth century A.D. The Maya were successful in farming, hieroglyph writing, pottery, mathematics, and architecture. They left behind impressive architecture and inscriptions that are a record of their symbolic artwork. Researchers have established that the Maya cities were completely abandoned by 900 A.D. Evidence reveals that the Maya Civilization was among the most dominant indigenous societies in Mesopotamia. Different from other indigenous populations, the Maya were centered in one geographical region. Evidence that they were organized makes it a challenge to understand what could have caused the decline. This paper reveals several of the main factors that researchers find possible causes of the decline. Much has been done in this pursuit since the start of the 19th Century. History of the Maya Empire The Maya civilization had increased to about 40 cities in the period 250-900 A.D. defined as the classic period. Cities included Uaxactún, Tikal, Copán, Calakmul, Palenque, Dos Pilas, and Río Bec among others. Each of these had a population ranging between 5,000 and 50,000 heads. The total Maya population is thought to have reached two million people, the cumulative population of all the cities. Excavations have revealed unearthed plazas, temples, palaces...
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...Another key part to the warfare hypothesis is the possibility of external conflict, or as Webster calls it “foreign invasions” (2002:228). It can be seen throughout history, in various parts of the world, outside conflicts with neighboring people can cause a civilization to fall. Some proponents to the warfare theory support the idea that it was perhaps “’foreigners’, usually conceived to be Mexicans and/or Mexicanized Maya from the Gulf Coast zone” that exerted pressure on the Lowland Maya which led to the end of the Classic Maya people (Webster 2002:229). This hypothesis is supported by archeological finds at sites like Seibal. At Seibal, the style of art, pottery, and iconography dating about A.D. 800 has “non-Classic Maya” elements that differ from older works at the same site (Webster 2002:229). With this, Archaeologists inferred that Seibal had been taken over and thus the invader’s influence spread throughout the site. As with the previous hypotheses the invasion theory does not account for other factors of the Classic Maya collapse....
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...Famine Case Study 2011 Shohei Morita 3 November 2011 Examine causes and consequences of a recent famine. Since July 2011, Somalia has been hit with East Africa’s worst drought in 60 years, with over 12 million people in east African region needing food aid, according to the UN. They have also warned that this drought and famine could cause death of over 750 000 people in Somalia. As it can be seen on Map 1, other countries around Somalia such as Djibouti, Kenya, and Ethiopia have been affected as well. The key on the map shows that the areas marked with dark red are areas affected the most. The UN officially declared famine on 20 July 2011 in southern Somalia. Since then, 4 more regions including the entire Bay region in Somalia were declared famine. Somalia has been affected by constant drought for the past 30 years, while having civil war causing destruction to its rural and urban economies. Somalia has been categorized as a “failed state”. So what has caused them to become a failed state? Causes of this recent famine can be categorized into social, economic, and environmental. Somalia is also known as a failed state, a country without government. Besides the civil war they have had for the past 20 years, corrupted governments and lack of infrastructures. Firstly, Somalia has a corrupted government and lack of infrastructure. This prevents any form of aid group or government from transporting food and any other aid items. Also, the Somalia ordered 700 tons of...
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...Links between environmental degradation and conflict Sarah Meston Sheridan College Certain scholars are correct to argue that there is a link between environmental degradation and conflict for the following reasons droughts, the melting of the arctic and Migration which social security. The melting of the arctic could lead to upcoming tensions about formerly not accessible resources so it remains unclear who has the right to use these resources. Droughts cause environmental scarcity which causes conflict through competition for scarce natural resources. A real world example would be the environmental degradation of Kenya. The main parts of environmental degradation in Kenya are erosion due to wind and water, soil nutrient depletion, salinity, acidity, compaction, reduction in organic matter, and the effects of toxic chemicals and pollution. Kenya went to war with other places because of the lack of resources which killed thousands and destroyed many farmer’s fields all because of environmental degradation. Certain scholar’s statement that there is a link between environmental degradation is valid. References Gaston, A. J., & Elliott, K. H. (2013, March 1). Effects of Climate-Induced Changes in Parasitism, Predation and Predator-Predator. Arctic, 66(1), 43-51. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.library.sheridanc.on.ca/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=cbbff139-7fe6-45bd-b41a-308c0f636e2e%40sessionmgr4001&hid=4104 The articile is about the effect...
