Technology can help to solve the problem of food shortages by increasing the rate of production of food. It increases the rate by manufacturing machines to aid the farmers in their daily farming processes (e.g. a tractor for harvesting crops) or by inventing a new farming technology to revolutionize the traditional farming methods. An example of this would be the invention of genetic engineering. The particular technology has helped to increase the rate of production at a shorter time, and therefore increasing the output by almost 300%. As the population is now increasing at a fast and alarming rate, we therefore have to think of ways to increase the outputs at a shorter time. Traditional agriculture methods take up too much land as compared to high technological farming methods and also produce fewer outputs at a slower rate. Judging by this, we can clearly see how technology can increase the outputs and a much faster rate and this means that the extra food could be given to third world countries that are experiencing food shortages.
Consequences of the flood in Australia (based on article)http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20090217-122617.htmlFlooding rivers and heavy rains cut off towns, stopped mining operations and damaged crops in three Australian states on Tuesday - one week after devastating bushfires swept the country's southeast killing 200people. Heavy rain and flooding forced mining giant Rio Tinto Ltd/Plc to suspend iron ore mining and rail haulage on Tuesday over a large part of the Pilbara region in Western Australia state.All operations at the company's Pannawonica, Brockman and Nammuldi mines have been halted, and pit mining at Tom Price and Paraburdoo have also been brought to a standstill, it said.Flooding along the 80 km road separating Rio's two main ports at Dampier and Cape Lambert made it difficult to fully assess the impact the bad weather was having on operations that unload up to a half-million tonnes of oredaily.A low depression storm off the east coast caused heavy rains on Tuesday in New South Wales state, flooding rivers and isolating towns."Some of the towns are the wettest they have been in 20 to 30 years," said a weather official.The outback town of Bourke, in drought last week, has recorded 232 mm of rain in recent days, more than two-thirds of its annual rain. While the coastal town of Bellingen was cut off on Tuesday after receiving 323 mm in 24 hours.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7174377.stmThunderstorms are partly responsible for the floods .
Since the rivers of Australia could not take in so much rain , the banks burst as they
could not take it anymore . The roads were like rivers and bridges were destroyed , being washed away .
The flood waters had forced people to leave their destroyed homes , leaving them
homeless .
In some areas, food and other essential supplies for trapped residents have been brought in by
helicopter .
"There are some
3,000 people who remain isolated by flood waters ," New South Wales State Emergency Service spokesman Phil Campbell said .
About 700 people who were attending a music festival on an island near the town of Tenterfield in the north-east of the state were stranded after a bridge washed out .
Causes of floodsFlooded areas of land usually start off as very dry land. Floods are caused by heavy rains that pour to much water into rivers and other waterways. Making these natural channels unable to carry all the water. Rising water flows over or breaks the banks to the waterways causing the surrounding land to be flooded. Different causes of floods can come from masses of snow melting of tidal waves.Where do floods occur?The type of land that is prone to flooding are broad and flat usually situated on the banks of a river or main waterway. Rivers that flood are regarded in three different stages. They are:تWater comes off the mountains, eroding the beds and banks of the river as it flows.
تThis type river travels through broad valleys which slows the current of the river down. If the current is slow it will
transport less material down the river.
تFlood-plain stage. Little if not any erosion takes place most of the material tha tis carried in the current is suspended and deposited to the form a flood plain.
Primary effects
تPhysical damage - Can range anywhere from bridges,cars, buildings, sewer systems, roadways, canals and any other type of structure.
تCasualties - People and livestock die due to drowning. It can also lead to epidemics and diseases.
Secondary effects
تWater supplies - Contamination of water. Clean drinking water becomes scarce.
تDiseases - Unhygienic conditions. Spread of water borne diseases.
تCrops and food supplies - Shortage of food crops can be caused due to loss of entire harvest. However, lowlands near rivers depend upon river silt deposited by floods in order to add nutrients to the local soil.
تTrees - Non-tolerant species can die from suffocation.
Tertiary/long-term effects
تEconomic - Economic hardship, due to: temporary decline in tourism, rebuilding costs, food shortage leading to price increase etc.
In many countries across the world, rivers prone to floods are often carefully managed. Defences such as levees, bunds, reservoirs, and weirs are used to prevent rivers from bursting their banks. When these defences fail, emergency measures such as sandbags or portable inflatable tubes are used. Coastal flooding has been addressed in Europe and the Americas with coastal defences, such as sea walls, beach nourishment, and barrier islands.
London is protected from flooding by a huge mechanical barrier across the River Thames, which is raised when the water level reaches a certain point.
Venice has a similar arrangement, although it is already unable to cope with very high tides. The defenses of both London and Venice will be rendered inadequate if sea levels were to rise.
Flood blocking the road in JerusalemThe largest and most elaborate flood defenses can be found in the Netherlands, where they are referred to as Delta Works with the Oosterschelde dam as its crowning achievement. These works were built in response to the North Sea flood of 1953 of the southwestern part of the Netherlands.
The Dutch had already built one of the world's largest dams in the north of the country: the Afsluitdijk (closing occurred in 1932).
Currently the Saint Petersburg Flood Prevention Facility Complex is to be finished by 2008, in Russia, to protect Saint Petersburg from storm surges. It also has a main traffic function, as it completes a ring road around Saint Petersburg. Eleven dams extend for 25.4 kilometres and stand eight metres above water level.
In Austria, flooding for over 150 years, has been controlled by various actions of the Vienna Danube regulation, with dredging of the main Danube during 1870-75, and creation of the New Danube from 1972-1988.
Americas
Flooding near Snoqualmie, Washington, 2009.
Another elaborate system of floodway defences can be found in the Canadian province of Manitoba. The Red River flows northward from the United States, passing through the city of Winnipeg (where it meets the Assiniboine River) and into Lake Winnipeg. As is the case with all north-flowing rivers in the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere, snowmelt in southern sections may cause river levels to rise before northern sections have had a chance to completely thaw. This can lead to devastating flooding, as occurred in Winnipeg during the spring of 1950. To protect the city from future floods, the Manitoba government undertook the construction of a massive system of diversions, dikes, and floodways (including the Red River Floodway and the Portage Diversion). The system kept Winnipeg safe during the 1997 flood which devastated many communities upriver from Winnipeg, including Grand Forks, North Dakota and Ste.
Agathe, Manitoba.
In the U.S., the New Orleans Metropolitan Area, 35% of which sits below sea level, is protected by hundreds of miles of levees and flood gates. This system failed catastrophically, in numerous sections, during Hurricane Katrina, in the city proper and in eastern sections of the Metro Area, resulting in the inundation of approximately 50% of the metropolitan area, ranging from a few centimetres to 8.2 metres (a few inches to 27 feet) in coastal communities. In an act of successful flood prevention, the Federal Government of the United States offered to buy out flood-prone properties in the United States in order to prevent repeated disasters after the 1993 flood across the Midwest. Several communities accepted and the government, in partnership with the state, bought 25,000 properties which they converted into wetlands. These wetlands act as a sponge in storms and in 1995, when the floods returned, the government did not have to expend resources in those areas.Asia
In China, flood diversion areas are rural areas that are deliberately flooded in emergencies in order to protect cities.
Many have proposed that loss of vegetation (deforestation) will lead to a risk increase. With natural forest cover the flood duration should decrease. Reducing the rate of deforestation should improve the incidents and severity of floods.-ღAdriena
i've contributed to the wetpaint website :D !
but now - "consequences" , being done by me and eunice .
✄ germaine (:
