Current Issues
Current Issues
Current Issues
INTRODUCTION
In this unit three issues are outlined – climate change, “mad cow”
and foot and mouth diseases, and resource security and safety. What
do these very different phenomena have in common? Why should
they be of interest to us? Each of these cases has held the attention
of the international media at different times. What they also have in
common is the very wide potential impact they could have on the
quality of life of many of the world’s citizens.
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OVERVIEW
Sessions 1, 2 and 3 cover climate change, “mad cow” and foot and
mouth diseases, and resource security and safety in the Caribbean, in
that order. In each case you are asked to consider the scientific and
technological aspects of these issues as well as the implications for
society, both internationally and locally. The unit ends by questioning
the relevance of these issues to our societies and our personal lives.
Some of these issues will be referred to again in more detail in Unit 3
of this Module, and in much of Module 2, The Impact of Science on
Society.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
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FOR THE STUDENT
A number of readings are provided for you. You are asked to read
through as many as you can. Some readings provide more details on
topics covered in the text; others deal with related but different
issues. The intention is for you to sample different views. You must
form your own opinions. However, we expect that you will be able
to support your views with scientific knowledge and factual infor-
mation from the text or the readings.
READINGS
• Donahue, James. Melting ice caps and thunder. From The Mind of
James Donahue. perdurabo10@lycos.com
• Gellateley, Juliet. Foot the bill and shut your mouth. Viva! LIFE,
Issue 18. Summer 2001, p.20. Also available at
http://www.vivaorg.uk/ Foot and Mouth Home Page.
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Education. © Joseph E. LeDoux, Ph.D. December 1998.
http://xchar.home.att.net/tna/ledoux.htm
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Session 1.1
Climate Change
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n There have been Possible long-term impacts of global warming
several ice ages in
the history of the • Increased desertification as water sources dry up in areas that
earth when very cold were once fertile.
periods alternated
with relatively
warmer periods.
• The melting of glaciers and the polar ice-caps, causing a rise in
20,000 years ago ice sea levels and the disappearance of very low-lying islands.
covered nearly 1/3 of
the earth’s land • Changes in the nature of crops that can be cultivated in different
surface. One
immense ice sheet, parts of the world. For example, growing grapes in the
two miles thick in “temperate” zones may become a real possibility.
places, buried most
of Canada and
reached as far south
• Loss of coral reefs due to the death of the temperature-sensitive
as Illinois. Other organisms that build the reef.
massive ice sheets
covered much of
northern Europe and The Kyoto protocols: the US response
Asia.
The Kyoto protocols are a set of agreements developed at an interna-
tional conference in Kyoto, Japan in 1997. They include a time
frame for participating countries to reduce the emission of green-
house gases by specified amounts over an extended period. Although
the international community agreed that there was urgent need for
such protocols, the Bush Administration in the USA decided, in
early 2001, that it could not support the agreement. However, some
European countries have made significant progress in reducing emis-
sions in their countries. The American response is a major setback
because the USA is a significant source of the greenhouse gases
being emitted at present. To date, this issue has not been resolved.
Table 1.1 World Carbon Dioxide Emissions from the Consumption and
Flaring of Fossil Fuels, 1991-2000
Region/Country 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
North America 1,552.59 1,577.33 1,608.42 1,642.15 1,652.22 1,711.55 1,743.55 1,757.44 1,783.87 1,832.50
Central & South
204.01 208.85 217.86 224.1 235.85 244.29 254.13 263.03 265.39 268.65
America
Western Europe 1,002.76 965.54 957.66 953.02 972.65 1,000.03 1,005.72 1,006.23 984.14 999.62
Eastern Europe &
1,190.49 1,124.13 1,033.96 914.03 877.48 861.21 806.51 789.58 824.22 844.23
Former U.S.S.R.
Middle East 217.37 223.57 234.02 243.91 251.29 259.09 272.45 276.66 281.43 288.01
Africa 204.93 205.7 213.26 215.75 225.69 224.29 238.31 246.02 238.11 240.14
Asia & Oceania 1,510.12 1,574.99 1,673.86 1,769.99 1,859.67 1,913.40 1,954.74 1,915.37 1,945.73 1,970.22
World Total 5,882.27 5,880.12 5,939.03 5,962.94 6,074.86 6,213.86 6,275.41 6,254.33 6,322.90 6,443.38
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CRITICAL THINKING ACTIVITY
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Session 1.2
“Mad Cow” Disease and Foot and
Mouth Disease
In the mid 1990s, in the United Kingdom (UK), there was great
concern within the cattle industry because of increasing reports of a
disease that caused cattle to stagger around and lose control of their
movements. Concern mounted, as the disease seemed to be related
to one called “scrapie” which had been recognised for many years in
sheep but not in cattle. The general population became even more
alarmed when it was discovered that the disease can be transmitted
to humans who eat infected beef as a variant of Creuzfeld-Jakob
disease (vCJD), a human form of the disease that the cows had.
n DID YOU KNOW...? A major cause of the rise of BSE in cattle was the practice of “feed-
that cattle feed may ing cattle to cattle”! Included in the feed supplied to cattle were
contain more than rendered remains of cattle and other animals such as sheep, some
15% protein from left-
over parts of presumably infected with “scrapie”. The rendering process (heating
butchered animals to cause the melting of the fat) did not remove the sources of infec-
e.g. blood, used
chicken litter, tion. When eaten, this abnormal protein can be absorbed and cause
feathers and offal? normal related proteins to change their shapes into the abnormal
patterns of the BSE protein. The cattle supplied with infected feed
could develop BSE and pass it on to humans. A major problem in
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tracking diseases of this sort is that many years elapse between
exposure and the development of symptoms. During that time
already infected animals can spread the disease to healthy animals
without any signs that this is happening.
