Prioritizing Global Environment Issues and It`s Solutions Essay Example

example, droughts that cause massive crop failure leading to hunger and malnutrition. It also plays a part in the rising sea levels that have killed and displaced millions of people from their homes resulting in a great humanitarian crisis. Climate change also increases the number of severe storms and cyclones that cost lives and destroy property worth millions of dollars.

Additionally, climate change leads to widespread extinction of certain species such as the polar bears. Climate change also has profound intergenerational effects. The carbon emissions responsible for global climate change stay for long periods in the atmosphere impacting the environment for centuries and millenniums (Weart, 2008). The cumulative effects of such emissions present severe implications to the future generations who are not part of the emissions. Intergenerational ethics require persons to uphold morality in their actions and act in the best interest of the generations to come.

Global climate change is also a worldwide phenomenon. Once emitted, the greenhouse gasses affect the entire the planet regardless of the source (Lomborg, 2004). Additionally, skewed vulnerabilities exist where the less developed countries who are least responsible for climate change suffer the catastrophic impacts of global warming caused by the developed nations. Such severe consequences warrant global climate change to be among the top three world challenges to be addressed. Countries all over the world should commit towards combating this growing threat and preventing further damages by utilizing the natural resources appropriately and protecting the environment for the wellbeing of the future generations.

The Copenhagen Consensus should deal with armed conflict and arms proliferation due to their dire consequences on the population. Armed conflicts have several long and short-term effects on

development, the environment, and human well-being (Lomborg, 2004). Such battles lead to the collapse of public institutions resulting in a resultant paralysis in governance. As a result, they cause a breakdown of law and order which in turn leads to the destruction and looting of property and general chaos that slows down economic development (Lomborg, 2004). This discourages foreign investment leading to a lack of employment opportunities and poverty.

Additionally, armed conflicts and arms proliferation lead to significant loss of lives with extreme cases causing genocide through massive civilian causalities. The civilians in many cases of armed conflicts become the main combatants as well as the primary victims of mortality. Despite it being difficult precisely estimate the number of civilian causalities in war; the trend is usually upward with 50% of the war-related deaths being citizens. The severe consequences of armed conflicts and weapons proliferation go beyond the deaths of civilians. They are felt at various spatial levels within the conflicting area and spill into the neighbors to cause forced migration and long-term refugee complications. Additionally, armed conflicts destroy the environment, physical and human capital preventing sustainable development (Gates, Hegre, Nygard, & Strand, 2012).

They undermine core principles of human dignity and violate fundamental human rights. Particularly disturbing the use of children in the militia where they work as cooks, porters, spies, or messengers denying them the opportunity to education. Women also suffer several atrocities including rape, maiming, killing, and being forced to witness horrible acts of violence. This creates significant emotional and psychological stress that persists long after the war is over. Armed conflicts also set in motion a vicious cycle of poverty through the loss

of livelihoods and increase in social and economic vulnerabilities (Gates, Hegre, Nygård, & Strand, 2012). Children suffer starvation and disease.

The breakdown in infrastructure limits communication and access to essential services such as healthcare. Such severe consequences make armed conflicts be among the top priorities of global problems. The third priority from the Copenhagen Conesus should be addressing communicable diseases with particular efforts being towards combating HIV/AIDS. Infectious diseases present a major public health problem worldwide (Lomborg, 2004).

Most countries have a high burden of such diseases raising some urgent concerns. The impact of these diseases is vast as it affects the health of societies directly. They also affect economic and political systems severely. Communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis have a widespread impact on mortality, morbidity and disability (Copenhagen Consensus Center, 2016). Infectious diseases kill people more than famine, war, accidents and crime combined. It is estimated that contagious diseases cause 14 million deaths annually amounting to 32% worldwide deaths.

They also reduce the life expectancy of the victims significantly with some cutting it by 30 years. Children are left suffering through the loss of income and lack of caregivers. This translates to poor nutrition, health and education. Additionally, communicable diseases strain the existing health facilities leading to the delivery of sub-standard services (Lomborg, 2004).

Some healthcare providers leave the profession worsening the access to health services. The economic costs of such diseases are significant. Billions of dollars which could solve development problems are used to combat these diseases by devising prevention control and treatment measures (Lomborg, 2004). Communicable diseases most notably HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria result in a marked loss of qualified personnel reducing productivity and

profitability (Lomborg, 2004). Such losses take a huge toll on the economy reducing the GDP by 20% or more and slowing down development.

