Self-Sufficiency of Environment
The general definition of the environment would mean everything surrounding a point of reference. The natural environment can, therefore, be defined as what surrounds the earth. The earth’s environment covers things living on it and outside it, with each of the environment parts playing a specific role. One of the factors making earth special in the universe is its ability to support life, and the environment, in this case, can be viewed as everything that helps the earth in its mandate to support life. Life on earth would be unexplainable is the environment was not included in the explanations given. Factors such as climatic change can be seen as responses of the environment towards the activities happening within or outside the earth in a bid to keep the universe balanced. The environment is a key factor considered when defining life on earth, and each environmental factor plays its role in keeping the earth in a position to support life.
The environment is one of the aspects whose importance might not be explained in certainty. One can only estimate the importance of the environment because it plays roles that are beyond the understanding of the things living within it. First, the environment is responsible for the maintenance of life on earth. Everything living on earth depends on the environment for survival. Generally, the environment is a self-sufficient aspect that sees things within it to survive by depending on each other. Also, the environment is responsible for keeping the ecological balance to ensure that life on earth goes on for the unforeseeable future. Besides, life on earth develops in cycles that depend on the environment to be complete. Generally, the environment plays the role of keeping the earth able to support life. Moreover, the environment has significant benefits to its dependants.
The benefits of the environment are far beyond the ability of anyone to repay. The benefits come in the form of the services that the environment naturally gives to life on earth without the need for intervention. For example, life on earth requires safe oxygen that is free from other harmful gases. The environment supports plants that help in filtering the gases for use by other living organisms. Also, life on earth could easily be destroyed if the environment does not keep a check on the factors that work in unison to support life. For example, the environment ensures that seasons alternate at uniform intervals, although it has to struggle with factors such as degradation.
The continuous benefits of the environment amid severe degradation explain how its dependants are unappreciative. Degradation occurs when the environment is harmed in one way or the other, and the normal operation of activities is impacted. Human activities have been the leading cause of degradation, with little being done to avert the consequences of the degradation impacts. The environment depends on human beings to come up with conservative policies, but instead, the human race continues to come with destructive policies. Some of the policies have led to the misuse of natural resources leading to an uncertainty on the ability of the environment to support life for the near future.
Human Rights
The entitlement to receive a certain kind of treatment qualifies to be referred to as a right. Rights can either be on the positive or negative affiliation. For example, the right to education is a positive right, while the right not to be killed has a negative affiliation. Positive rights are ones that allow people to demand entitlement to engage in a particular action. Negative rights, on the other hand, are ones that allow people to demand refrain from some actions that might be harmful. Human rights form the larger part of rights that exist in the universe. Generally, human beings are the most powerful occupants of the universe, and their rights have always taken center stage.
Human rights have been in existed throughout history, but the advocacy for them dates back to the beginning of civilization. The emergence of law can be defined as the beginning of formalized human rights. However, some human rights are not formalized and exist as a form of societal acceptance to live in a certain way. Generally, human rights serve as a foundation for other aspects of society. For example, conflict resolutions take human rights as benchmarks for any ideas that are to be raised. Also, societal laws have to go in line with human rights to avoid conflicts. Besides, the enjoyment of human rights is seen as a right in itself and involves that one’s extent of enjoying their rights does not interfere with the rights of other people. Moreover, human rights are natural, and no one earns a right, and also, no one should be denied their rights.
Human life is believed to be valuable, and human rights are coined from that value. Human rights are entitlements that develop just by virtue of being a human being. The nature of human rights is that they cannot be earned and that no one can decide who should or should not enjoy their rights. Legal developments that are aimed at protecting human rights should not be taken as a way of developing human rights. Generally, laws are only made to ensure that people enjoy the rights that are already in existence. Besides, human rights are distinct from law and have been used on several occasions to form foundations for laws. Therefore, human rights should not be enjoyed to race, creed, or even gender but rather according to the virtue of being a human being.
In sum, human rights form the largest part of existing rights. Human rights develop naturally by virtue of being human, and no one should be denied the enjoyment of their rights. The development of laws comes as a way of protecting the already-existing laws and should not be viewed as the basis for human rights.
