United Nations Environmental Program Essay Example for Free

United Nations Environmental Program Essay There are a lot of articles, books and essays that have been written, touching on the relationship that land has with agricultural practices. For instance, Helmut Geist and Lambin Eric in their essay make postulations that irresponsible agricultural practices have been responsible for the disappearance of tropical forest covers, both at the local and regional levels. The two, being postdoctoral researchers in geography, specializing in the field of global climatic change, posit that irresponsible agriculture is far much responsible for the concept of land use and land cover change (LUCC). To back this argument up, Helmut and Lambin elucidate on the matter, postulating that irresponsible agriculture negatively affects the LUCC than any other practice carried out within the auspices of human civilization. To bolster this notion, it is posited by the two that apart from the fact that agricultural activities has the potency to deliver negative environmental degradation, irresponsible agriculture has the ability to deliver soil erosion- a feat that environmental degradation cannot receive from the industrial sector and its pollution. Evidence Presented The strengths in these claims are that farming and irresponsible agriculture has in most times been blamed for soil degradation. Much evidence is adduced and presented by Helmut and Lambin in this work. For instance, Helmut and Lambin quote the United Nations Environmental Program 2004 statistics that indicate that tilling land that is on a hill and failure to build gabions have in most instances been blamed for over 75% of cases touching on soil erosion (Levine 2006). In another wavelength, it is true that irresponsible farming activities harms the soil when very strong inorganic fertilizers are used, making the soil become resistant to fertilizers and pesticides. Weaknesses Critics such as Geist (2006) point that there are pitfalls in this work that was presented by Helmut and Lambin. For example, in the first case, not all the adverse effects of irresponsible farming practices are dealt with herein. For example, there is no point on the role overstocking (of animals) plays towards soil erosion and the depletion of the scarce resources within the environment. Nevertheless, it is true that all the above factors contribute to the disappearance of the land cover. Assumptions made by the writers At the same time, there are some assumptions that Helmut and Lambin make. Assuming that keeping the right size of cattle, building gabions, using the right quantities of organic fertilizers and pesticides are the only panacea in themselves against the spread of the loss of fertile land is a fallacy on its own. On the contrary, the two forget to address important farming practices such as the growing of leguminous crops, crop rotation and fallowing of land, as being instrumental in the cause against soil erosion. Growing leguminous crops such as beans help in nitrogen fixing in the soil, whereas crop rotation and mixed cropping helps the land receive nutrition from different types of crops. Letting land lay fallow on the other hand, enables the revitalization of pedological energy and the recovery of humus. These are the counterarguments that have been put forth by other critics such as Singh and Fox (2001). Conclusion and importance of the problems and the argument being tackled The sacrosance of the argument at hand is that there is a serious interrelationship between LUCC and human life. This means that mismanagement of the former has the potency to ruthlessly damage the cause of human life. It is no wonder that calls are rife from UNEP for the leading economies to tow the line in ensuring that there is the assuaging of soil, water and air pollution so that the prospects of future human survival can be consolidated. Works Cited Singh, Ram and Fox, Jefferson. A Look at Land Use and Cover Change. New York: McGraw Hill. 2001. Geist, Helmut. A Study on Earth’s Changing Landscape. Colorado: John Wiley and Sons. 2006. Levine, Joel. Global Change and the Burning of Biomass. Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 2006.