Article Reading Oct 1

In-class exercise

Questions to ponder…

1. Have you ever wondered why you explain things to the teachers that they already know when you take an exam?
2. Have teachers ever graded you down for not writing something on an exam or for not answering the question event though you studied and know the material?

Answers 1

You explain things to the teacher because that is a way for the teacher and for yourself to see what you have learnt; if you have been listening and if you know the material.

Answer 2

That could have happened. Most of the times when I do not know or when I’m not a hundred percent sure about the answer to a question, I just write something anyway because I do not want to leave it blank.

How to study your material

1)   Identify the main ideas, highlight and underline

2)   Summarize main ideas. Select the most important paragraphs in the text and use the main ideas you underlined to help you write your summary (3-5 sentences about the main ideas in the article using your own words)

3)   React personally to main ideas – as Questions (at least three)

4)   Analyze the purpose to the text or the author’s purpose (PIE: Persuade – inform – Entertain)

5)   Evaluate the success of the text or the writer’s success emission

Highlighted text

“Humans need certain resources to survive at subsistence level – most commonly air, food, water and usually some kind of shelter. A sustainable habitat is one in which supply of and demand for these resources are balanced”

“How many beings can the Earth support before resources run low and nature take over, culling the human herds in order to reestablish a sustainable balance?. People in different parts of the world are consuming different amounts of those resources”

“Instead of technology allowing us to live better on less, we’re living better on more”

"We appear to be using technology in a way that defeats its purpose"

Summary

The way people are living today is not sustainable. We will soon outgrow the Earth’s resources and its capacity of reproduction. For humans to live at a sustainable level, we need food, water, air and shelter. Without these important elements we cannot survive and we cannot expand.
Today we are living beyond what the Earth can supply us with; we are ending the Earth’s resources rapidly and not thinking about the consequences. Everybody on Earth is living different and consuming different amounts of resources. One key element is that technology push us forward and gives us the tools to manipulate the world we are living in, the amount of resources and the progress in which way we get those resources.

Questions

1. What will happen to the human species when Earth reaches its carrying capacity according to the article?   
2. According to the article, how can people improve the issues of the Earth reaching its carrying capacity?
3. According to the article, will technology help solve the problem of overpopulation on Earth?
4. What are other examples of restricting population mentioned in the article (e.g., famine)?
5. Do you think if the earth reaches its capacity the government will need to limit the amount of children families have?

Answers

1. According to the article, when we run out of oil, we would probably freeze to death in winter and run out of food. We will at the same time advance in technology which also leads to air and water pollution as a consequence. Over and all we will destroy our necessary resources to live a healthy life.
2. The things we can do to improve the global issue is to shift to renewable and sustainable resources, buy and eat more locally grown food, reducing our ecological footprint and shower shorter. Since globalization is getting wider and wider, we share knowledge around the world and spreading knowledge over boarders which allow more and more people to focus on education rather than the making of babies.
3. We can, according to the article, help solve the problem of overpopulation with technology if we use it in the right way. Today we are using it in the wrong way which results in huge consequences. Technology allows us to invent new ways to improve the situation we are in today but at the same time we are destroying the purpose of that way.
4.  Examples of how the earth would restrict the population is by reducing the food supply, the energy supply (oil, natural gas, etc.), pollution of water (makes fish toxic) and pollution of  air (more diseases and other health problems).
5. The answer to that question is yes, especially in countries where the birthrate is big. It is not sustainable to give birth to more people than the earth can carry. If we stop producing children then fewer people will have to compete over the earth’s resources which hopefully will keep the carrying capacity from overshooting.