Pandemics and the Human Race
History is not short of stories of pandemics and epidemics that have hit the human race since time immemorial. A pandemic is defined as a situation whose impacts are felt throughout the world while an epidemic is felt within a city, a country, or a region. Pandemics are associated with a widespread infection by a bacterium or a virus that puts a large population at risk. Some pandemics are selective on their targets, while others hit everything in their way. However, the most serious pandemics are ones that put human life in danger. The year 2020, for example, began with the world facing the Covid-19 pandemic that put the world to an almost standstill. Generally, pandemics leave severe impacts on the world, and the earlier the address on a pandemic, the lesser the impacts on various sectors.
Different governments have different ways of dealing with epidemics, but pandemics might call for a uniform response. When a pandemic occurs, no country is spared, and the world is forced to unite against a common enemy. In 2014, for example, the then US president, Barrack Obama, questioned the preparedness of the US for a pandemic given the partisan differences in the country. The Covid-19 pandemic is the most recent pandemic to hit the world, and the world has again been forced to see the importance of international unity. Although blame cannot be passed on anyone concerning the spread of the virus, it is easy to see that the spread can be attributed to carelessness in addressing international matters. For example, countries allowed the movement of people until the virus was in every part of the world. No one can argue that the spreading capacity of the virus was not known from the beginning. When the virus started in China, everyone could hear the rumors about the contagious nature of the disease. However, no one took the urgent measure of containing the virus before it could move out of the area of origin. Although the failure can be attributed to uncertainty, it is evident that humanity has again failed in its role to take care of each other. Moreover, pandemics are worsened by the mutation ability of viruses.
Pandemics have proved once and again that they take time to be addressed due to the nature of viruses that are the main causes of pandemics. Viruses are known to be mutative, and the human body is exposed to a new virus strain in every pandemic. Also, a single pandemic might witnesses different strains of the same virus as it fights the measures taken to address it. The severity of a pandemic depends on the virus’ ability to spread easily among people. For example, the Covid-19 spread is highly infectious; hence the current fear that has come along with it. Human beings are known to be social beings, and a virus that spreads through contact might cause severe damage. Generally, pandemics affect the normal way of life and cannot be overlooked since they might cause several deaths if not addressed early.
In sum, the severity of a pandemic depends on the time taken to bring it under control. Pandemics take the cooperation of the whole world, unlike epidemics that hid a smaller region and taken a shorter time to disappear. The main reason why the human race fears pandemics is that they completely disarrange the normal way of life, and recovering is always a heavy task.
Uncertainties Call for Preparedness
Life is faced with uncertainties that call for preparedness. Risks are the consequences of uncertainties and cannot be avoided entirely. However, mitigation can be done to minimize the impacts associated with uncertainties. However, uncertainty is the main reason why people are unable to prepare effectively for events. No one knows the impact of a future event, and preparations are only made on assumptions and estimations. Uncertainty makes people behave differently depending on their perception of risk. Some people, for example, will do nothing in the hope that the future will be smooth, while others will set measures to prepare for the uncertainty in the future. Other people will not put any effort for fear that their efforts might go to waste if the future does not go as planned.
Uncertainty can be taken to mean what is completely unknown, and risk comes in as a quantifiable way of estimating the cost of uncertainty. Generally, risks and uncertainties are treated similarly, but uncertainties do not always imply a risk. Uncertainties do not involve quantifiable probabilities like risks, and they always exist. Generally, uncertainties have played a crucial role in changing the world as people prepare to deal with risks that might occur due to uncertainties. Some of the factors that can be attributed to uncertainty include science and technology. For example, countries invested in technology after the world wars because of the uncertainty surrounding world peace. Therefore, uncertainty calls for preparedness, which eventually leads to developments aimed at ensuring the best form of preparedness. Moreover, uncertainty plays a crucial role in decision-making.
Decision-making is a process that borrows heavily on uncertainty as decisions can only be implemented where uncertainties do not have negative impacts. The decision-making process is brought under control when uncertainties are considered. Generally, uncertainties have different impacts on decision-making, depending on the people involved. Some people are risk-averse, while others are risk-lovers and take a risk as a source of strength. Also, other people are indifferent to the impacts of risks and uncertainties. Uncertainty will impact the decision-making process depending on the category within which the decision-makers fall.
In sum, uncertainties are common in life, and the best approach to address them is coming up with ways to live with them instead of fearing them. The existence of risks due to uncertainties calls for preparedness to avoid consequences that might come with poor preparedness. The response of people towards uncertainties depends on their perception of risk.
