World Danger’s Need to be Fixed

 Cameroon, located in West Africa, is currently being eaten by the sea. Families and shelters have been destroyed multiple times from ongoing storms that create regional erosion and costal flooding. Being a third world country, citizens of Cameroon cannot afford to rebuild their home more than once, forcing thousands of people to migrate to Kousseri, a village close to Cameroon.   Since climate change is almost inevitable, especially in an underdeveloped country, the government has limited power. Some means of fixing that the government implemented is flood prevention and mitigation strategies, dry area water management, policies for citizens’ movements to safer areas, and improving agriculture productivity. Hans Rosling’s claim that, “the division between the more-developed and less-developed countries no longer exists. Instead, there is a continuum of development around the world with no gap in the middle,” supports Cameroon’s decision to implement policies to help prevent the dangers of climate change. On the GDP map, Africa is ranked under the one of the lowest GDPs. This is because they are still strategizing on how to better their country’s conditions which categorize them as a developing country rather than an underdeveloped country as mentioned above. Knowing the history of Africa’s agricultural production makes it credible that it is a developing country. Since agriculture did not originate in Africa, it is a setback to their productivity compared to other countries. Also another setback is the pollution from developed countries. Sometimes developed countries’ waste products end up in developing countries, polluting their land and air, making their produce life-threatening.

http://www.irinnews.org/node/255785

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a workshop that aims to create cheap technologies that improve living conditions of poorer countries. Once they realized that 90% of the research development was devoted to improving technology for the wealthier people, they came up with solutions to switch the development research to help the poor. Scientists worked with materials that could be afforded by the world’s poorest people, materials that could be fixed easily, and fit technology that is easy to live with. These researchers are trying to create a sustainable development for the poor. Materials being used are eco friendly and people friendly, in other words are healthy and safe. It is known that poor people live in bad conditions and usually die young. In the development maps in Module 5, the countries with the least gross GDP also have the least life expectancy. This is because poor people cannot get their daily needs and resources they need to keep a healthy life.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/11/science/11mit.html?_r=0

 Over the summer I live in East Hampton, New York. Case one is similar to where I live because East Hampton is affected by storms as well. A few years ago a massive hurricane named Sandy destroyed my house. My house was located on the beach near the water, similar to the citizens of Cameroon, and was flooded and gone. However, unlike the people of Cameroon, I was able to rebuild my house stronger than before. Advanced government policies like insurance allowed me to improve my living conditions such as building it farther away from the sea and putting the house on stilts, rather than leading me to move to another town. In case two, a similarity is that the people of my town are always aiming to help the poor. Not necessarily in the technical way but in other ways such as donating clothing, donating food, and donating personal time to help them. Further, technology is always improving in my town, specifically for the wealthier. Alarm systems are constantly being installed and new cars are constantly bought, rather than putting money towards technology for the ones who cannot afford luxurious items. Both of these cases taught me that government regulation can play a huge part in advancing development in my town, whether its for the poor or for the wealthy. People should donate time to help both social groups to enhance lives for the better of the world.