Millions Face Starvation as World Warms

This article puts forward the importance of critically evaluating stories making news. This is because some of these stories could be grossly misleading putting into account the following aspects. Stories might contain inaccurate data, be shallow and fail to cover the whole truth. Sometimes stories cast a blind eye at some aspects of the situation and leave out pertinent information. Some stories are told without putting into account some perspectives and views. Other stories make assumptions that could be wrong while others emphasize some implications of the story and accidentally or deliberately leave some implications uncovered. It is crucial to make clear and elaborate distinctions when critically looking into this matter to uncover such flaws in stories. This is for one to ensure that he gets the information the story aims tell. It makes one think and make the best judgment. This paper focuses on the story captured on the news website.

There was a story making headline on One Worlds News website on April 14, 2013. It read as follows, Millions face starvation as world warms, say scientists. The story explains that the world is headed to hard times ahead. Since there is pollution and a lot of unstable climate changes, the future of our ecosystem remains uncertain. The effects are disastrous to the generations. Currently the piece of news says that over one billion people are starving especially in Africa and Asia. It is researched and said that the world’s climate by 2050 will exhibit serious climatic changes. This will see the world food supply dwindle fundamentally. Percentages by which food supply will decrease in some areas are also given. Climatic change will increase temperatures, cause floods and droughts on the planet and see some parts of Africa doomed to permanent misery. It is also projected that one billion people already face by drought will have no means of adapting when this happens. Population will have hit nine billion by 2050. This means that the population will have increased and while food supply will have reduced.

This piece of news assumes a number of things. The population of the globe may or may not hit the nine billion mark by 2050. It is possible by then that child birth control measures will   tackle population growth. The story gives future projections and is largely expected to assume some things. It is not also cast in stone that the climate will change and affect food production. For instance scientists are divided almost right down the middle on the causes of climate change. Some say humans are responsible while others say that human contribution to climatic change is negligible.  Natural universe activities are also responsible instead and have put forward some proof. If the latter is true, then one might ask themselves whether the natural changes in the universe could take a turn in the future that brings a better climate for food production.

The news leaves some information out. Over and above assuming population rise to alarming figures the article leaves information on how to counter population growth. A reader may feel that there is a need to address the solutions for the issue at hand rather than just reporting on the problem and leaving it at that. The article explicitly states that the problem projected will be as a result of overpopulation and climate change. Surprisingly enough it leaves out the issues of population and climate change.

Leaving out some bits of information can be misleading. The news also ignores all together that there are key steps that have been made in tackling the food security problem in the future. There are technologies that have genetically modified animals and plants genetically and seen them adapt to severe conditions of drought, salinity and many other such conditions. It only focuses on normal crops such as wheat in the USA, Australia, Canada and Russia. This could give a reader a scare as it focuses doom. It gives no hope whatsoever to a reader about the state of affairs in future.

This article focuses on starvation in the future especially in Africa and Asia. This is hardly what the reader gets from the story. It neither gives the details of Africa or talk about African staple food and how it is endangered by climatic change. Rather the article emphasizes on the Asian region of Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia. It talks about the projected temperature rise, the projected population rise and hence the food crisis thereafter. This overemphasizes the on Asia and leaves Africa out.

This article fails to explain how pests will thrive in the new climate as it says while animals and crops will not.  Even without genetic modification there are some animals and plants that have adapted to unusually severe climates. The tundra and the Antarctic climates have animals and plants. So does the Sahara. At least these should have been cleared.

It is would be a different story all together hearing this on radio or watching it on the television. This could be extremely scaring news as most of us toady has a probability of living up to 2050 as the majority of the world population is in their youthful ages. Another feeling it would elicit would be that people are mislead to act in a certain way. This because there are many conspiracies that rumored about the destiny of the world. This is   aggravated by the television by images of the projections shown.


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