Economic Growth
Most people create a picture of money every time the term economy is mentioned. Money is one of the main aspects of an economy, but the economy is not all about money. It is true to claim that money takes the central stage in any economy since people are mainly concerned about how to accumulate wealth, make savings, and invest, which all associated with money. The goal of any activity in an economy is to emerge with the highest monetary value. However, the economy goes beyond money to consider the production of goods and services to meet the demands and needs in the market. Economic growth considers the combinations of goods and services and the ability to cover any potential gaps in the market.
Economic growth can be taken to explain everything that happens between the production and consumption of goods and services. Consumption is the last stage in the production process, and economic growth explains how consumption needs are met with a response to previous gaps. The production process involves more than money, and firms are in the middle of the process. Factors such as demand and supply play a crucial role in the whole production process. The role of money can, however, not be overlooked as it ensures that the processes responsible for economic growth are successful. The terms economic growth and development have, however, become contentious among economists.
Economic growth and economic development are two terms that have been used interchangeably over the years. However, recent changes have seen economists come with different definitions for the terms. Economic growth has been taken as being applicable for developed countries, while economic development has been left for developing countries. Developed countries are concerned with the improvement of the existing infrastructure while developing countries struggle to come up with infrastructure. Therefore, developing countries are more concerned with the development and not with growth, as in the case with developed countries. Therefore, the definitions have been different for both developing and developed countries. However, the basics of economic growth are similar for both developing and developed countries. Economies move beyond the traditional efforts to improve production to ensure uniform distribution of resources among the various economic sectors. Moreover, the economy is a self-sufficient sector that depends on forces from within to remain balanced.
The economy is one of the self-sufficient aspects of society. The sector depends on forces within itself to remain balanced and operational. Although external forces might have an impact on the economy, the internal forces are sufficient to keep its operation. The main internal forces driving an economy are demand and supply. Demand develops from the consumer’s point of view, while supply develops from the producer’s point of view. The two forces operate simultaneously in that a change in one calls for a change in the other. External factors that might impact an economy include pandemics, which might affect the demand and supply factors.
In sum, economic growth can be defined from the view that goods and services can be combined in different ways to come up with an operational sector. Factors such as demand and supply play a crucial role in the whole production process, and money is only a motivational factor for the activities in an economy. The forces of demand and supply operate simultaneously in that a change in one calls for a change in the other.
Socialism
The main economic affiliations in the world are capitalism and socialism. The two economic affiliations approach the idea of wealth and property ownership differently. Socialism comes in as an opponent of the capitalist way of believing that a person has the right to own as much property as possible, given that they work for it. Socialism is based on the argument that wealth should be distributed equally among members of the community. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were the first advocates of socialism as they wrote to oppose the culture of mistreatment that was developing among members of the working class in the capitalist setting. The thinkers were not impressed in the way employers were taking advantage of a large number of unemployed people and offering them cheap employment with the promise of paying wages. Socialism is based on a series of efforts to avoid the inequalities created by capitalism through the creation of systems that make the rich people richer while the poor become poorer.
Socialism is an economic system that aims at creating equality in society by eliminating exploitation by wealthier people. The division of people, according to social classes, is always a source of discrimination, and socialism discourages it. Most economies focus on making profits and end up becoming greedy at the expense of workers who are forced to work extra hard to help their employers to achieve their dreams. Socialism is, however, different since it only advocates for collective well-being, and greed is highly discouraged. The means of production and distribution in a socialist society are collectively owned, unlike in a capitalist setting where the resources are owned by individuals. Moreover, socialism does not allow the market to control how the economy grows.
Most economies grow according to the forces in the market. The demand and supply forces always determine how an economy will grow and how resources will be exploited. However, socialism presents a unique way of growing the economy. In a socialism setting, the government is responsible for any changes in the economy. The production and consumption of goods and services go according to the government’s directives. The prices of goods and services do not depend on the forces in the market but the rates set by the government. Generally, the government decides what the people need and what goods are to be treated as luxuries. A better definition would be an economic setting that does not advocate for free markets. Social service programs are prioritized in socialism, and the needs of the people take a central stage in decision making.
In sum, socialism is based on a series of efforts to avoid the inequalities created by capitalism through the creation of systems that make the rich people richer while the poor become poorer. The division of people, according to social classes, is always a source of discrimination, and socialism discourages it. Exploitation and discrimination, according to class, are unheard of in socialism since society is concerned about collective well-being. Generally, socialism advocates for the development of the economy on a collective basis, unlike in capitalism, where everyone struggles to be the best.