Additionally, communicable diseases can politically destabilize countries that have democracy. The severe social and economic impacts usually deepen the fight for power and scarce resources. With the increase in mass migrations, trade, and travel, communicable diseases are easily transferred from one area to another. The responsible pathogens are also always changing their genetic makeup and evolving to more deadly strains thus challenge the existing cures and vaccines. Therefore, the burden of communicable disease will probably to intensify leading to economic decline, social disintegration, and political deterioration.

These devastating consequences mean that infectious diseases should be given top priority. On the other hand, subsidies and trade barriers, migration, governance, and corruption should be among the bottom three priorities of the Copenhagen consensus as they have milder consequences than the others. Removal of trade barriers and the creation of subsidies have several advantages such as the creation of new employment opportunities. Business still continues selling at the international level despite the existence of the trade barriers.

Despite trade barriers being detrimental to economic efficiency, they have no direct threat to life and the well-being of citizens. Therefore, the Copenhagen consensus should first prioritize life-threatening problems since they have severe consequences on humanity (Lomborg, 2004). Additionally, although trade barriers limit the free flow of goods between nations, they come in handy in promoting the consumption of local products thus protect local industries. This creates homegrown employment opportunities, foster national security and increases the gross domestic product.

On the other hand, climate change, armed conflicts, and communicable diseases lack any

advantages that benefit the society thus should be addressed first while the provision of subsidies and elimination of trade barriers should have the least priority. The second bottom priority of the Copenhagen Consensus should be migration owing to its minor consequences on human life in comparison to the other global problems. Human movement frequently results from other serious problems that should be tackled first. Such problems include civil wars and changing weather patterns (Lomborg, 2004). Therefore, solving these problems will most definitely reduce the migration problem. Additionally, migration presents less severe consequences as compared to other world problems.

In fact, migration has several desirable effects such as alleviation of poverty in the native country, provides cheap labor to the host country thus help in overcoming employment challenges and promote cultural diversity through human interactions. The adverse consequences of migration include the creation of racial and ethnic tensions, a division of families, and exertion of pressure on the existing services such as housing and healthcare (Lomborg, 2004). However, these consequences are not very dangerous to warrant migration as a top world problem. Therefore, the Copenhagen consensus to purpose to solve the immigration issue after dealing with the more pressing problems: more so the ones that threaten the quality of life of current and future generations.

The final lowermost priority of the Copenhagen consensus should be limiting the digital divide. The digital divide was discovered last in the Copenhagen agreement making it a lesser threat (Lomborg, 2004). The increased gap between those with access to computers and the internet has less severe consequences as compared to the other world problems. A raised digital divide slows down economic development by

limiting education as teachers and students lack access to the vast information on the web.

This makes it hard to compete on the international level. Additionally, the lack of internet access makes it hard for companies to engage in e-commerce and e-business limiting profitability. However, despite these disadvantages, the digital divide does not pose any severe threat to human existence. Therefore, due to the sanctity of life, the Copenhagen consensus should first purpose to address the problems that threaten human life and reduce the life expectancy before embarking on the others such as reducing the digital divide so as to raise access to information.

Additionally, the digital divide issue can be self-resolving unlike other problems such as climate change, armed conflict and communicable diseases that need intervention. In conclusion, the world is confronted by several challenges that require immediate attention. However, the existing resources cannot successfully tackle all these problems at the same time. This makes it necessary to prioritize the challenges so as to solve them in order of urgency. The Copenhagen consensus of 2004 listed some of the devastating problems faced by the world requiring immediate attention.

Among the listed problems, climate change, communicable diseases, armed conflict and arms proliferation deserve the highest attention with the available resources being directed to mitigating their severe consequences. On the other hand, migration, the digital divide, subsidies and trade barriers should be lower in the significance list as they have lesser adverse effects in comparison to the rest. Such prioritization will ensure that leaders, citizens and policy makers concentrate on the meaningful solutions first. It will also make the problems well defined for easy solving.

This will in the long-run

reduce the global challenges by a huge margin improving the overall quality of life.

References

• Copenhagen Consensus Center | Copenhagen Consensus Center. (2016). Copenhagenconsensus.com. Retrieved 7 August 2016, from http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/
• Gates, S., Hegre, H., Nygard, H., & Strand, H. (2012). Development Consequences of Armed Conflict. World Development, 40(9), 1713-1722. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2012.04.031
• Lomborg, B. (2004). Global crises, global solutions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Weart, S. (2008). The discovery of global warming (2nd Ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.