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...in Bangladesh. To maintain the supply of this level, the Government of Bangladesh has to spend a huge amount of foreign currency each year. Annual import of pulses in Bangladesh is approximately 108000 m tons (BBS, 2011). Mungbean is highly adapted to the agro-climatic condition of Bangladesh. Though the agro-ecological condition of Bangladesh is favorable for Mungbean cultivation, its area under cultivation and total production are low in this country. In Bangladesh, they can be incorporated in between rabi/wheat and transplanted aman as summer pulses during April and May having the range of long term rainfall of 8 - 15 mm. However, during this pre monsoon time, there occur occasional heavy rains which cause serious damage to the crop. Before inventing techniques to overcome this problem, it is necessary to assess the losses due to water logging. Harmful effect of water logging on different physiological and yield attributes has been...
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...Topic: How can we help reduce water scarcity in the world? What are the hindrances? What are the consequences of failure? Student Name: Yang GU (John) Student ID: 505052 Teacher: Peter Wald Date: 10/05/2013 Water is essential because water can maintain the process of eco-system, supplies the agriculture and human cannot live without water. However, there is the increasing number of water issues are appearing in the modern world and issues tend to be serious, especially the supply of water. Although water scarcity is an issue which needs to be solved quickly but, water scarcity is not easy to be reduced and when the project failed, it may cause more problems can make problems worse than before. There are over 43 countries are suffering from water scarcity approximately (United Nations). It may cause a number of water-related problems: starvation, water security, and poverty. According to a report which was published from the IWMI (Barker, R et al 2000) has pointed out the water scarcity is growing. In the meantime, research also found out the some poverty areas usually has the problem of water scarcity, especially Africa (Barker, R et al 2000). Therefore, solve the water scarcity problem should be the priority for some drought countries all around the world. For instance, The United Nations is running a plan called The “WATER FOR LIFE DECADE”; the aim of this plan is to help some places where lack of water to face the challenges of water scarcity (FAO 2006)....
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...which threaten massive disruptions in climate with severe consequences. The green house gases which are mainly contributed by carbon dioxide formed a blanket-like layer that prevents effective emission of radiations back into the space. When such a layer is formed, there is too much heat on the planet, hence global warming. The discussion herein looks at some of the causes, challenges, impacts and possible solutions to the problem. Causes Global warming is the general increase in the temperatures in the planet due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the ozone layer. With ever increasing industrialization, greenhouse gases are released on a large scale manner to the atmosphere and formed a blanket like layer that prevents the sun’s rays from being reflected back into the space. Normally, when the rays hit the ground, they are supposed to be reflected back into the space. However, with the presence of a blanket-like layer, the rays are trapped and reflected back to earth leading to increase in temperatures. Impacts of global warming Global warming has brought with it numerous challenges in the lives of both humans and animals on earthy. There have been issues of climate change associated with extreme weather conditions. For example, today there are extreme rains that cause flooding and eventually cause destruction of property or even lead to loss of life. On the other hand, global warming has caused extreme droughts that may last for years. This culminates into poverty...
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...The effect of global warming on the United States Global Warming was first recognized in the 1950's and will continue to be a problem for us, as humans keep contributing by releasing heat trapping gasses in our everyday life. The drought in Texas was very sever and caused a lot of problems while also creating expenses as well. Texas suffered from extreme wildfires in more than twenty cities. In the year 2011 there were 30,457 fires recorded in the state of Texas. More than seven thousand square miles of agriculture were burned. 3,017 homes were lost.7.62 billion dollars were documented in agricultural losses and 117 drought related deaths were noted (Amico). The greenhouse effect is a process by which certain gases in a planet's atmosphere give it a higher temperature than the planet would have otherwise. Light is one form of electromagnetic radiation. From lower energy to higher energy, categories of EM radiation includes radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, x-rays, and gamma rays. Blackbody radiation is EM radiation given off by all matter, as a function of the matter's temperature. Hotter objects give off more total EM radiation, and also give off a greater fraction of that radiation as higher energy radiation.Since the Sun has a surface temperature of 5,700° C, about 42% of the blackbody radiation it radiates is visible light The Earth also radiates blackbody radiation but almost entirely as infrared light Certain gases in the Earth's atmosphere...
