Global Crisis: Brazil Victoria, Dennis, and Alexander

The Question How can we help the Earth sustain our growing population?

Information: Past Population (In Millions) YearPop

Information: Predicted Population (In Millions) YearPop The Equation: y= * ^x

Population Graph (In Millions)

Our Focuses Dennis’: Deforestation Victoria's: Food waste Alex’s: Cattle ranching

Deforestation The Amazon Rainforest is the largest rainforest in the world. It covers 40% of South America. Deforestation has created an ecosystem that struggles to support the worlds needs. The Amazon Rainforest produces beef, minerals, timber, oil, soy, and gas, which is dug or collected by people to export to other countries. Because of the increase in population, more and more trees that make up rainforest are being cut down. Already about a fifth of the Amazon rainforest has been cut down for the raw materials. In about 20 years, 1/4th of the rainforest will be cut down or burned by human or natural causes.

Fixing Deforestation After seeing pictures of the Amazon, it was highly damaged. The Amazon Rainforest was announced to be protected from deforestation, excessive mining, and other pollutions. To accomplish this it includes law enforcement, satellite monitoring, and financial incentives.

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The Impact of Food Waste  Brazil, one of the leading food producers on the planet, wastes enough food every year to feed 30 million people.  Around 1/3 of the locally grown fruits and vegetables end up in the trash before making it to the table.  99% of the Brazilian municipalities had a waste management plan in 2008, but more than half still disposed of their trash in open areas without proper precautions.  Instead of consolidating trash in land fills, trash is strung about in random places.  Rotting food emits methane gas.

How is the Population Affected  The increase of food prices would make it harder for poorer people to buy food.  More litter and an eye sore to the community.  1/3 of the ground’s nutrients are being uselessly farmed because that portion is being thrown way before it reaches the table, not to mention how much of it is not eaten on those dinner tables.  The population will not decrease, but it will suffer from a lack of food in the long run.  As fertile is soil is used, there will be less time for it to recuperate those nutrients, which will make it harder to supply the population and grow the same amount of produce.

How Can We Sustain the Growing Population?  To keep valuable food out of trash cans Brazil needs have better preservation tactics to keep food fresh: refrigerated transportation, air tight containers, etc.  Be wary about how much food you put on your plate. Don’t load a plate with more food than you can eat and throw it way when you’re full.  Use leftovers instead of making a new meal every night.  Brazil could also reduce the amount of large industrial farms that have large amounts of surplus, and buy from local farms.

Graph of the World’s Food Prices

Cattle Ranching: Background Cattle ranching is a big part of the Brazilian economy, but it comes with huge environmental problems: deforestation and methane emissions. Around 91% of deforested areas in Brazil have been used to graze cattle. Along with deforestation, there’s methane. Methane is a green house gas that’s 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide. These things alone impact the world significantly, but together within one issue, something needs to be done about them.

How Does the Population Effect the Issue? As the population grows, more food is needed to supply the country. This ultimately leads to the growth of the food industry. Cattle ranching, one of the largest industries in Brazil, will continue to grow as more beef is required to feed the population as it grows.

How the Population Will Change and be Effected? For now and in the coming years the population will not be effected because the ranching industry has more room to grow. However, once cattle ranching can no longer grow, population will continue to grow, while the size of the cattle industry will remain stagnant. This could lead to serious food supply issues.

How Can We Sustain the Growing Population? Considering the population prediction and that the average person eats 271 pounds of beef a year, 66,395,000,000 pounds of beef will be consumed in Brazil alone. We will need a lot of meat to sustain the population, but we’ll still need to protect the earth from the effects. To do this we could limit where beef can be raised and find substitutes, such as chicken and pork. Another possibility could be raising the price of beef, which will reduce the rate that it’s consumed. This might not acceptable to some people, but it would be advantages to the environment.

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