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Using a variety of contemporary geographic issues, discuss how they are related to the levels of development in nations that you have studied. The reasons for high or low development within any nation directly relates to an assortment of geographic issues. These can include things such as the changes to social and political power within a nation, peoples access to housing and employment, and the environmental quality in which the nation is surrounded. Environmental quality refers to the condition of a countrys environment and its ability to continue to support the population. It is for this reason that we regard environmental quality as an indicator of the development of a country, i. e.
the more polluted the environment, the less developed the nation. In many developing countries, poverty forces farmers to overgraze land and also to deforest vast areas for fuel wood. Also, poverty spreads disease by depriving communities of clean water and adequate sanitation. Even where poverty is less extreme, lack of technology for disposing of industrial pollution or improving energy efficiency results in wasted resources and generates environmental damage. Pakistan has about 25 million ha of arable land. About 0. 4 million ha is lost every year due to salinity and water logging.
If these rates continue then by 2050 there will be no farmland left in Pakistan and Pakistan's population will have doubled to 180 million people. In developed countries however, technology is so much more accessible and it provides us with an immense amount of material goods and comforts yet fouls our air with pollutants, generates hazardous wastes and creates enormous demands for energy. The United States, with one of the highest Gnp's (Gross National Product) in the world, spends a very small part of its GNP on the environment. The quality of life of the population is affected as a result; for example, 30 000 people are thought to die each year in the US as a result of the pollution emitted from vehicle exhausts. Therefore, environmental quality affects both LDCs and Developed nations in terms of their development. Throughout the world changes are occurring to the social and political systems of many countries.
Arguably some of these changes have been beneficial to the development of countries and to their people in general. For instance, 630 million more people now enjoy democracy than in 1986. Although democracy is often considered a must for the development of a nation, it alone is no guarantee of human rights. India, the worlds biggest democracy, has an atrocious human-rights record, mostly because of its inability to escape traditional customs and conflicts. On the other hand, the UN has placed freedom high on its list of conditions necessary for human and social development, and many of the richer nations are increasingly making money off recipient governments improving their human rights records.
For the continued development of a nation, changes in social and political powers will have to occur by removing political and economic obstacles that deny people their basic freedoms and by creating a fairer global economic system. A development issue that is becoming increasingly worse, especially in less developed countries is peoples access to housing and employment. As the trend for rural to urban migration increases, so does the need for people to find shelter and employment within the city. The city of Addis Ababa has experienced growth rates in excess of 7 per cent per year.
Such rapid urban growth has placed an almost impossible burden on existing infrastructure and services and now nearly 70 per cent off Addis Ababas 1. 2 million residents live in congested slums. Another less developed city with the same problem is Kuala Lumpur, with about a quarter of its residents living in squatter settlements and only 7 per cent of the population having access to potable water and sewerage facilities. Going hand in hand with housing is peoples access to employment. Transnational corporations (TNCs) now number nearly 37 000 firms, most of which are based in the developed countries and control more than 200 000 overseas subsidiaries. TNCs also control over two-thirds of the worlds trade and in developing countries alone, employ an estimated 12 million people. However, the bulk of employment that TNCs create in developing countries is limited and most of the profits flow back to shareholders in the developed world.
Although TNCs generate a lot of good to the world in all, they are contributing greatly to the ever-widening gap of poverty and wealth. By being able to lower prices and use other tactics to run others out of business, especially those businesses in LDCs they now have a monopoly over the market, which no other business can compete with. It is for all the geographic issues stated above and more that determines the development of a nation. Any change to the social and political power within a nation can have either good effects or hinder the development of that nation, the quality of the environment surrounding a nation determines its development and this can bee seen in both LDCs and in the developed world, peoples access to housing is influenced by trends in urbanisation which can then have disastrous results on the development of that country, and TNCs are having an effect on the gap between wealth and poverty in the world and are therefore controlling the development of most nations. Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Social And Political Developing Countries
