Instructions: All the words from question number (1-6) are taken from the above passage: paragraph (2), (3) and (4) and choose the alternative which contains their contextual meanings used in the passage.

National and Global Population Growth

1. The rapid population growth observed over the last decades in Ethiopia has resulted in a number of challenges and crisis against both human and wild lives. One of the most dominant casualties is severe environmental degradation which is responsible for the prevalence of poverty and famine. More often than not, many international reports claim that the alarmingly growing population at an unprecedented rate is negatively affecting the environment in different parts of the country and this degradation is exposing a large number  populated, the more the resources in that area are degraded by both the rich and the poor though the frequency and magnitude differ. There is a widely accepted  truth  that  the poor tampers more frequently with the fauna and flora of the environment while the devastation caused by the rich to the environment is higher in scale. Under most  circumstances, when the size of the population and the economic growth of a country are not  growing  evenly,  poverty-stricken  people tend to overuse every resource available to them as their survival is endangered. When  the  situations  become  worse and worse, it is  a  must  for  many  citizens  to  immigrate. In addition to the above anthropogenic damages, other factors such as lack of   material   resources,   inadequate loans and subsidies, illiteracy and lack of awareness and consciousness impinge seriously upon the environment. Thus, since uncontrolled population growth is the main threat to  the  environmental  convenience  and  comfortability to both human and wild lives, a positive change in attitude towards the environment is needed in order to save the most cherished flora and fauna.

2. Eighty-five percent of the  population  in  Ethiopia  lives  in rural areas, mainly in the central and northeastern highlands, where population growth and  poverty  are  much  higher  than in urban areas. As the population  in  these  areas  increases more and more, land is deforested and over-farmed. This in turn has brought about less crop production and subsistent livelihood. When forests are cleared, the residents must travel farther and farther to find firewood, which  is  the principal fuel for cooking or sometimes they dry up animals’ dung which should have been used as natural fertilizer. The other disaster is soil erosion.  When   the   steep   highlands are deforested, their soil can easily been eroded and their fertility to grow crops decreases from time to time. Because of this, many previously habitable lands in these areas have now been transformed into dry lands and deserts.  This vicious cycle is exacerbating the effects of the droughts in the country mostly leading to severe and ever more frequent crises. The 2003 famine, for example, affected more than 13 million people of  the  country  and  at  least  6  million  people at an average suffer from permanent food  insecurity  every year. Of course, as experts in the field argue, the problem is aligned not only with deforestation but also  has  connection with a small size of arable land that farmers cultivate every year. To change the existing scenario, the green legacy which is being implemented every year all over the country during rainy seasons, has significant contribution in changing the ecology of the country and agricultural productivity as well.

3. The other effect that results  from  overpopulation,  of  course not peculiar to Ethiopia, is the poor state of women’s health. If the size of  the  population  and  the  per  capita  income  of the citizens do not strike the balance, it is difficult for any government to sufficiently supply health facilities to citizens in general and to females in particular. As reports from Save the Children (2004) show, Ethiopia is  one  of  the  lowest ranked countries where one  out  of  every  14  women  dies from complications during pregnancy and 114 infants  pass away in every 1000 live births. Therefore, to stabilize the population growth, increasing girls’ education and expanding women’s empowerment is one of the highly recommended solutions. In this regard, we all know that the current Ethiopian  government  is  taking  practical  measure,  though not sufficient, in raising up the ratio of  females  officials ranging from lower to higher levels of responsibilities in different governmental offices. This kind of attitudinal change is believed to have substantial contribution in controlling the unplanned population growth. Generally, despite the challenges Ethiopia  is  facing  from  both  human and nature, there are attempts  to  incorporate  population, health, and environment issues into the country’s poverty reduction strategies.

4. Globally, over the last  hundreds  of  thousands  years,  the world population has grown to one  billion  then  in  just  the next two-hundred years  or  so,  it  grew  sevenfold.  In  2011, the global population reached the  seven  billion  mark  and today it stands  at  about  9.4  billion.  This  dramatic  growth has been driven largely by increasing numbers of people surviving to reproductive age and has been accompanied by major changes in fertility rates, increasing urbanization and accelerating migration. The effect of population growth is detrimental as long as the economy of a country is incapable of providing the citizens with convenient environment that guarantees potable and clean water, good accommodation, decent clothing, hygienic food, conducive housing and even pure air. In short, a growing population needs a growing economy. It is crystal clear that  there  is  no  way  people can live conveniently and comfortably in the environment without tampering with it. Hence, it  is  a  must  to  comply with the principles of environmental   management   within the ambit of conservation, preservation, rehabilitation and sustainability.

Adapted from different sources and modified for its purpose by Mesfin Aberra