Social problems: causes, effects, and contemporary issues

Social Problems 8489

Three Problems in the United States of America which are derived from Population Growth

Whenever there is a discussion regarding population issues, a majority of people talk about Africa and Asia. However, it is necessary to understand that the United States of America is also challenged with this significant problem of negative population growth. According to the observers, population growth in USA is not only damaging the planet and causing resources' depletion but the Americans (more or less 275 million in number) are creating a massive impact on environment as compared to the Chinese or Indians who have crossed the bar of billion. If truth be told, despite the fact that America is the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world; its inhabitants are faced with the same declination in life quality that other people in less developed countries are facing due to uncontrolled population growth ("Does the U.S. Have a Population Problem?").

There are a number of problems that have developed due to the population growth in the United States of America. The national immigration policies by the American government are considered as one of the basic factors behind the rising problem of population growth. According to the opponents of these policies, the American jobs are being outnumbered as foreigners are continuously migrating and taking up the jobs that are first deserved by the natives of the country. In addition, the immigration policies are creating a burden on the economic conditions thereby increasing social needs. This is the reason why economists suggest that the United States of America must take immediate steps to deal with the push and pull factors that oblige resettlement (immigration) including scarcity of resources, joblessness, financial imbalance and societal inconsistency. If the causes and context are put aside, it is crystal clear that immigration is unmistakably responsible for a major fraction of the overall ecological impact in the United States of America due to population growth ("Does the U.S. Have a Population Problem?").

As far as the economic policies of America are concerned, they also contribute in increasing the snowballing impacts on environment, owing to the haphazard population growth. One of the major environmental problems is that of deforestation that has been created by the rising demand for forest products as well as more space for urbanization and agriculture. The groundwater supplies are replenished by trees and vegetation. They also facilitate in the reduction of runoff. However, human beings are cutting down trees continuously so that there could be more area for fresh, arable farmland. As a consequence, deforestation is responsible for making rainfall lessen. This results in fewer opportunities for irrigation and less growth of crops. Thus, the natural cycle of trees' growth is easily disturbed by deforesting a land and then not reforesting it (Cincotta & Engelman, 1997). Same is the case in American land where population growth demands more land and thus deforestation is occurring on a large scale.

Both economists and environmentalists have accepted the fact that population growth in United States of America has imbalanced the renewable natural resources' production as well as the supply of environmental services. It has been also noted that the ways of life and consumption patterns largely verify the degree of resource utilization, waste production and ecological damage. In the case of United States of America, the respective citizens use "25% of all oil, 23% of all coal, and 27% of all aluminum" ("Does the U.S. Have a Population Problem?"). In addition to this, about 1/3 of total paper is being consumed by Americans. The same people also generate almost ae of the toxic waste in the world. To cut a long story short, the population growth in America has resulted in overconsumption of resources, waste generation and environmental damage more than what can be expected from their number ("Does the U.S. Have a Population Problem?").

Three Major Social Actions that might Help Overcome Environmental Problems

As consumers and citizens, the actions the individuals perform normally can result in negative consequences for the overall environment. Degradation of environment takes place through individual's responses in a variety of ways. These include consumption and production patterns that are adopted in response to the new circumstances. The search for the alternate source of income, resettling in other areas and collective action for the protection of the livelihoods as a group are other ways to do so. These individual responses can easily change social structures in the medium and long-term. Institutional change occurs when individuals change their consumption patterns, when the natural resource dependent people strengthen production, migrate or engage in other substitute new activities, and participate in social transformation in a broader way. Ecosystem degradation need instrumental changes such as behavioral and social responses which includes but does not limit to empowering communities, educating public, empowerment of women and youth and better responses from civil society. These are generally the involvements that stakeholders take and exercise through using their democratic rights in massive efforts in order to improve and advance the ecosystems and well being of humans ("8. What Options Exist to Manage Ecosystems Sustainably?").

Firstly, measures can be taken to reduce aggregate consumption of unsustainably managed ecosystem services. The choices of what and how much a consumer consumes are influenced mainly by the factor of price. But another very important factor is the behavioral factor which includes factors related to ethics and values, culture and behavior etc. Government can take measures and actions in order to reduce the demand of degraded ecosystem services. Government may focus on behavioral changes because that can reduce the demand. These measures can be educating individuals and consumers and conducting special awareness programs for the public and the promotion of demand-side management. Industry and civil society have to play their specific roles as well. Industry can improve product labeling and can commit to use raw materials from sustainable certified sources. Efforts to reduce consumption at the aggregate level can sometimes add in measures to increase the access of the ecosystem services by poor people and other specific groups ("8. What Options Exist to Manage Ecosystems Sustainably?").

Secondly, communication and education are other social responses towards a sustainable environment. There must be better and improved communication and education to accomplish the goal of the environmental conventions, the natural resources sustainable management and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation. Decision makers and the public can get the benefit from education concerning ecosystem and human well-being. However, tremendous social benefits are provided by education that helps to address many indirect drivers of the degradation of ecosystem. Modern theories of change and learning and not using research are the barriers to the effective use of education and communication. The importance of education and communication is well versed, providing the financial and human resource to take on successful work is a continuing barrier ("8. What Options Exist to Manage Ecosystems Sustainably?").

Thirdly, there must be empowerment of groups particularly dependent on ecosystem services or affected by their degradation, including women, indigenous people, and young people. Social and cultural structures are widely ignored and often restrict the participation in decision making of women, despite of their knowledge and potential about the environment. Young people are, in a way, the biggest stakeholders as they will surely experience the long-term results and consequences of decisions that are made today regarding the ecosystem services. Indigenous control of traditional sort of homelands is frequently presented as having benefits of environment by indigenous individuals and their support groups, although the human and cultural rights based justification continues ("8. What Options Exist to Manage Ecosystems Sustainably?").