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...Approximately eight years later the suspected effects, of careless exertion of the earths resources among other influences, have drastically impacted the world and scientist have agreed that it is the cause of climate change. I was aware of climate change and I’ve witness many natural disasters over the years due to news broadcastings; such as hurricane Katrina, Washington’s mudslide and most recently Arkansas deadly tornado. However, I never truly grasp the importance of the earth’s current situation until I furthered my research in college. According to the ShowTime docu-series “Years of living dangerously” climate change is inevitable due to the amount of earth’s resources used verses those that are replenished. The documentary opened my eyes to the high tempatures that are spreading across the country and one of the biggest causes of climate change, which are green house gases. The tragic causes of these gases develop from the burning of fossil fuels, cars and deforestation, which creates climate change worldwide. In fact, conservative projections by the worlds leading scientist have identified that 20% of all emissions come from deforestization each year. In turn the release of these gases rapidly increased the effects. Among many of the major consequences related to climate change are droughts. For example, I was shocked to discover how...
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...as carbon dioxide, which we are emitting into the atmosphere. Global warming can be natural or human induced, natural global warming occurs due to factors such as volcanic eruption, the relationship between the earth’s rotation axis position and revolution around the sun. However, global warming has increased over the last centuries at an unnatural pace, this has made specialist believe that the real cause of global warming is human induced. Activities that cause human induced global warming include, agricultural practices, burning of fossil, deforestation, industrial processes and the introduction of massive plants or animals. The effects of global warming may be physical, ecological, social or economic (Haldar, 2011). Some of the physical effects include extreme weather conditions such as rising temperatures, warmer temperature could lead to increased drought, more powerful and dangerous hurricanes and even intense rainstorms. Local climate change is another physical effect of global warming. According to (Haldar, 2001 ), there are three ways in which global warming can cause changes in regional climate, melting or forming ice, changing the hydro cycle and changing currents in the ocean and air flows in the atmosphere. Glaciers worldwide is melting, the cap ice of Kilimanjaro is rapidly disappearing, IPCC (2007 a: 5) found that mountain glaciers and snow covers had decreased in both northern and southern hemispheres. The disappearance of glaciers and changes in precipitation...
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...in Nara, Mali Background * Desertification traced back to severe drought in 1961-73 * 2 socio economic groups: agro pastoralists (sarakole) - sedentary, grow crops, keep livestock and rely on direct rainfall. Nomadic pastoralists (falani) – continually move livestock to find food and water. * Semi arid region of landlocked Mali * Ranked 175/178 on HDI * High food costs led to famine * Years of plentiful rainfall triggered plagues of locusts which destroyed crops * Natural vegetation is grass and woody scrub Causes of desertification Human * Population growth leads to more people collecting firewood from live trees and shrubs * Forest fires caused by human waste added to desertification and wind erosion * To meet demands of growing population, agro and nomadic pastoralists increased herd sizes * Population growth (120,000 (1976) to 190,000 (1996)) increased need for food, animal feed, firewood. * Little tradition in managing pastureland- overgrazing/over cultivation leads to decline in soil quality. Physical * Stalinisation of groundwater occurred due to recurrent droughts * Since drought (1961-73) rainfall decreased by 30% * Mean rainfall is 378mm and potential evapo-transpiration is 4 to 5 times higher. * No permanent rivers * Seasonal rainfall wet season (June to October) rest of year is dry. Rainfall can be unpredictable Consequences of desertification Short term * Conflicts between farmers competing...
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