The first concern of the agricultural industry was about the impact
of the epidemic on sales of beef and therefore the economic well-
being of cattle farmers. Their fears were justified. Once the disease
had been identified, most countries banned the importation of cattle
from the UK. Soon after this, sales of all beef products from the UK
fell sharply. Also costly, were the systems that had to be put in place
to prevent the spread of the disease and to ensure that beef
produced for market did not include infected animals and would be
safe for human consumption. Slaughterhouses which handled cattle
had to be inspected to ascertain high standards of hygiene.
Slaughtering and butchering practices were also carefully monitored
and each member of a herd had to be identified and tagged. Even in
countries such as the USA, which does not usually import many
beef products from the UK, BSE became a cause for concern. In
October 2002, the first case of an infected human was detected in
the USA.
?
? QUESTIONS
A more recent disaster for the UK cattle industry has been the very
widespread occurrence of foot and mouth disease. The disease gets
its names from its most obvious signs, the lesions and sores that
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develop around the mouth and on the feet of the cattle. Although
this disease is not necessarily fatal, it severely reduces the produc-
tion of both milk and beef. Thus the economic viability of the cattle
industry is compromised. The cost of the recent outbreak to the UK
government – and therefore UK taxpayers – is in the billions of
pounds.
• the slaughter of herds on farms close by, even when they appear
healthy.
ACTIVITY
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CRITICAL THINKING ACTIVITY
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Session 1.3
Resource Security and Safety
in the Caribbean
We usually use the term “national security” in considering events
such as the attack on the World Trade Centre on September 11,
2001 or increasing security at airports or spending on our armed
forces. However, our security as sovereign nations goes much deeper
than that. To what extent are we secure when we depend on exter-
nal sources for essentials such as food and energy? How secure are
we internally when our water supplies are “under attack”? We will
now look at some of the issues raised by these questions.
Food security
The Caribbean has a very large food import bill. We have become
dependent on a number of other countries for basic foodstuffs such
as flour, rice, cornmeal, meat, fruit, and vegetables. With our ever-
increasing populations and the decline in local agriculture, this is
likely to be the case for a long time. This dependence raises a
number of issues:
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genetically modified, foods and the use of various
agricultural chemicals should concern us).
ACTIVITY
The Caribbean also has a very large energy import bill, mostly as
derivatives of the petroleum industry. Few Caribbean countries have
significant energy reserves in the form of oil or gas. The major
exception is Trinidad and Tobago, which has significant supplies of
both. The energy generated and used in the Caribbean is therefore
largely dependent on external suppliers. The cost of this energy is
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beyond our control and rising. This has serious implications for our
development and our economies.
ACTIVITY
Water resources
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this could be made worse by global warming. Governments will
wish to ensure that they have control of sufficient water resources
to meet the present and future needs of their peoples. This can be
very difficult when such resources are rivers that flow through a
number of countries. The quality and quantity of the water flowing
from one country to another varies considerably depending on how
each country uses this shared resource. This can create serious
disagreements between neighbouring countries.
There have been some interesting suggestions made about the possi-
bility of exporting water from Canada (which has a population
about one tenth that of the USA) to the USA but many Canadian
environmentalists oppose the idea. Some countries are more inter-
ested in using flowing water to generate electricity, rather than for
other needs. This is another reason why sharing rivers is of serious
concern.
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Session 1.4
Why Should I Care?
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If you think carefully about your everyday life, you may begin to
identify other issues besides the ones that we have raised that affect
you directly:
To what extent are these local and personal issues separate from the
larger issues discussed in this unit? We ask that you keep this ques-
tion in mind as you continue the course.
ACTIVITY
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n No one expects any one person to be fully informed about
all of the key issues affecting the economic and social
development of a country. Should we therefore leave the
decision making about issues of scientific and technological
importance to “experts”? Perhaps you will agree with the
view expressed over 50 years ago by Sir Winston Churchill
that scientists should be “on tap not on top”. (This issue is
raised again in Unit 3 of this Module.)
SUMMARY
In the previous part of this unit you were asked to think about
issues which have appeared in the news media in the past few years.
These included, global warming thought to be caused by greenhouse
gases, and “mad cow disease” and foot and mouth disease in cattle
in Britain, both of which caused epidemics that could spread abroad.
These issues become news not necessarily because of their scientific
or technological interest, but usually because there is some perceived
impact on society, often bad.
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Not so much in the news but of equal importance were the issues of
energy and food security, and secure water resources raised next.
Our dependence as a region on outside sources of energy and food
was questioned and the need to maintain sources of clean water
was mentioned. We also noted that water, as a shared resource could
become a problem.
When such issues appear to threaten our safety or us, only then do
we become more concerned about the state of scientific knowledge
or the ways in which a technological advance may affect our envi-
ronment. Regardless of the issues involved, it is important for all of
us to have some understanding of the ways in which scientific
knowledge is generated and the scope and limitations of scientific
findings. Unit 2 of this module is about just this.
DISCUSSION
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