Three Approaches that might be used to Solve Urban Problems

The first approach that can be taken to solve one of the biggest urban problem i.e. transport is to create a local or regional transport authority for supporting policy-making locally. It is not an untold secret that one of the biggest challenges that are being faced by the contemporary urbanized cities is that of urban transport due to a number of reasons. Therefore, it is exceedingly necessary for the authorities to get this challenge addressed. For this reason, they must develop an incorporated transport authority so that consistent policies can be made certain concerning every one of the diverse stakeholders. This is because urban transport issues can only be resolved when the transport actors are ready to work in unison with each other with a cooperative approach. Without a doubt, setting up and developing a transport network and arranging money for its infrastructure should be completed in a consistent manner. Only then can a project is ended. This approach is important for the reason that the traffic and public transport regulation can turn out to be difficult to stabilize if they are done independently as actions done by one administration can be very diverse as compared to the actions done by a different administration ("Better Urban Mobility in Developing Countries," 2003).

The second approach is to have control over urbanization to convenient levels by planning nationally. In order to make better management of urbanization certain, governments can take on macroeconomic policies with the intention of alleviating the extent of urbanization to levels that can be controlled or to maintain people to keep on living in rural areas. A National Physical (Spatial) Development Plan could be set up as a principal means for dealing with the "national direction on distribution of population; utilization of land; development of new land, water and energy; provision of infrastructure, housing and transportation that favor decentralized economic development" (Ichimura, 2003). This kind of approach would be of use in creating an orderly and consistent use of land on a nationwide basis and making the opportunity available "for urbanization issues to be addressed in the coherent way in the context of overall national development" (Ichimura, 2003).

The third approach is related to involvement, affiliation and control. It is an undeniable fact that no sum of investment, equipment or capability can make environmentally sustainable urban improvement and expansion safe if the authority brass tacks are not contributory, pluralistic and independent. A majority of countries that are in the process of development have developed wide-ranging pollution related set of laws. However, a number of these regulations have failed in effective application for the reason that that there are no competent governing bodies, official systems, political determination and spirit and capable controlling powers. It is unfortunate that the areas where economy is boosting and there is efficient development, the concerned authorities do not want to change for more good and resist and sort of new ideas for development and progression. It can be said that the implementation of any policy and plan that is related to urban management can only be successful if the urban governance is improved through amplifying lucidity and responsibility of strategy formulation and administrative processes. It must be made sure that every one of the stakeholders participates at every level of activity planning. They must be given open accessibility to acquire necessary facts and figures in combination with the enrichment of public knowledge and understanding of the issues related to urbanization. This participation is exceedingly important if the appropriate decisions and measures directly benefit the stakeholders. In addition to this, urban governance can be effectively improved by putting efforts such as "promoting participatory processes; developing effective partnerships with and among all actors of civil society, particularly the private and community sectors; securing greater effective empowerment of local government, including greater autonomy in finance and legislation; and reform of unresponsive organizations and bureaucratic structures" (Ichimura, 2003).

Patterns that characterize the Distribution of Poverty in the United States of America

In general, the measurement of poverty is done by using a way that is based on the income levels of an individual/family. An individual is regarded as being poor when he/she does not have enough income and is not able to meet even the most basic of the needs. In other words, one is considered poor when he/she has not enough money/resources to be above the poverty line. It is important to mention here that basic needs are not always the same and vary continuously according to the time and space. This is the reason why every country makes use of poverty lines that comply with its developmental level, communal standards and values etc. Thus, there is always a variation in poverty lines according to time and place ("Definitions of Poverty").

As far as the United States of America is concerned, there are a number of patterns that characterize the distribution of poverty in the country. In the ending decades of the 20th century, the spatial poverty distribution in the country was one of the major features as a pattern of poverty change. When the twenty-first century began, poverty in the United States of America was considered as a phenomenon that occurred naturally. Its distribution pattern could not be regarded as something that concentrates in a particular area in American land. The rural areas and small cities were particularly hit by the poverty menace before the 1960s. Even at the end of that decade, non-metropolitan areas had a fifty percent higher poverty rate as compared to larger cities. However, this pattern of distribution changed since the 1970s and there has been an increase in poverty in the metropolitan cities whereas it has seen a slight decline in the rural areas. This situation persisted and currently the poverty rates in the central cities of America are somewhat higher as compared to the poverty rates in the areas that are outside the cities. Another feature of poverty distribution in the United States of America is concerned with race. It is not an untold secret that in American society, the racial differences prevail since times unknown. Therefore, it is not surprising that there is also a remarkable dissimilarity in poverty rates when there are different races concerned. It is evident from the fact that "in 2005, a quarter of all African-Americans and just over a fifth of Hispanic-Americans lived below the poverty line compared to only a tenth of whites" (Wright & Rogers, 2011). There is a close association between race and poverty. However, recently the African-American poverty rates have declined as compared to the earlier times. On the other hand, it is important to mention here that the whites in United States of America are still the main group of people that is struck by poverty. This means that poverty is not the major problem of the minorities and marginal groups in the United States of America, but a menace for the whites on the larger part. To cut a long story short, poverty not only has an effect on African-Americans and Hispanics as the American problem but thousands and thousands of white Americans are also severely affected by it (Wright & Rogers, 2011).