Juanita Britt

Solutions to Global Issues

January 26, 2019
Professor John Cronin
Social Impact of Population Growth

Introduction

Global warming today started out as being called “inadvertent climate modification” by

geochemist Wallace Broecker of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Geological

Observatory (1). Global warming has been an issue since the 1970s and is still a popular subject

today. When the greenhouse gas levels rise it causes an increase in the Earth’s surface

temperature, causing global warming. The most talked about gases that contribution to the Earth

changing are carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). The other greenhouse emissions are

nitrous oxide and fluorinated gases. Global means the whole world, and it seems that the average

person in the U.S. only thinks about the United States. The whole world is changing due to

global warming. The research this paper includes is how a third world country like Africa is

feeling the effects of global warming, and Ghana will be the highlight of the research. According

to countrymters.info live, the total population of Ghana is 29 million people (3). With Ghana’s

growing population, they are seeing more emissions, just like any other developing country in

the world.

Greenhouse Gases

Gases that trap heat in the atmosphere are called greenhouse gases (2). As stated in the

introduction, there are four greenhouse gases but two get the blame. The two that get the blame

are carbon dioxide and methane gas. The burning of fossil fuels creates carbon dioxide in the

atmosphere. Carbon dioxide emissions is the highest out of all four gases. The types of fossil

fuels that create carbon dioxide are natural gas, coal and oil. These three fossil fuels are non-

renewable energy. Non-renewable energy is when a resource is used until it no longer exists.

Carbon dioxide is released also with renewable energy such as trees. Wildfires create carbon

dioxide in the atmosphere as well. Not only does carbon dioxide enter the atmosphere it also

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Social Impact of Population Growth

goes into the waterways. The way that human’s contribution to the release of carbon dioxide is

through farming, also by creating pastures for animals. Next there is methane gas, which is

emitted during the production and transport of coal, natural gas, and oil (2). Another important

way that methane gas enters in the air is through the livestock and landfills. Not only is methane

a greenhouse gas like carbon dioxide, the primary driver of human-induced climate change, but

its heat-trapping effects are even stronger than those of CO2 (4). Methane gas just doesn’t stay in

the air as long as carbon dioxide. Nitrous oxide and fluorinated gases are entered in the air based

on human activity. Three examples would be transportation, agriculture, and plant production. In

Ghana and other parts of the world, uncontrolled industrialization processes have brought about

the release of nitric oxide and other greenhouse gases such as methane gas carbon dioxide into

the atmosphere (6).

Challenges

Even though Ghana has its challenges it is one of Africa’s fastest growing economies.

Climate variability and change are partly responsible, posing a threat to future growth and

development (5). Global warming in Ghana has affected their agriculture, fisheries, water

resources, energy and human health. The rise in temperature has affected the crops in Ghana

because they are having irregular rain patterns that could lead to possible drought or flooding.

Cocoa is Ghana’s biggest cash crop; a drought would put this crop in jeopardy. Other crops that

are known in Ghana that are at risk are maize, yams and timber. Ghana is located along the Gulf

of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean, so fishing is significant to their livelihood. Water is a very

important resource for them. Ghana’s people diet is mainly fish. The increased temperature of

the ocean puts the fisheries in an awkward situation. Climate change is expected to increase the

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Social Impact of Population Growth

risks and impacts associated with vector and waterborne diseases (5). One of those diseases is

malaria.

Deforestation and bush burning are the biggest challenges in Ghana. There are two main

effects of deforestation on global warming in Ghana: 1) the "slash and burn" technique used to

clear the forest releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and 2) destruction of living trees

reduces the amount of photosynthesis, a process that removes carbon dioxide from the

atmosphere and stores it in the plants as carbon (6). The forest is the is their best renewable

energy. These trees at one time or another were helping to keep down the carbon dioxide in the

air. The forest in Ghana is the home of many different species and deforestation threatens the

lives of the species.

As far as security challenges in Ghana, it seems that it would be more violence and heavy

political and ethnic problems. For instance, if they have a drought or a flood then there would be

a possibility of a food shortage. Ultimately, global warming is truly an economic issue. Since the

water is limited and a lot of the water isn’t clean that create problems with crop production

which creates the food shortage.

Control Population Growth

Ways that population growth can be control is through development, ways to make

contraceptives available, education, spreading awareness, providing incentive and women

empowerment. Lack of development implies high poverty, high illiteracy, high discrimination,

lack of awareness, lack of medical facilities and thus in turn increased population growth (8). If

people were more educated, then there would be less poverty. If the people in third world

countries were more aware of contraceptives than that would put a handle on the growing

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population. Having an education helps to understand how helpful and easy it would be to have a

smaller sized family. Those that are in poverty lack the knowledge and are not put in situations to

where they can make better decisions. Empowering woman with a say in matters concerning

them like child birth and educating them to fight against discrimination will ensure a healthy and

aware society (8). Give women the awareness and education will put in a good place. Spreading

awareness through different channels could be helpful. Handing out flyers explaining how hard it

would be to have too many children. When the families go to clinics for the contraceptives,

informing them that less children is best should be a requirement. Maybe the government can at

some point mandate the amount of child per household until the population is at a stable rate.

Incentives have proved to be an efficient policy measure in combating most development issues

including population (8). Giving food vouchers that is only provided for a family of four. For

families with one child, giving them free or discounted educational resources.

Conclusion

Global warming is hurting the world in the same ways everywhere. There needs to be a

way to figure out how to produce less carbon dioxide and methane gas in the atmosphere. The

challenges faced in Ghana are very serious. Trees are very important to the ecosystem in every

area in the world. For every tree removed should be a tree replaced. Getting a handle on

population will help a lot with climate control. It should be a prior for every family to realize

how important it is to family plan. To learn how to not over populate the world to help reduce the

amount of greenhouse gases that are release.

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References:

1. https://pmm.nasa.gov/education/articles/whats-name-global-warming-vs-climate-change

2. https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/overview-greenhouse-gases

3. https://countrymeters.info/en/Ghana

4. Platts, J. (2017). What is methane and why you should care? Retrieved on

January 25, 2019, from https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/energy/stories/what-is-

methane-and-why-should-you-care

5. https://www.climatelinks.org/sites/default/files/asset/document/2017_USAID_Climate

%20Change%20Risk%20Profile%20-%20Ghana.pdf

6. Joshua, A. (2018). Climate change in Ghana, its effects. Retrieved on January 26, 2019

from https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/Climate-Change

in-Ghana-its-effects-634377

7. Abubakari, F. (2015). Why the government of Ghana needs to prioritize afforestation

to combat global warming? Retrieved on January 27, 2019 from

https://www.modernghana.com/news/625500/why-the-government-of-ghana-

needs-to-prioritize-afforestatio.html

8. Layers Technologies (2017). 10 Effective ways to control population. Retrieved on

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January 28, 2019 from https://listontap.com/10-effective-ways-control-

population/