Workshop - Real Problems

Environment problems - 

Overpopulation
Intensive Farming
Nuclear Problems
Climate Change
Environmental War
Climate Change
Pollution
Resource Depletion
Waste
Conservation
Environmental 

Selected problem to look at - Overpopulation

Looking at medical advances increasing population. Information is from a website called Medical Advances Timeline

'1867 - Joseph Lister publishes Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery, one of the most important developments in medicine. Lister was convinced of the need for cleanliness in the operating room, a revolutionary idea at the time. He develops antiseptic surgical methods, using carbolic acid to clean wounds and surgical instruments. The immediate success of his methods leads to general adoption. In one hospital that adopts his methods, deaths from infection decrease from nearly 60% to just 4%.' 


1879 First vaccine for cholera
1881 First vaccine for anthrax
1882 First vaccine for rabies
1890 Emil von Behring discovers antitoxins and uses them to develop tetanus and diphtheria vaccines.
1896 First vaccine for typhoid fever.
1922 Insulin first used to treat diabetes.
1923 First vaccine for diphtheria. 
1926 First vaccine for pertussis (whooping cough).
1927 First vaccine for tuberculosis.
1927 First vaccine for tetanus.
1937 Bernard Fantus starts the first blood bank at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, using a 2% solution of sodium citrate to preserve the blood. Refrigerated blood lasts ten days.
1962 First oral polio vaccine (as an alternative to the injected vaccine). 
1964 First vaccine for measles.
1967 First vaccine for mumps.
1967 South African heart surgeon Dr. Christiaan Barnard performs the first human heart transplant.
1970 First vaccine for rubella.
1974 First vaccine for chicken pox.
1977 First vaccine for pneumonia.
1978 First test-tube baby is born in the U.K. - more chance of births now
1978 First vaccine for meningitis.

Read more: Medical Advances Timeline http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0932661.html#ixzz3SHTaQF00

All the vaccines allow for less death and more life. 
with the first test tube baby being born as well this meant that people weren't able to have kids before, could now. This meant more life as well which leads to overpopulation.
Overpopulation in countries lead to crowding, starvation and poverty. Environmental problems to do directly with the land, the habitats of animals and pollution. 


Proposal for solution.

Purpose - What are we trying to communicate.  
We thought about raising awareness of the overpopulation problems, however we think it would be more useful and have more impact to talk about something a lot more shocking.
The abortion rates and gender imbalance in eastern countries such as India, China and Japan are really shocking. 

Ratio to men to women is shocking

United Kingdom is 1.05 so there is twice as many men to women here
China is 1.12 so there 12 times as many men then to women
India is also 1.12
Georgia is 1.113
Albania is 1.118

Presentation Points

Topic - Environment
Sub topic - Overpopulation
Other things we've looked at - Medical Advances, Chinese 1 child policy, Birth Credits, India Rising rates, Migration, Lack of education
Further Research - Gender imbalance within countries, China and India, Sex - Selective Abortions, Ratio of men to women in countries