(7.1)--Supplementarymaterial1.pdf
This House Believes the Human Species has aBright Future to Look Forward To:OppositionBYMAXFURDAONMAY 4,2019(LEAVE A COMMENT)*This is the prepared debate that I made for side opposition before the COBIS(Council of British International Schools,)debate in Romania.*Honorable judges,worthy opponents,helpful teammates.The motion before us todayis:“THB the human species has a bright future to look forward to,”and as sideopposition,we strongly disagree with this motion.Today I will bring forth two points.These being:1.The treacherous state of our environment.2.Mass migration danger.Before I begin to explain my points though I would like to engage in some rebuttalwith propositions previous speaker:*This is where I would have addressed side propositions previous speakers points.*I would like to move onto my points now:My first point being,as previously stated:“The treacherous state of our environment.”In 2017 exactly 15,372 scientists from 184 countries cosigned an article named“World Scientists Warning to Humanity:A Second Notice,”(Source:AmericanInstitue of Biological Sciences)which was released in the magazine BioScience,andis thought to be the largest ever formal support by scientists for a journal article.Thearticle outlined several worrying trends regarding the environment and the disastrousimpact that such trends are having on the well-being of earths inhabitants.What isjaw-dropping about this article isnt the sheer number of signatures from variousscientists nor the sheer amount of irreversible damage that humans have done to theearth,but rather the level of disregard and nonchalance that we as a species seem tohave in regards to this issue.Our first true grasp of climate change was established inthe late 1950s(Source:The Guardian,)and yet more than half a century later all wehave managed to do is pour gasoline all over the fire.In addition to this whatproposition has forgotten to mention is that in the past 25 years there has been:1.A 26 percent reduction in the amount of fresh water available per capita.(Theinstalled cost of desalination plants is approximately$1m for every 1,000 cubicmeters per day of installed capacity.Therefore,a large scale desalination plant serving300,000 people typically costs in the region of$100 million.The costs ofinfrastructure to distribute water must be added to this.”)Source:Innovative WaterTechnologies of Texas.2.A 75 percent increase in the number of ocean dead zones.(“Dead zone”is a morecommon term for hypoxia,which refers to a reduced level of oxygen in the water.Hypoxic zones are areas in the ocean of such low oxygen concentration that animallife suffocates and dies,and as a result,are sometimes called“dead zones.”)Source:National Ocean Service.3.A loss of nearly 300 million acres of forestland4.CO2 emissions have jumped 62 percent5.The global temperature is up 29 percent while the abundance of vertebrate wildlifehas subsequently plunged 29 percent(Source:American Institute of Biological Sciences).And these statistics are just the tip of the iceberg.Which is unfortunately melting and melting fast.My second point is that the future will pose threats and various logistical issues due tomass migration.As various countries(usually in less developed countries,)encounteroverpopulation,climate problems,and the economic issues that stem from theseproblems the world will experience an influx of mass migration.Currently,there arean estimated 65 million people forcibly displaced from their homes and 258 millioninternational migrants,(Source:World Health Organization).All of which poseepidemiological issues,social issues,logistical and economic strain for the countriesharboring them.While the current number is already obscenely high,imagine a worldwhere many countries cannot provide enough food for their citizens,major cities withmillions of inhabitants are flooded,and there is limited fresh water available.Youdont have to imagine.Countries such as Thailand,Bangladesh,and Myanmar haveflooding that displaces millions of people every year imagine the type of flooding in30 years when water levels have risen by more than one foot globally.(Source:WorldClimate Assessment).Capetown one of the worlds biggest cities recently justmanaged to avoid“Day Zero,”or the day that they run out of fresh water to providetheir citizens and only because it rained finally refilling their water reservoirs.Once this happens on a more global and harsher scale where will all the people whosehome countries cannot provide the basic necessities to maintain life go?Countries canonly provide shelter for so many people before risking causing issues for themselves.In conclusion,it is apparent that we the human species does NOT have a brightfuture to look forward to.Already,the abysmal state of our environment has impactedmillions of people dependent on this very earth for their livelihood,and there does notseem to be an easy or even viable solution to these worsening issues offered by theinternational community or much less the proposition who are so valiantly attemptingto argue that the human species does,in fact,have a bright future to look forward to.Mass migration also potentially threatens that stability of dozens of countries aroundthe world which struggle to support the influx of migrants they already have.As aspecies,we are sprinting straight towards a full-on Armageddon of environmentalcatastrophes and mass migration,which gives us at best a very bleak future.
